I'm another enthusiastic vote for TextSecure; those guys work on TextSecure because they love the core problem of doing secure comms right, and it vividly shows in their architecture and the way they write about it.

The problem is that TextSecure is not seriously trying to be the next messaging app, and Threema and Telegram are.

It would be nice if there was actually anything better than Telegram I could recommend to my friends, but there just isn't.

moxie has openly invited devs to use TextSecure as a backend.

TextSecure still doesn't have an iOS client. ;(

Even if you don't feel iOS devices are trustworthy, as long as it's limited to the Android-only world, it's not going to gain a wide adoption.

It looks as they welcome serious development contributions, here's the github of TextSecure-iOS:

https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure-iOS

They also experiment with alternative currency contributions:

https://whispersystems.org/blog/bithub/

I think what I've never found is a honest description how much exactly we have to trust their server (on various levels, from the security aspects to the uptime aspects), and what would be the possibilities for involving other servers.

What's the consensus on CryptoCat? So far that seems the best secure candidate on iOS.

When people ask me directly, I tell them to avoid Cryptocat, in a spirit similar to the one I used in the 90s when telling people to avoid Sendmail.

I can't use TextSecure on my new Android device because it's not available on the Amazon App Store - it's only available on Play.

The people I communicate with are on iOS where there's no TextSecure client.

But the bit I dislike about TextSecure and whatsapp is that it's based on a phone number bound to the contactlist of your Google Play Android phone. I see a very strong movement towards kik messenger among my peers because usernames are so easy to deal with and share around in semi-public places.

>Please guys. Use TextSecure.

Believe me, I would love to.

But I don't have an Android phone, and even if I did, not all my contacts have one.

The reason WhatsApp is so popular is exactly this, it just works and it works on all mobile platforms.[1]

[1] http://blog.textit.in/your-path-to-a-$16b-exit-build-a-j2me-...

People are working on iOS version.

But as OP point out, iOS and Android are not the only platforms, there is also S40, symbian and Blackberry, which is where whatsapp shine.

I have WP8, as do most of my contacts. Right now I'm stuck with WhatsApp whether I like it or not.

>I have WP8

That's really your problem though.

It's even more difficult when alternatives are so scarce. For example TextSecure doesn't exist for iOS.

I also doesn't exist on non-gooogle play devices, because the author thinks that getting software from somewhere else than walled garden is "repeating the desktop mistake all over again" [1]

There might be iOS version, but there very likely never will be web version, or FxOS version or desktop version or anything like that.

Which is really sad, because unlike Telegram authors, TextSecure's author is very good with crypto.

[1]: it's a long read: https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure/issues/127

Actually they've announced there's a web and browser-addon version in the works, so we might be able to get it on PC.

Devs are working on a version for iOS.

What's the problem with Threema? This looks fine to me: https://threema.ch/validation/

Threema seems to be using http://nacl.cr.yp.to/ for anything crypto related.

It's not open source, so it can't be trusted.

NaCl is open source. The client software itself is considered to be open sourced.

Regardless, if you think that way you can also not trust the TextSecure binary you've downloaded frome the Play Store nor the Android phone you're using.

I guess you've trust someone or start building your own hardware, mobile phone OS and instant messenger and make everyone else use it as well, otherwise there's no one to communicate with. However, those people will be in the same dilemma:can they trust you?

I wish people would not just downvote when they disagree, but state why they disagree.

This is bad advice. If your friends was happy with WhatsApp they don't care much what it the most secure messenger but probably want to use it on iOS or chat with friends with iPhones.