Messaging Apps Not Owned by Meta for Secure Communication

If you're looking for messaging apps that prioritize secure communication, there are several options beyond Meta-owned platforms. Signal is one such app that has gained popularity for its end-to-end encryption and private chats.

Signal's encryption is based on the open-source Signal Protocol, which ensures that only the sender and receiver can access the chat content. This makes it an attractive choice for those who value their online privacy.

One notable feature of Signal is its open-source nature, allowing developers to review and audit the code for any potential security vulnerabilities. This transparency is a significant advantage over proprietary messaging apps.

For users who prefer a more traditional messaging experience, Wire is another secure option. Wire offers end-to-end encryption and a clean interface for easy communication.

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Signal is a great messaging app that works on multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, Macs, and PCs. You can send written messages, make voice and video calls, and have massive group chats.

Signal is an independent nonprofit that stores virtually no information about its users, and all your communication is end-to-end encrypted. This means that even law enforcement can't read your messages or listen to your calls.

The European Commission has even recommended Signal for public instant messaging, citing its secure nature and open-source code. If you're tech-savvy, you can check under the hood to see how it works.

Telegram is another popular messaging app that focuses on speed and security. It allows you to create channels for unlimited audiences and groups for up to 200,000 people.

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Signal is a free messaging app that works on Android and iOS, as well as on Macs and PCs. It's great for sending written messages, making voice and video calls, and having massive group chats.

Signal is an independent nonprofit organization, which means it's not driven by profit like some other messaging apps. It stores virtually no information about its users, and all communication sent via the app is end-to-end encrypted.

One of the biggest advantages of Signal is its commitment to user privacy. Even when law enforcement comes knocking, Signal claims it has practically nothing on its users to turn over.

Signal is recommended by experts, and it's been popularized in the United States during the George Floyd protests. It's also been endorsed by notable figures like Elon Musk and Edward Snowden.

In 2020, Signal added features like iPad support, view-once images and videos, stickers, and reactions. It also announced plans for a new group messaging system and an experimental method for storing encrypted contacts in the cloud.

Signal is open-source, which means that users can check under the hood to see how it's working. It also has a disappearing message feature, which is great for getting rid of any unwanted communications.

In 2021, Signal saw a surge in new user registrations, which temporarily overwhelmed its capacity to deliver account verification messages. This was likely due to a WhatsApp privacy policy change and a Signal endorsement by Elon Musk and Edward Snowden.

iMessage is a messaging app native to Mac devices that lets you send text-based messages, videos, GIFs, and voice memos.

If you're communicating with another Mac user, your messages are default end-to-end encrypted, which is a big plus.

However, iMessage requires an Apple device, so if you have an Android phone, you won't be able to use it to send encrypted messages.

Messages sent to Android users via iMessage are traditional SMS text messages, which are not encrypted.

For your interest: Auto Reply for Text Messages

Federation was a key aspect of Signal's early development.

Signal's server architecture was federated between December 2013 and February 2016. The messaging protocol used by Signal was successfully integrated into the Android-based open-source operating system CyanogenMod in December 2013.

The client logic was contained in a system app called WhisperPush, which was available under the GPLv3 license. The Cyanogen team ran their own Signal messaging server for WhisperPush clients, which federated with the main server.

Federation allowed both clients to exchange messages with each other. However, the CyanogenMod team discontinued WhisperPush in February 2016 and recommended that its users switch to Signal.

Moxie Marlinspike wrote that federation with the CyanogenMod servers had degraded the user experience and held back development. As a result, Signal's servers will probably not federate with other servers again.

Signal's development and funding have been a collaborative effort. The project was initially funded by consulting contracts, donations, and grants from organizations like the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and the Shuttleworth Foundation.

Between 2013 and 2016, Signal received almost $3 million from the US government-sponsored Open Technology Fund. This support helped the project grow and expand its mission.

Signal Messenger LLC, a software company founded by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton in 2018, now develops the app. The company is wholly owned by the Signal Technology Foundation, a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation created by Marlinspike and Acton in 2018.

