What are the best encrypted messaging apps for Android?

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Considered

User
Recs.

Feb 7, 2023

Last
Updated

Briar vs Signal vs Element (formerly Riot)

vs Conversations.im vs TextSecure vs StealthChat vs Wickr vs ChatSecure + Orbot vs Antox vs Silent Text vs BBM Blackberry Messenger vs WhatsApp

Specs

Android version

4.1+

Platforms

End-to-end encryption

Audio recording

VoIP

Publisher

Media

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X

End-to-end encryption

Yes

Audio recording

Yes

VoIP

Yes

Publisher

Open Whisper Systems

Media

images / audio / video / files / contacts / GIFs / location

DIY integrations

Yes

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

Yes

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android, Browser, iOS

End-to-end encryption

Yes (optional)

Audio recording

Yes

VoIP

Yes

Publisher

New Vector Ltd

Media

All File Types

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Apache License 2.0

Service integrations

Yes

Message history

Yes

File Sharing

Yes

Required Android Version

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

Android

End-to-end encryption

Audio recording

VoIP

Publisher

Media

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

End-to-end encryption

Audio recording

VoIP

Publisher

Media

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

Android / iOS

End-to-end encryption

Yes

Audio recording

Yes

VoIP

Yes

Publisher

Media

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

4.0

Groups

Yes

Locationsharing

Yes

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Yes

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

Yes

In-App Screen Lock

Yes

Media & File Sharing

Yes

Self destructing message

Yes

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

End-to-end encryption

Audio recording

VoIP

Publisher

Media

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

End-to-end encryption

Audio recording

VoIP

Publisher

Media

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

Android

End-to-end encryption

Yes

Audio recording

VoIP

Yes

Publisher

im.tox.antox

Media

images

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

N/A

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

None

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

N/A

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Data

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

End-to-end encryption

Audio recording

VoIP

Publisher

Media

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

End-to-end encryption

Audio recording

VoIP

Publisher

Media

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

Groups

Locationsharing

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Multidevice

Cloud Sync

Message Deletion

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

Videoconferencing

Messaging systems

Video recording

Android version

Platforms

Android, iOS, Web, Mac, Windows, Windows Phone

End-to-end encryption

Yes

Audio recording

Yes

VoIP

Yes

Publisher

WhatsApp Inc.

Media

images, video, audio, documents

DIY integrations

Decentralized

Proprietary Dependencies

License

Service integrations

Message history

File Sharing

Required Android Version

2.3.3 or above

Groups

≤ 256

Locationsharing

Yes

In-App Purchases

Server stored messages

Transitory

Multidevice

Message Mirroring

Cloud Sync

Yes, Via Google

Message Deletion

Auto-erase

Bot

Channel

Screenshot proof

In-App Screen Lock

Media & File Sharing

Self destructing message

File Size

100 MB

Videoconferencing

Yes up to 8 people

Messaging systems

Data

Video recording

Yes

Pros + Cons

Con
This is focused mostly on people like activists, or high risk jobs or places of work.

Might be a bit too much for people not in this spectrum.

Comment

Pro
Has recently become publicly available

[add description]

Comment

Signal is free and open source software, enabling anyone to verify its security by auditing the code. It's the only private messenger that uses open source, peer-reviewed cryptographic protocols to keep your messages safe.

Comment

Pro
SMS/MMS support

Signal can be your default SMS/MMS text messenger. Encryption is not possible when sending SMS to your contacts, however.

Comment

Pro
Provides security and privacy

Signal uses an advanced end to end encryption protocol that provides privacy for every message every time.

Comment

Pro
Message mirroring on Signal Desktop

Signal Desktop is a Chrome extension that allows you to mirror messages from your phone, including replying.

Comment

Pro
Supports encrypted group chats

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Supports sharing of various different media types

Signal supports: emoji, pictures, videos, audio, contacts, any location and GIF.

Comment

Pro
Works everywhere in every country

Unlike most messenger apps, Signal works reliably in all countries by securely circumventing internet censorship.

Comment

Con
Android app vibrates for every received message after re-connecting

If you have a conversation on Signal Desktop, and then your phone re-connects to the internet, it will slowly receive every single message you had already received on the Desktop, vibrating a notification for EVERY message. See here.

Comment

Pro
Recommended by Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden uses this messenger and recommends it to everyone who is concerned about his privacy.

