We all want to protect the confidentiality of our messages and conversations, whether these are face to face or online through apps. After all, we don’t want our secrets spilling out, do we?
So how confident are we that our private conversations won’t be accessed or won’t leak? Is trust enough?
Some chat apps have rapidly evolved to address this concern and have included safety and security measures in their platform so that things will stay where they are.
Privacy measures
How do you know which apps are for you?
When looking for a messaging app that values privacy, these are key to a safe chat:
| End-to-end encryption | It is a secure communication process which prevents third parties from accessing data from one endpoint to another. |
| Multi-mode communication | This enables voice/video communication with deletion option during the conversation |
| Supportive over multiple platform/devices (iOS, Android, Web app) | This means it can store or delete data anytime according to the user’s convenience |
Here are some apps that offer safety in conversations:
- Telegram
By far, Telegram is the most famous messaging app which provides the best security features because it never provides any third party access to users’ data. It allows users to lock their chats with a quick pin or a fingerprint sensor.
Telegram also offers secret chats functionality alongside regular chats. The secret chats are end-to-end encrypted and no third-party except the sender and the receiver can access these, not even Telegram itself.
Users can also send timed media files which will expire after some time.
- Signal
Signal is listed among the most secure messaging apps of 2022 because of its free, instant, and encrypted communication that is user-friendly. As per Android’s Google play store, Signal has been downloaded by about one to five million users and is compatible on Android, iOS, iPasOS, Linux, Windows, and macOS.
- iMessage
iMessage is one of the most secure chat apps for iPhone users because of its end-to-end encryption feature. It allows users free control over the length of time messages should stay and how many times the recipients would be able to view it.
It is free for iPhone users, compatible with iOS and macOS, and is being used by over 1.3 billion people all over the world.
WhatsApp is regarded as one of the most secure messaging apps in the digital world. It was the first chat platform that permitted end-to-end encryption to its users for safer communication.
It is free of cost, compatible with iOS, Android, and web app and is being used by over 1.5 billion people in the world.
- Viber
Viber offers more than just messaging. It has a variety of messaging and calling features and a wide range of stickers, emojis, and GIFs.
What’s great about Viber is it allows sharing of photos and videos regardless of the file size. As for security, it offers fully encrypted voice and video chats both on mobile and desktop.
It is free to download, compatible for all mobile and web applications and is used by over 1 billion people worldwide.
