If you're concerned about digital eavesdropping — or if you just value your privacy — you should probably be using a secure messaging app.
The most important technological concept here is the idea of end-to-end encryption. With end-to-end encryption, apps can ensure that a hacker, a tech company, or a government with powerful surveillance tools can't snoop on your messages. The sender and the intended recipient are the only ones with copies of the message.
Here are six the apps that use end-to-end encryption to keep your conversations safe and private.
Signal
Signal uses the Open Whisper System protocol, considered by experts to be the gold standard of end-to-end encryption. The app is one of the most popular secure messaging platforms — famed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is one of Signal's biggest advocates.
In addition to making secure calls and texts, Signal lets you send self-destructing messages that vanish after a certain amount of time.
It's free on iOS and Android devices and you can also download Signal's desktop app. To register, all you need to do is enter your phone number.
WhatsApp, the messaging app that Facebook purchased for $19 billion in 2014, has had end-to-end encryption since 2016. Facebook Messenger, it should be noted, does not have end-to-end encryption.
But the future of WhatsApp's encryption, which uses Signal's Open Whisper Systems protocol, is uncertain. Jan Koum, one of WhatsApp's founders, recently left his role at Facebook over concerns that the social network planned to weaken the app's encryption, reported the Washington Post.
iMessage
Apple end-to-end encrypts all of your conversations in iMessage, the default texting app on iOS devices. And iMessage even comes pre-loaded on Apple's Macs. But it only works if both people are using iMessage (sorry, Android users and Windows fans).
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