Signal is the encrypted messaging app we recommend to anyone who values privacy in their daily communications.
Why Signal over WhatsApp: WhatsApp uses Signal’s E2EE protocol but is owned by Meta. Metadata (who messages whom, when, how often) is collected and tied to your Meta account. Signal collects almost nothing: registration phone number only, never message content, never social graph metadata.
Use cases:
- Sensitive personal conversations
- Sharing financial info, medical info, legal questions
- Family group chats (privacy by default for kids)
- Coordinating with journalists, activists, lawyers, doctors
Features: text + voice + video calls (1:1 + groups), file sharing up to 100MB, disappearing messages (5 sec to 4 weeks), stories (24h), stickers, voice notes, polls, message reactions. All E2EE.
vs Telegram: Telegram default chats are NOT E2EE (server-side stored). Only “Secret Chats” are E2EE. Telegram has bigger feature set but worse default privacy. Pick Signal for privacy, Telegram for community/groups.
vs iMessage: iMessage is E2EE between Apple users but falls back to unencrypted SMS for Android contacts. Signal is encrypted cross-platform. iMessage requires Apple ecosystem; Signal is open.
Recommendation: install Signal as your default messaging app. Migrate sensitive conversations first. Keep WhatsApp / iMessage as fallback for contacts who haven’t switched.