Messages sent in a secret chat are E2E encrypted, which is nice, but regular chats are not. The only way to use E2E encryption on Telegram is to use its secret chats feature. For one, while Telegram supports E2E encryption, it’s not enabled by default. However, there are multiple pain points in the way Telegram encrypts your messages and other information. That issue has been fixed, however, it was not a good look for the messaging app.Īs far as security is concerned, Telegram does offer some protections to its users. That said, WhatsApp has suffered a couple of major privacy nightmares, especially the recent issue with group chats getting indexed on Google search. Overall, WhatsApp does a pretty solid job of ensuring security for its users. Moreover, you get support for two factor authentication (2FA) on the app, which is great for security as well. Well, WhatsApp offers a built-in app lock feature on both the Android and iOS apps, so you can lock your WhatsApp chats with biometrics. What about security features on the user-facing side of WhatsApp. While metadata does not allow anyone to read your messages, it lets authorities know whom and when you messaged someone, and for how long.īut that’s on the back-end.

This is one of the major criticisms of WhatsApp’s security model. Also, it does not encrypt the metadata which is used to carry communication between two endpoints. It’s also noteworthy that even though all your communication on WhatsApp uses E2E encryption, the company does not encrypt backups (cloud and local). That’s a good thing, because the Signal protocol is open source, widely peer-reviewed, and is generally considered one of the best protocols for implementing end-to-end encryption in messaging platforms.

That said, it’s noteworthy that WhatsApp uses the E2E protocol developed by Open Whisper Systems, which is the name behind Signal messenger. WhatsApp can’t decrypt the contents of your messages, calls, photos, etc, thus ensuring your security and privacy. What that means, is that you and the recipient are the only people who can read the messages you send to them. So all your messages, video calls, voice calls, photos, and anything else you share is end-to-end encrypted on WhatsApp. Plus, E2E on WhatsApp is available on every single mode of communication that the app enables. One thing that WhatsApp definitely has going for it is its end-to-end encryption.

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