Top 3 Best Encrypted Messaging Apps to Protect Your Privacy (April 2025)

If you’re looking for the safest encrypted messaging app, you may be surprised to find out which ones are truly secure. Meta-owned apps like Messenger and WhatsApp collect and share data. Apple’s iMessage is only encrypted sometimes, and Android’s end-to-end encryption is spotty. These Big Tech messaging platforms can’t guarantee your anonymity and security all the time.

Signal is extremely secure as long as you know how to use it and don’t invite journalists who shouldn’t have access to your war plans. It has all the hallmarks of a secure platform but eschews the convenience of cross-platform syncing for privacy protection. If you use a quality VPN with your favorite secure messaging app, you can encrypt all of your device data and not just your messages.

In our current environment, privacy is no longer guaranteed, so many people want to search for better apps for social networking, messaging, and data storage. If you want to increase anonymity without sacrificing community, read below for some of our favorite messaging apps and why we love them.

Best encrypted messaging apps

Encryption is supposed to protect your data from prying eyes, but not all apps deliver on the privacy they promise. Many popular messaging apps use end-to-end encryption on at least some messages, but overall, Signal is the best popular messaging app for privacy that's free.

Popular messaging apps

Messaging app	Sign-up requirements	Owned by	Headquartered	End-to-end encryption
Signal	Phone number	The Signal Foundation	San Francisco, CA
Telegram	Phone number	Pavel Durov	Dubai, United Arab Emirates
WhatsApp	Phone number	Meta	Menlo Park, CA
Messenger	Phone number	Meta	Menlo Park, CA
LINE	Apple ID (iOS) or a Google account (Android)	SoftBank Group & Naver	Tokyo, Japan
WeChat	Phone number	Tencent Holdings	Shenzhen, China
Snapchat	Phone number or email	Snap Inc	Santa Monica, CA	Partial, photos and videos only
Instagram	Phone number, email, or Facebook account	Meta	Menlo Park, CA
Discord	Phone number or email	Discord Inc	San Francisco, CA	Partial, audio and video only
Google Messages	Phone number and Google account	Google Inc	Mountain View, CA
iMessages	Apple device and Apple ID	Apple Inc	Cupertino, CA	Partial, text between Apple devices only
Threema	Randomly generated Threema ID	Threema GmbH	Pfäffikon SZ, Switzerland
Wickr	Email	Amazon Web Services	New York, New York
Session	Randomly generated Session ID	Session Technology Foundation	Switzerland
Briar	Self selected “nickname” and password	No single owner	Decentralized, so no physical HQ

Key features of secure messaging apps

• End-to-end encryption: This is when data is encrypted on the sending device and unencrypted on the receiving device, so anyone intercepting it can’t see the content. It can be used for more than just messaging.
• Encrypted messaging: Messaging options that provide users with end-to-end encryption.
• Open source: The source code for the software is available for anyone to view, edit, or distribute to the broader community.
• 2FA or MFA: Two-factor authentication and multi-factor authentication require a separate source, like a code texted to your phone, to authenticate the user.
• Password security: Practicing password security or password hygiene means you use best practices to create passwords, including complex combinations or using a password manager to create, save, and store unique, strong passwords.
• No data collection: This is when an app or website lets you know that it won’t collect any data on your activity.
• Disappearing or secret chats: Disappearing chats expire and are deleted from the chat log, while secret chats are encrypted.
• No chat history cloud storage: Your messaging app won’t store your chat history in the cloud. Usually, chats like this are stored locally on the device and can’t move from one device to another.
• Screen lock: Locking your screen stops anyone without the password or your biometrics from opening your device and looking through it.
• Conceal phone number: This feature will hide your phone number from other users.

Signal: Best popular app for security

Of all the popular messaging apps, Signal is the best for secure messaging. Not only does it offer end-to-end encryption, but it also uses local storage only. This means your messages will be available only on your device. Plus, it's free and widely used, unlike other super secure messaging apps. 

Because of the security measures Signal takes, changing devices means you’ll lose your chat history. For us, this is a small caveat, considering none of our communications will be stored in a cloud. Unless someone gets your device or the device of someone in your group chat (or gets mistakenly invited to the chat), no one will be able to see the contents of your messages.

Signal pros and cons

Threema: Best for complete anonymity

Threema’s security protocols are impressive. The messaging app is open source, collects no data, and doesn’t require signing up with a phone number or email address. You even have the option to purchase the service with cash if you don’t want a digital paper trail. For even more security, you can add passcodes to secret chats.

We are a little bummed that Threema is a paid app. Unlike Signal, which is free to use, Threema has a one-time fee. The fee isn’t huge, but still. Also, we don’t know many people who use Threema. If you want to switch over your group chat to Threema, you will need to convince everyone else to sign up also.

Threema pros and cons

Briar: Best for offline messaging

Briar allows users to connect directly so you don’t need the internet if you’re within a certain proximity of one another. This is a unique feature that many other messaging apps don’t offer and could come in handy in a variety of situations. We also like that Briar offers local storage, so none of your messages go into the cloud.

Instead of just being a messaging app, Briar also has public forums and blogging capabilities. While this is an interesting feature, it may be more than what you’re looking for. Still, if you want a more secure way to build community, you could ditch Discord and Telegram for Briar.

Briar pros and cons

Why we can’t recommend Meta-owned messaging apps

Meta has been fined billions of dollars worldwide for privacy violations, including a refusal to stop invading the privacy of underage minors. Zuckerberg himself admitted that the CIA can see your WhatsApp messages. Additionally, a ProPublica report in 2021 found that Meta pays content monitors to read your private WhatsApp messages.

Meta has been predatory for a long time, and the fact that it continually violates its own privacy policies as well as the public’s trust means we can’t recommend any Meta apps. In fact, we strongly urge you to remove all Meta apps from your phone, as the company participates in extensive online spying.

FAQs

Bottom line: Which is the safest messaging app?

Signal is one of the safest messaging apps available. It doesn’t use cloud storage, so your messages and chats are only ever located on your own device. Deleting the Signal app deletes your data, so no one can see it, even if they do get your phone. Additionally, it offers 2FA to access the app, so if someone is able to break into your device, they still can’t see your data.

If you want to increase your security while using messaging apps, we suggest downloading one of the best VPNs available. Not only will your messages be encrypted, but all of your online activity will enjoy anonymity and encryption. Data privacy should be a right — protect yours with secure software.