Comment

Con
Single device

Signal can only be registered to one mobile device at a time. But you can link Signal to Signal Desktop.

Comment

Con
Unreliable notifications

Sometimes messages won't be received if the Signal app has been closed for a long time or hasn't been opened after booting the device.

Comment

Con
Needs access to your phone number and contacts to work

[add description]

Comment

Con
Uses Google services

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Note-to-Self feature

Allows you to send messages to yourself and sync to desktop so you can use Signal as a kind of encrypted Pushbullet alternative.

Comment

Pro
Supports encryption

Element allows for fully encrypted text, voice, and video chatting.

Comment

Pro
Simple interface

Element has a very simple interface, adding the ability for more inexperienced users to use it.

Comment

Pro
Libre/open source

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Decentralized

An open network for secure, decentralized communication.

Comment

Pro
Cross platform

Available in web browsers, on Linux, OSX, Windows, Android, and iOS.

Comment

Pro
Spaces

Element has a feature called spaces, which allows grouping several different rooms together.

Comment

Pro
Supports text, voice, video

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Self-hosting and federated network

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Markdown support

Code snippets in chats can be highlighted with markdown.

Comment

Pro
Strong encryption

Uses Curve25519, AES-256, and HMAC-SHA256. The security of these algorithms has been tested over many years of use in hundreds of different applications. Messages sent via TextSecure are end-to-end encrypted, which means that they can only be read by your intended recipients. We make it easy for you to verify that you are communicating with the right people and that no MITM attack has occurred. The keys that are used to encrypt your messages are stored on your device alone, and they are protected by an additional layer of encryption if you have a passphrase enabled.

Comment

Con
No data messaging

TextSecure can send SMS and MMS messages only. It can't send data messages.

Comment

Con
Not available on tablets

TextSecure is currently not compatible with tablets. Support for tablets is promised in the future.

Comment

Pro
Free and open source

TextSecure is free and open source, enabling anyone to verify its security by auditing the code. TextSecure is the only private messenger that uses open source peer-reviewed cryptographic protocols to keep your messages safe.

Comment

Pro
Passed EFF's security review

To pass EFF's security review TextSecure had to encrypt data in transit, the encryption had to be end-to-end, the app needed to provide forward secrecy, app's source code has to be open to independent review, users have to be able to verify contact's identities even with the service provider compromised, app's cryptographic design has to be well documented and app's source code has to have been audited in the last 12 months.

Comment

Pro
Offers 3 types of encryption

The app claims to be the only communication app that encrypts data in transit, on disk and on screen. Encryption in transit is used to make sure no-one can listen in on your conversations even if the traffic is going through their servers, encryption on disk is used to make sure that even if someone gets ahold of your phone and is capable of extracting your messages from it they won't be able to read them and screen encryption is essentially a lock screen that sets in after a set amount of time used to make prevent "shoulder surfing".

Comment

Pro
Can send self-destructing messages

Messages can be set to self-destruct after a set time.

Comment

Con
Many people have difficulty registering the app

Multiple people have reported not being able to receive the activation code required to register the app.

Comment

Pro
Doesn't require a phone number

Unlike most, you can use your phone but you don't have to. You can register without giving anything and add contacts either via e-mail (only) or phone number.

Comment

Pro
Content shredder

Wickr has a feature that not only erases all messages, but also overwrites them with junk data.

Comment

Pro
Can find other users securely

Instead of using usernames, emails or phone numbers to find other users, Wickr uses hashes derived from phone numbers or email addresses (this applies to the find friends functionality only). Hashes are the result of a one-way cryptographic function, meaning it's purposefully difficult to reconstruct original data (phone numbers and email addresses in this case) from them. For Wickr, hashes are generated on the client's side so that no personal information is ever sent to the Wickr servers. The app finds people on your contact list that also use Wickr by comparing the hashes that get generated from contacts and comparing them to the hashes that are stored on Wickr servers.

Comment

Con
This apps encryption algorithm is proprietary

So no one knows whether it has any backdoors. No one can inspect it for mistakes in protocol. Or check that it works like it is supposed to.

Comment

Con
Wickr is based in US territory

If the government of the US so pleases Wickr can be mandated to work together with the intelligence agencies of the US this makes the company more likely to do so. However, this does not have to be the case at the moment.

Comment

Pro
By default, doesn't allow taking screenshots

Wickr disables the screenshot functionality altogether when the app is open. However, there are ways to circumvent this, as if the user has a rooted phone and has installed apps to overide this block or if a screenshot is taken via some apps that project the screen to a PC.

