In 2019, we came across the fact that NSA collects almost 200 million text messages every day. That is when we realized that our privacy was indeed being invaded. The truth is, we live in an age of internet surveillance and data logging, where companies do almost anything to get our personal information. Thankfully, there has been a rise in private messaging apps, which focus on keeping our privacy intact through end-to-end encryption and other ways. Well, we explored various messaging apps that claim to be secure and found the best secure messaging apps among them.

Here, we have enlisted all the secret chat apps so that you can take a quick look at all the listings. You can also move to the corresponding app by clicking on the link. Apart from that, if you want to learn what is the need for a private messaging app and what makes a messaging service really secure then go through our explainers below.

  • Why We Need Secure Messaging Apps?

There are a number of reasons as to why we need secure messaging apps. In a test conducted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, most of the popular messaging apps (BBM, Facebook Messenger, Hangout, Kik Messenger, Skype, Snapchat, Viber, Yahoo Messenger) we use, failed to tick most security standards.

Why We Need Secure Messaging Apps?

Health care is another industry where secure messaging apps are a must to protect patient information from leaking out to everyone. Finance, Banking, and Insurance industries too need secure messaging apps because the information they share is very confidential indeed and they need to be sure about sending such sensitive information on an app.

What Makes a Messaging App Secure?

To make a messaging app really secure, the first and foremost criterion is to have End-to-End encryption (E2E). E2E messages can be read only by the sender and the receiver. And the best part is that not even the service provider can access your chats. Secondly, the service provider should be located in regions where the government is less hostile against user privacy.

List of Best Private Messaging Apps

1. Signal Private Messenger

In our comparison between Signal vs Telegram vs WhatsApp, we found that Signal is the most secure messaging app out there. Signal uses the gold standard, open-source Signal Protocol to implement end-to-end encryption. And it implements E2E encryption on all forms of communication on Signal– be it voice/video calls, chat messages, media or audio clips.

Major Security Features:

Missing Features:

Install: Android, iOS (Free)

Threema is another highly secure messaging app that is quite popular and deservedly so. It does what it’s supposed to do, that is keeping data out of Governments, corporations, and hackers’ hands. Threema brings end-to-end encryptions to messages, group chats, shared media, and even statuses.

Missing Features:

  • Not fully open source

Install: Android, iOS ($2.99)

Wickr Me, as it likes to call itself is another messaging app that aims to bring a secure chat experience. Most of its features are aimed to make you feel more secure. It brings end-to-end encryption of texts, voice messages, videos, and pictures. It also includes a “Shredder” feature that irreversibly deletes all your chats, media content from your device.

It also supports cool stickers, graffiti, and cool photo filters. Wickr Me is available for free on Android, iOS, and desktop platforms like Windows, macOS & Linux.

Install: Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux (Free)

Wire is a secret messaging app available on iOS, Android and other desktop platforms. The E2E encryption is turned on by default so that is great and the encryption applies to all forms of communication on Wire. It also supports group collaboration with enhanced security so if you are running an organization or a business and need a private messaging app then Wire is just perfect.

  • Not all metadata are encrypted

Install: Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Web (Free, Pro plan starts at $5.83 per month)

Element.io, which was earlier known as Riot, is a secure chat app that is built around protecting user privacy. It offers end-to-end encryption out of the box, which means that your conversations are fully encrypted and only the sender and receiver can read the messages. After the transition from Rio to Element, the secure messaging app has become more enterprise-friendly.

6. Telegram

Everybody is pretty well acquainted with Telegram, the very popular WhatsApp competitor. Telegram’s ticks all the boxes when it comes to being a secure messaging app, thanks to its “Secret Chats” feature.

Install: Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Web (Free, Paid plans available)

  • E2E Encryption not turned on by default
  • Not fully open-source

Install: Android, iOS, Windows PC, macOS, Linux, Web (Free)

WhatsApp is another highly popular messaging app that has brought end-to-end encryption to the masses. And the best part is that the encryption is enabled by default and extends to all forms of communication on WhatsApp, be it messages, audio or video calls, and WhatsApp Web. It uses the encryption protocol developed by Open Whisper Systems — the company behind Signal messenger.

Next, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook which is a major point of concern. In addition, the company is implicated in giving customers’ data to intelligence agencies. All in all, while on paper, WhatsApp remains quite secure, the owner’s controversial stand on privacy makes it a less appealing choice among privacy-minded users.

Install: Android, iOS, Windows PC, macOS, Web (Free)

Surespot Encrypted Messenger might not have the best user interface among secure messaging apps but its security & privacy features are solid indeed. Every message sent using Surespot is end-to-end encrypted with symmetric key encryption. According to Surespot, whatever you send to a person will only be read by that person, Period.

That’s quite a bold claim but Surespot’s encryption details do look promising. You have total control with the app and you can have multiple identities for different people.

  • Not user-friendly

Install: Android, iOS (Free with in-app purchases)

ChatSecure is a free and open-source encrypted messaging app for iOS. It takes various measures to make sure there are no loopholes in your security and privacy needs. The secure messaging app features OTR (Off-the-record) encryption over XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). You can enter your Facebook or Google accounts to use it or create an account on public XMPP servers.

On the messaging front, it features the usual features like the ability to send text, audio, files, images, video, and more. It’s available for free on the Google Play Store and iTunes.

Install: iOS (Free)

Cyber Dust is a cool secure messaging app, which along with security & privacy brings features that are pretty sleek. It likes to call its messages Dust and broadcast messages Blast. All the Dusts and Blasts are heavily encrypted and are never stored in permanent storage.

The app along with others on this list prevents screenshots as well. The messages disappear within 100 seconds or in 24 hours if it remains unopened by the recipient. Every Cyber Dust message is encrypted with its own unique 128-bit AES encryption along with added security through the RSA 2048-bit key.

  • End-to-end encrypted
  • Self-destruct message
  • Sort of social media
  • Private key stored on device

Install: Android, iOS (Free)

Q. Which is the Most Secure Messaging App?

In my opinion, Signal is the most secure messaging app in the market. It’s open-source, has a well-audited cryptographic protocol and lastly, the messaging app has received top score in EFF’s Secure Messaging Scorecard.

Nowadays, almost all the messaging apps are encrypted using the standard SSL/TLS encryption. What you should look for is End-to-End encryption which is a gold standard when it comes to protecting user data. Signal, Threema, WhatsApp are some of the messaging apps that are by default E2E encrypted.

I would recommend Signal if you are looking for the best app to chat secretly. It’s not only E2E encrypted but also encrypts the metadata.

Q. Is Signal App Really Safe?

Yes, Signal is really safe and in fact, it’s arguably the best secure messaging app out there.

So far, there has been no instance of hacking as far as Signal is concerned. Its source code and cryptographic protocol are open to the public and security researchers so the vulnerabilities are patched as early as possible.

It may sound weird, but yes, WhatsApp is more secure than e-mail. WhatsApp uses E2E encryption to relay messages whereas e-mail uses the standard SSL/TLS encryption. ProtonMail is one of the few email services that offer E2E.

Our security and privacy are of paramount importance but as we mentioned, not everyone takes it seriously. It’s true that if we take things seriously, we will not be able to enjoy our favorite apps and services. There’s also a problem with these secure messaging apps, that is we don’t have enough users on them to converse with.