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

Posted by mellamoyo on Thursday May 05, 2016 @09:13AM
from the ask-hn dept.

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?

( 16 comments | 13 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by zurn on Thursday May 05, 2016 @12:58PM (#11637786)

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?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by mellamoyo on Thursday May 05, 2016 @01:15PM (#11637969)

I'll have to look into OTR+XMPP. I was hoping for something straightforward for non-technical folks to use as well. Any recommendations on clients?

What I meant by iOS/Chrome is that you currently can't setup the desktop (Chrome) app with an iOS device, it's Android only.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by cyphar on Friday May 06, 2016 @03:18AM (#11642273)

OTR has issues in instant messaging (if the messages arrive out-of-order you have to restart the session). Also, OTR's security is session based while Axolotl's is message based (Axolotl is an improvement on OTR that Signal uses).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by zbuf on Thursday May 05, 2016 @07:15PM (#11640434)

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.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by pullany on Saturday May 07, 2016 @02:39PM (#11650775)

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

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by mauropolli on Monday May 09, 2016 @08:21AM (#11659206)

+1 for Threema. The servers are located in Switzerland, it's a good iOS citizen with a clean interface, and it offers some unique features (e.g., polling).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by dbof on Sunday May 08, 2016 @02:03PM (#11654974)

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

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by implicit_none on Thursday May 05, 2016 @04:37PM (#11639491)

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

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by threesixandnine on Thursday May 05, 2016 @12:03PM (#11637263)

Signal?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by ryck on Thursday May 05, 2016 @11:08AM (#11636749)

What's wrong with Telegram?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by mellamoyo on Thursday May 05, 2016 @11:24AM (#11636893)

No private chats for Windows/Linux.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by skrowl on Thursday May 05, 2016 @12:08PM (#11637297)

I'd also recommend Telegram.

Whether or not secret (end-to-end encrypted) chats are implemented is up to the client's author.

Not having secret chats in Telegram Desktop was a decision of the author - https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/5

They work in cutegram (qt based client. OS X, Linux, Windows, OpenBSD, Arch AUR, etc) - http://aseman.co/en/products/cutegram/

They work in the pidgin plugin (which works on all of the platforms supported by Pidgin) - https://github.com/majn/telegram-purple#readme

They also work in telegram CLI (which many bots are based on) - https://github.com/vysheng/tg

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by blindrooster on Thursday May 05, 2016 @10:16AM (#11636259)

self hosted IRC

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Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by skrowl on Thursday May 05, 2016 @01:25PM (#11638043)

Since OP mentioned mobile, which IRC client would you recommend on Android. Maintaining a persistent connection is battery draining. Weechat + https://www.glowing-bear.org is what I've been using but you don't get notifications that way.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by Synaesthesia on Thursday May 05, 2016 @01:31PM (#11638093)

iMessage has end-to-end encryption.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Best encrypted messaging app with mobile and nati... by skrowl on Thursday May 05, 2016 @02:05PM (#11638399)

No mobile client (for Android or Windows Phone), no desktop client (for Windows or Linux).

[ Parent | on HN ]