Comment

Pro
Passed EFF's security review

To pass EFF's security review ChatSecure had to encrypt data in transit, the encryption had to be end-to-end, the app needed to provide forward secrecy, app's source code has to be open to independent review, users have to be able to verify contact's identities even with the service provider compromised, app's cryptographic design has to be well documented and app's source code has to have been audited in the last 12 months.

Comment

Pro
Free and open source

ChatSecure is free and open source, enabling anyone to verify its security by auditing the code.

Comment

Pro
Works with popular chat services across mobile and PC

ChatSecure works with Google Hangouts, Facebook messaging, Jabber and other popular messaging service, making for a convenient way to use secure chatting.

Comment

Pro
Continuous development going on

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Peer-to-peer

There is no middleman, all communication happens between the users.

Comment

Pro
Free, open source

Antox is licensed under Creative Commons with source code available on GitHub. Being open source makes it possible to make sure your messaging are not controlled by a corporation.

Comment

Con
For people it can be a little bit more confusing to setup, then more 'regular' private messaging apps.

[add description]

Comment

Con
Still in early development

Antox is still really early in development, being in beta currently.

Comment

Pro
Encrypted message attachments

Files can be attached to messages that will also be encrypted.

Comment

Pro
Passed EFF's security review

To pass EFF's security review Silent Text had to encrypt data in transit, the encryption had to be end-to-end, the app needed to provide forward secrecy, app's source code has to be open to independent review, users have to be able to verify contact's identities even with the service provider compromised, app's cryptographic design has to be well documented and app's source code has to have been audited in the last 12 months.

Comment

Pro
Messages can be set to self-destruct

Messages on both senders and receivers phones can be set to delete after a set period of time.

Comment

Pro
Encrypted locationsharing

It's possible to geotag messages to share location.

Comment

Con
Expensive

While the app itself is free, to use it a subscription is required with prices starting at $9.95/mo.

Comment

Pro
Privacy oriented

End to end encryption.

Comment

Pro
Straightforward interface

The interface is very simple, fast and easy to use. You can start using it as soon as the app has been downloaded - it does not require setting anything up or registering. You can communicate with anyone in your contacts list that also uses WhatsApp. Includes useful features like seeing when a contact is currently available or typing.

Comment

Con
Proprietary

Not open source.

Comment

Pro
Effortlessly builds your contacts by using your phone number as identification

WhatsApp will automatically find all of your contacts currently using Whatsapp and add them to your contacts. This makes it really easy to setup and given that it's the most popular messaging app it's likely that a lot of your contacts are already using it.

Comment

Pro
Widely used

WhatsApp reported 1.5 billion users in 2018. Your friends are most likely already using WhatsApp, so it's easy to get setup.

Comment

Pro
One-on-one texts can be encrypted

WhatsApp has implemented end to end encryption for messages sent on it's service. Even WhatsApp has no way to read users' messages.

Comment

Pro
Signal protocol

Whatsapp uses the state-of-the-art Signal protocol that ensure strong end-to-end encryption.

Comment

Con
Backups are not encrypted

Your conversations are encrypted en-route, but if you set it to backup to Google Drive, those backups are not encrypted and can be read by the government.

Comment

Con
Shares meta data with Facebook

WhatsApp shares your messaging meta data with Facebook if you do not opt-out in the settings. If you use the same phone number for WhatsApp and Facebook, the profiles can easily be linked. See https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/26000016

Comment

Pro
Message mirroring on web app

WhatsApp can be used from the desktop via Chrome, Firefox and Opera browsers. Accessing it requires using the Android app to scan the QR code that's presented on web.whatsapp.com.

Comment

Con
Limitation on shareable file sizes

WhatsApp now allows users to share files of any type, but there is still a 16 MB size limit.

Comment

Con
Tied to carrier phone number

WhatsApp cannot be used by people without a smart phone with an active cell plan. If your phone is lost or damaged, or if your phone number changes, you cannot get messages sent by friends without them updating your phone number. You cannot send message to them until you are able to get SMS messages at your phone number.

Comment

Con
Single device

You cannot use the same WhatsApp account on multiple devices (e.g. a tablet, a PC and a cellphone). The account is tied to the device with the specific cellphone number. Chat history is deleted when you sign in to a new account, unless you have created a backup.

Comment