The most popular apps for secret chats (and phone calls)

The most popular apps for secret chats (and phone calls)

Almost all instant messaging apps are now protected with end-to-end encryption to ensure the privacy of those who use it. The use of cryptography allows to encrypt messages and phone calls, making them virtually illegible to anyone who is not the intended recipient.
Since encryption is secret writing based on a code shared between the interlocutors, the level of secrecy of an encrypted text depends on two factors: the cipher used, that is the code, and the complexity of the encryption key that determines the way in which which a message is encrypted.
WhatsApp implements this protection as Facebook Messenger, but also products such as Telegram, Signal and Confide, available for both Android and iOS, offer the ability to encrypt the communication reducing the possibility that a person with a simple knowledge can access and read the communication that in as encrypted would be incomprehensible.
However, chats and smartphone calls are not necessarily secure even if protected with end-to-end encryption. Their choice is therefore a function of the level of secrecy necessary perceived by users and the cryptographic software they use, but also by how it is implemented.

Telegram, the GPL and Telegram-Bot

Telegram is an instant messaging service created by the Russian brothers: Pavel and Nikolai Durov. Telegram's features are the use of end-to-end encryption for voice messages, photos, videos and particularly "heavy" files and the type of software license, the GPL, which allows to distribute it as free software for different platforms, even Microsoft Windows . Another important feature is that it can manage groups and supergroups in its channels, from 200 members up to 5000 people, even if they can not always respond to messages according to the decision of the administrators. In addition, Telegram has introduced a platform for a couple of years to allow the creation of special accounts that are called Bots (or chatbots), which offer different functions with immediate and automated answers. A possibility due to the fact that the Telegram APIs are available free of charge to independent developers. These Bots can perform different functions: from weather requests to the consultation of individual chants of the Divine Comedy or of the articles of the Constitution up to the distribution of digital news.

WhatsApp, the most popular chat

On April 5, 2016, WhatsApp adopted end-to-end encryption. All devices on which your software is installed now have an additional level of protection that can prevent the decoding of conversations. Whatsapp is owned by Facebook and from time to time goes to meet new controversies for its levels of security, but it is still the most used.

Signal, the open source

Signal adopts end-to-end encryption for both chat and messages and phone calls. Developed by Open Whisper System, it is based on open source software. In addition to smartphones, Signal also has a desktop version that, like the app, can be used to send and receive private messages, group messages, attachments and multimedia messages. Recently, a beta version is available that also allows encrypted video calls. You can download for free from Google Play or the App Store.
Its protection protocol is the same as Whatsapp and Messenger, but the first big difference with the latter is that Signal is based on open source software and its business model is collaborative and supportive. It was not built to make money with user data but, as stated by its creator, Moxie MarlinSpike, to make people more free. Signal does not preserve the metadata of communications that allow to reconstruct the network of reports or the alleged activities of those who use it (where as when and with whom we have chatted or phoned), only records the last time the user has connected to the server and does not send the list of its contacts to the central server. It also uses a cryptographic function to make the telephone numbers sent to the server unreadable. And it never backs up messages sent. More importantly, if someone, e.g. a government, ask Open Whisper, the company that develops the app, to give him the data of a suspected user of a crime, it could not provide it, because it will not be available .

Facebook Messenger

For a few months, the billion and more users who use Messenger, the Facebook app for chats, can count on "Secret Conversations", the cryptographic system. With Messenger it is possible to start a secret conversation by clicking on the icon that represents a lock in the profile of the interlocutor in chat and, if you select the clock icon, you can decide how much time must pass before the message self-destructs only (Not available in all countries).
The secret mode must be activated manually for each conversation.
The weaknesses or points of attack of these apps For conversation in secret, however, are always the same:
1. incorrect software implementations not yet discovered;
2. the compromise of the device;
3. any corporate or government backdoors