6 secure alternatives to WhatsApp

This story has been updated. It was originally published on January 18, 2021.

Instead, holdouts are (and will be) getting constant reminders about WhatsApp’s new privacy policy. Those who accept will still be able to use the app as always. But those who put it off will start losing more and more functionalities until the app eventually becomes useless. 

WhatsApp doesn’t have a cutoff date for this yet, so users who keep rejecting the privacy update should still be able to communicate freely with their contacts. That’s, of course, until they’re not. 

Should you leave WhatsApp behind?

The platforms you trust and how much you value your data is ultimately up to you, but it’s definitely worth more than you might think—and you should protect it. In the physical world, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and that’s also true on the internet. Most of the services that make their way into our day-to-day also come with a price tag—we pay in dollars or data.

If you think the service you’re getting is worth letting a multinational company snoop around in your life, you’re welcome to let them. But if you feel uncomfortable when companies change the rules to potentially access more than what you’re willing to give them, know that it’s possible to walk away.

“It’s easy to succumb to security and privacy nihilism and feel like the choices you make don’t matter,” says Gennie Gebhart, acting activism director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “That’s what the surveillance giants of today—not just Facebook, but also Google, Amazon, and countless shadowy data brokers—want you to think. Don’t buy it.”

The web is wide and diverse, and there are plenty of platforms that will satisfy your messaging needs without asking you to disclose everything about yourself. It’s just a matter of looking.

[Related: Why you should switch to an encrypted messaging app]

Handing over a phone number to create an account—and automatically sharing it with anybody who might find you through the app—defeats the purpose of anonymity. Signal’s developers say they’re thinking of a way around it, but as of writing, there’s no date or specific project in the works to resolve this.

Telegram

Immediately after WhatsApp’s announcement, Telegram’s user base started growing, and the app reached 500 million users in January. Such quick growth is logical, as the app is one of the most well-known secure messaging platforms.

The app supports texting, voice and video calls, public channels, and file-sharing, with an interface highly similar to WhatsApp’s iOS appearance, so switching over should be seamless.

The platform also uses E2E encryption, but not by default. Only Secret Chats, which are one-to-one, are protected by this protocol. These chats leave no trace: they cannot be forwarded, Telegram’s servers erase the encrypted messages once they’ve been delivered, and you can have sent messages self-destruct after a specific time. This is great from a privacy standpoint, but it also means that all other communications (group chats, channels, and non-secret chats) are cloud-based and encryption protection ends when they hit the server.

[Related: Bring your WhatsApp stickers with you to Telegram]

The lack of widespread E2E encryption is meant to allow users access to backups instantly and on multiple devices, no matter when they joined a channel or group chat, Telegram says. Pavel Durov, one of the founders of Telegram, also argues that government agencies might target users using “niche apps” such as Signal, assuming that anyone opting for that high level of privacy has something to hide. Having less-secure encryption as the default, Telegram says, protects users from unwanted surveillance.

As opposed to WhatsApp, which uses third-party servers like iCloud or Google Drive to store backups—giving Apple and Google the ability to manage that information—Telegram’s backups are broken down into pieces and live on its own servers around the world. It claims chats, no matter what type, are all secured the same way, but because Telegram technically also has access to the encryption key, they can decrypt your messages… even if they say the key and the data it decrypts are never in the same place. 

Even though Telegram emphasized its commitment to security by updating its privacy policy to protect the identity of Hong Kong protesters in 2019, Gebhart says that commitment should be taken with a grain of salt.

“Telegram doesn’t have a great track record of responding to high-risk users,” she says. “My impression is that a lot of Telegram’s ‘secure’ reputation comes from its association with the Hong Kong protests, but the app was also useful in that environment for a lot of specific reasons, like no phone number requirement or the support for massive groups.”

This last feature, which allows users to create chats that can impressively host up to 200,000 members, is a major reason the platform has been criticized. These unmoderated public channels have also become fertile ground for the distribution of misinformation and illegal content, such as revenge and child pornography. WhatsApp had a similar problem, which is why they eventually limited message-forwarding and the size of group chats. Telegram has refused to do so.

Telegram is free for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, and on the web.

Dust

Less popular than Signal or Telegram, Dust is a good option if you want to keep your content as secure as you can. Beyond E2E encryption, the app has a privacy-focused functionality that lets users hide their tracks online, and a monitoring system that will instantly alert you if any of your passwords are compromised as part of a data leak.

By default, messages (or “dusts”) disappear from the app’s servers right after they’re sent, and chat histories are automatically erased from your phone every 24 hours. On top of that, you (or your contact) can delete messages on both ends of the conversation with just one tap, and you can sign up by using only your phone number.

There’s a social aspect to Dust, in which you can gain followers and send out blasts, but you don’t have to engage with any of that if you’re only interested in using its messaging feature. The bad news is that the platform doesn’t currently support video or voice calls—only texting and file sharing—which may be a deal-breaker if you want a more comprehensive service.

Dust is free for iOS and Android.

Threema supports texting, voice and video calls, and the company’s headquarters and servers are located in Switzerland, which makes the platform completely compliant with the more strict European privacy regulations.

The app’s major drawback is that you have to pay for it, but this allows its developers to sustain the platform without ads or data-harvesting. This might also explain why it only had 8 million users worldwide as of January 2020.

Threema is $2.99 for iOS, Android, and on the web.

If you choose this app, you’ll have to make sure you have version 6.0 or later, as they’re the only ones with E2E-encrypted messaging. And you won’t only have to worry about what’s on your phone—if you’re chatting with someone using an older version of Viber, you can kiss E2E encryption bye-bye. If you’re unsure if a chat is E2E encrypted, you can check by going to the chat info screen and looking for a lock icon next to Encrypted chat. 

[Related: The best apps for sending self-destructing messages]

Just like Telegram, Viber also has public channels called Communities, and these messages are only SSL encrypted. This protects data in transit, but once it’s on the app’s servers, it’s readable by Viber or any other member of the community, which allows new members to access all backlogs.

Viber’s privacy features include the ability to set self-destructing timers for messages, edit and delete messages on all devices with a tap, and either get notifications if a user takes a screenshot of a Secret Chat you’re in (iOS) or block it altogether (Android). You can also archive chats and access them with a PIN whenever you want, and create Safe chats, where your personal information (like your profile picture or phone number) won’t be displayed if you’re talking to someone who’s not on your contact list.

Viber is free for iOS, iPadOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux.

iMessage

If you’re an Apple user, you’re in luck, as you have access to the company’s built-in E2E encrypted messaging platform. Now, the catch is that iMessage only works with this security standard when you’re chatting with other Apple users—if one of your friends uses an Android device, the high-standard privacy pretty much goes out the window.

Because iMessage doesn’t play nice with other messaging apps, it immediately switches to the not-so-good-ol’ SMS message whenever it cannot use Apple’s protocol, turning chat bubbles from blue to green. This type of message is reliable, as it doesn’t require your device to have lots of bars to work, but it’s neither secure nor private—SMS messages can be traced, intercepted, and stored by your service provider, who can gladly hand them over to authorities, if asked politely.

This is also an issue for interactions between Apple users, though. By default, iMessage switches gears also when connectivity is low. The problem is that you won’t actually know if this has happened, as individual bubbles in your chats won’t change color to show how they were delivered.

The good news is that you can disable this feature—just go to the iMessage settings menu and turn off the toggle switch next to Send as SMS.

iMessage is built into Apple devices.

Updated February 4, 2021 to more accurately reflect that Telegram’s user base as of January 2021 was 500 million users worldwide.