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Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and native clients?

by mellamoyo on 5/5/16, 1:13 PM with 16 comments

I've been looking through different messaging apps lately (iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Wire, etc.), looking for one that has end to end encryption as well as native clients for mobile and desktop.

So far, I haven't found anything that meets both major requirements, everything has a drawback. I want to like Signal, but the lack of desktop clients is a major drawback (and the Chrome extension isn't quite there yet--no iOS support, weird firewall requirements).

So what are you all using? Are you happy with what you're using?

  • by zurn on 5/5/16, 4:58 PM

    Terminology nit: s/encrypted/secure/ - lots of systems that have encryption are pretty insecure.

    As to the question, how about OTR+XMPP or Signal. Signal desktop is in beta. I don't think you need to worry about running the desktop Chrome extension on iOS since there's a native iOS app too?

  • by zbuf on 5/5/16, 11:15 PM

    We ssh into a box and run unix "talk" ...

    More seriously, is there a reason for native? Just it's a fairly arbitrary request without more detail, since a network connection is needed anyway. eg. WhatsApp web client is good enough that it 'feels' native.

  • by pullany on 5/7/16, 6:39 PM

    I'm very happy with Threema (even though there's no Desktop client yet), and I'd certainly never use Signal because it's backed by the US government: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8106721

  • by dbof on 5/8/16, 6:03 PM

    Signal now has a desktop version which runs with Google Chrome: https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop/

  • by implicit_none on 5/5/16, 8:37 PM

    SpiderOak is currently developing "Semaphor"; an end-to-end, zero-knowledge collaboration platform with native clients on mobile and desktop: https://spideroak.com/solutions/semaphor

  • by threesixandnine on 5/5/16, 4:03 PM

    Signal?

  • by ryck on 5/5/16, 3:08 PM

    What's wrong with Telegram?

  • by blindrooster on 5/5/16, 2:16 PM

    self hosted IRC

  • by Synaesthesia on 5/5/16, 5:31 PM

    iMessage has end-to-end encryption.