

A tweeted recommendation from Elon Musk during the crisis certainly didn’t hurt. Signal is one of the two messaging apps that really benefited from WhatsApp’s privacy problems in January 2021. The ones listed here are the ones we consider to be the best options for secure messaging. We’ve tested quite a few messaging services over the years. Here are some secure messaging apps that make the grade… Best encrypted messaging apps Some may even have been hacked by the NSA or other national intelligence agencies. Others are owned by companies with bad reputations for protecting your privacy. Some only protect your messages in transit, while leaving them accessible to the employees of the service. But most of them fail to do the job for one reason or another. That’s why there has been a boom in new messaging services that claim to be private, secure, anonymous, or any combination of those. Businesses generally have better internal security than someone sitting on their sofa at home, exposing even your company communications to greater threats than before. The situation has gotten even worse with governments forcing people to work from home to protect against that virus. Unless you are using a secure messaging service, any or all of these groups will have an easy time intercepting your messages should they choose to do so. Governments want to know everything you think and say and do, and maybe even catch a terrorist or two.Hackers want to use the information to steal your identity, break into your bank account, sell your company’s new business plans to the competition, or blackmail you with those pictures from that wild night in Vegas.Corporations want to read your messages so they can better target ads to you or sell your personal information to the highest bidder.Whether it is corporate surveillance or government agencies snooping up data, your private information is under attack. But as we’ve learned over the years, there are lots of groups that are expending considerable effort to spy on your communications. When you chat with someone online, you might assume that only yourself and the other person are privy to the conversation. As you’ll see, each has its own pros and cons, and each takes a different approach to the problem of providing secure messaging capabilities. Then we’ll take a quick look at the latest versions of several secure messaging apps and the services they run on, along with some important characteristics to look for. In this new and updated guide, we’ll talk about why you need to use a secure messaging service. Do you ever say (or type or show) anything that you don’t want others to hear (or read or see)? If so, you had better be using some kind of encrypted messaging app to do it.

These days, many of us spend more time talking to people online than we do face to face.

Have you ever whispered something in someone’s ear that you didn’t want others to hear? Looking for a better alternative to email for secure communication? This guide highlights the best secure messaging apps and services, frequently asked questions, as well as some messaging apps and practices you should avoid.