Signal's development was initially funded by a combination of consulting contracts, donations, and grants. The Freedom of the Press Foundation acted as Signal's fiscal sponsor.

Between 2013 and 2016, the project received grants from the Knight Foundation, the Shuttleworth Foundation, and almost $3 million from the Open Technology Fund.

Signal Messenger LLC, a software company founded by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton in 2018, is wholly owned by a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation called the Signal Technology Foundation. The Foundation was created by them in 2018.

An initial loan of $50 million from Acton funded the Foundation to support Signal's mission of making private communication accessible and ubiquitous.

Signal Messenger has a free software license for its complete source code on GitHub, allowing anyone to examine the code and verify its behavior.

The code is available for Android, iOS, and desktop clients, making it accessible to a wide range of users. This open-source approach also enables advanced users to compile their own copies of the applications.

In March 2016, Moxie Marlinspike noted that Signal for Android is reproducible, apart from some shared libraries that aren't compiled due to a lack of GradleNDK support. Instructions for creating a reproducible build can be found in the GitHub repository.

Signal's servers are mostly open source, but the server software's anti-spam component is proprietary and closed source due to abuse concerns.

For more insights, see: Cisa Recommends Encrypted Messaging Apps Due to Telecom Hacks

Signal provides one-to-one and group voice and video calls with up to forty participants on iOS, Android, and desktop platforms.

Signal's encryption keys are generated and stored on the devices, not on servers, making communication sessions between Signal users automatically end-to-end encrypted.

The platform allows users to verify that a correspondent is really the person they claim to be by comparing key fingerprints or scanning QR codes out-of-band.

Signal also employs a trust-on-first-use mechanism to notify the user if a correspondent's key changes.

To add an extra layer of security, Signal users can lock their application with their phone's pin, passphrase, or biometric authentication.

The application can be customized with various color themes for the app icon and application name, and messages can have effects like spoilers and italics.

Signal includes a feature for automatically blurring faces of people in photos to protect identities, and users can add each other via QR code.

The platform excludes users' messages from non-encrypted cloud backups by default.

Signal's userbase started in May 2010, when its predecessor TextSecure was launched by Whisper Systems.

As of 2025, Signal is installed by default on the devices of most CIA employees and its usage is covered by standard onboarding training.

In January 2022, the BBC reported that Signal was used by over 40 million people.

Signal had approximately 20 million monthly active users at the end of December 2020.

In February 2025, Signal had over 7 million monthly active users in the USA.

Signal provides one-to-one and group voice and video calls with up to forty participants on iOS, Android, and desktop platforms.

You can send text messages, documents, files, voice notes, pictures, stickers, GIFs, and video messages through the app. The platform also supports group messaging.

All communication sessions between Signal users are automatically end-to-end encrypted, with encryption keys generated and stored on the devices, not on servers.

Signal users can verify that a correspondent is really the person they claim to be by comparing key fingerprints or scanning QR codes out-of-band.

The app employs a trust-on-first-use mechanism to notify the user if a correspondent's key changes.

Signal allows users to lock the app with their phone's pin, passphrase, or biometric authentication for added security.

Users can schedule messages and attach timers to automatically delete messages from both sender's and receiver's devices.

The time period for keeping a message can be between five seconds and one week, and begins for each recipient once they have read their copy of the message.

Signal's app icon can be changed with various colour themes for customization and to hide the app.

Messages can have effects like spoilers and italics, and users can add each other via QR code.

Signal excludes users' messages from non-encrypted cloud backups by default.

The app allows users to automatically blur faces of people in photos to protect identities.

Signal includes a cryptocurrency wallet functionality for storing, sending, and receiving in-app payments, with MobileCoin being the only supported payment method as of January 2022.

In February 2024, Signal added a username feature to the beta version of the app, allowing users to communicate without sharing their telephone number.

Signal's usability has had its share of challenges. In July 2016, a user study found that 21 out of 28 participants failed to correctly verify the identity of other Signal users.

The study highlighted the need for a simpler user interface, and Signal updated its app four months later to make verification easier. The update made it simpler for users to confirm the identity of others.

