Nota bene: While I wrote this over a year ago and some things have changed, the end result — and the three “winners” — remains the same. I still use all three on a regular basis.
For the longest time, my parents, siblings, wife, and I had a group conversation in iMessage, which helped bridge the hundreds of kilometers between us. It was great. We could arrange times for video calls, share 20 pictures of a random event, brag about how one’s weather was better than the other’s, and other similarly family-like things that are normal to talk about. It was great because it was a simple process to set up, a platform we were already using, and was decently secure for those of us who care about that sort of thing.
But then my sister went and got a Samsung phone.
Ever since my sister left iOS for Android, that family dialog has suffered. Us “kids” still have our used to have a group conversation on Snapchat, but Snapchat as a messenger is a mess, and the older generation can’t handle it. There was no longer a single place where one of us could “broadcast” to the family and be reasonably certain that everyone would see it.
Finally, after several months of me trying to get everyone to agree to try a different messaging platform, my dad ordered that we all need to sign up for whichever messaging system I suggested, so we could scheme and plan as he had before. On the spot, I had two possible options in mind, and without the time to do proper research, I picked one of them. It has worked decently, but does have many some issues that bother the technically-savvy and laypeople alike.
This spurred the desire to find The Perfect Encrypted Messaging Platform, even if I’m not given the chance to give my input in a discussion like this in the future.
Based on my above-average pickiness when it comes to security, and the fact that there’s now multiple Androids in the family, I have decided on the following must-haves:
If a platform cannot meet those goals, I’m not going to bother to review it. Assuming it meets all four, I’ll grade it on its user experience and featureset. Then I'll go through thethings that would be nice to have, but aren’t dealbreakers, it has:
After going through all the options I've been able to find, the top three ended up being Signal, Wire, and Keybase. I personally love Keybase, as its solid featureset and "nerd-friendly" extras like PGP and bots make it amazing, though it could have the UX finessed somewhat. Wire and Signal are both good contenders when it comes to a standard messaging platform. Wire is somewhat more feature-rich than Signal. Signal needs work, I would say, to give it a real chance at succeeding in the long run, but its developers seem to be focusing more on the platform than the UX, as they’re licensing their encryption technology to Facebook. All three are worthy contenders for use as one's primary messenging system.
Below is an alphabetical list of all the messenger platforms I tested, in case you wanted to see the whole list. If there’s one that you think is a worthy contender, let me know.
To add: Tox, Status
To add, even though they aren't marketed as a messenging system primarily: Discord & Slack.
Dust
Must-haves: Pass
Niceties: Meh
UX/feature score: F
Notes: Requires phone number, crashes frequently
Facebook Messenger
Must-haves: Fail. Encryption can be toggled and/or wasn’t baked-in from the beginning.
GroupMe
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Skype product.
iMessage
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Would get a decent score if it wasn’t for lack of cross-platform compatability.
Keybase Chat
Must-haves: Pass
Niceties: Yep
UX/feature score: A-
Notes: Rich featureset, UX could be finessed.
Line
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Encryption can be toggled and/or wasn’t baked-in from the beginning
Marco Polo
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Encryption can be toggled and/or wasn’t baked-in from the beginning. An interesting PTT-esque concept of video messaging, but with a naggy, annoying UX.
Pryvate
Must-haves: Pass
Niceties: Meh
UX/feature score: D
Notes: Likes asking for permissions improperly, requires phone number, iffy UI.
Signal
Must-haves: Pass
Niceties: Yep
UX/feature score: C
Notes: Requires phone number, iffy UX.
Silence
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: No iOS support
Silent
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Monthly cost.
Telegram
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Closed-source encryption.
Threema
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Costs $4, no cross-device sharing, looks great though.
Viber
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Encryption can be toggled and/or wasn’t baked-in from the beginning.
Voxer
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Encryption can be toggled and/or wasn’t baked-in from the beginning.
WeChat
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Super popular in China, no security.
WhatsApp
Must-haves: Fail
Notes: Encryption can be toggled and/or wasn’t baked-in from the beginning. Owned by Facebook now but still ugly.
Wickr Me
Must-haves: Pass
Niceties: Meh
UX/feature score: B+
Notes: Free plan can do all we need, no linking to email address is odd.
Wire
Must-haves: Pass
Niceties: Yep
UX/feature score: B
Notes: "Free for personal use", phone number required if signing up on mobile.