Signal stores messages locally on each device in a SQLite database, which is encrypted with SQLCipher. This database is stored on the device and can be accessed if it's unlocked.

Expand your knowledge: Study App

In December 2020, Cellebrite claimed to have a product that could access Signal's database key and decrypt the app. However, experts and Signal representatives disputed this, saying it was about accessing data on an unlocked Android phone in their physical possession.

Similar extraction tools exist for iOS devices and Signal Desktop.

Signal messages are encrypted with the Signal Protocol, which combines the Double Ratchet Algorithm, prekeys, and an Extended Triple Diffie–Hellman (X3DH) handshake. It uses Curve25519, AES-256, and HMAC-SHA256 as primitives.

The Signal Protocol provides a range of security features, including confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and forward secrecy. It also offers message unlinkability and message repudiation.

Signal's voice and video calling functionalities use the Signal Protocol channel for authentication, which is a significant improvement over its previous system that used SRTP and the ZRTP key-agreement protocol.

In 2013, Open Whisper Systems was founded, and it was the parent company of Signal Messenger until 2018.

Signal Messenger was great in all the ways Facebook isn't, and then some. It worked on Android and iOS, and on both Macs and PCs, allowing users to send written messages, make voice and video calls, send voice memos, and have massive group chats.

The company was an independent nonprofit, recommended by experts, and it stored virtually no information about its users. All communication sent via the app was end-to-end encrypted, meaning that even law enforcement couldn't access it.

Signal Messenger was an independent nonprofit, and it didn't store much information about its users.

Curious to learn more? Check out: Mms Messaging Needs to Be Enabled to Send This Message

Signal messages are encrypted with the Signal Protocol, which combines the Double Ratchet Algorithm, prekeys, and an Extended Triple Diffie–Hellman (X3DH) handshake.

The Signal Protocol uses Curve25519, AES-256, and HMAC-SHA256 as primitives, providing a range of security features including confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and forward secrecy.

It does not provide anonymity preservation, and requires servers for the relaying of messages and storing of public key material.

The Signal Protocol also supports end-to-end encrypted group chats, which provide additional properties such as speaker consistency and out-of-order resilience.

In October 2014, researchers from Ruhr University Bochum published an analysis of the Signal Protocol, finding it to be secure, although they presented an unknown key-share attack on the protocol.

The Signal Protocol has been implemented into WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Google Allo, making it possible for the conversations of more than a billion people worldwide to be end-to-end encrypted.

Take a look at this: Fbi Encrypted Messaging Apps Warning

Authentication is crucial in ensuring that you're communicating with the right person. Signal users can verify a correspondent's identity by comparing key fingerprints or scanning QR codes out-of-band.

This process helps prevent identity theft and ensures that your messages are being sent to the correct person.

Signal employs a trust on first use mechanism, which notifies users if a correspondent's key changes.

Signal, a messaging app not owned by Meta, has made headlines for its innovative payment features and its ability to circumvent censorship in certain countries.

In April 2021, Signal added a cryptocurrency wallet feature that allowed users to send and receive payments in MobileCoin, but this move was met with criticism from security expert Bruce Schneier.

This wallet functionality was initially only available in certain countries, but was later enabled globally in November 2021, allowing users to make international transactions.

Signal's domain fronting feature has also been a topic of interest, as it allows users to circumvent censorship by making it look like they are connecting to a different internet-based service.

As of May 2022, Signal's domain fronting is enabled by default in Egypt, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Iran, Cuba, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan, making it a valuable tool for users in these countries.

However, Signal has faced challenges in implementing this feature, particularly in Iran, where Google has blocked Iranian access to Google App Engine, a service that Signal relies on for domain fronting.

Intriguing read: Rcs Self Messaging Google Messages

In April 2021, Signal added a cryptocurrency wallet feature that allows users to send and receive payments in MobileCoin.

This move received criticism from security expert Bruce Schneier, who expressed concerns about the potential bloat of the client and unwanted attention from authorities.

The wallet functionality was initially limited to certain countries, but was later enabled globally in November 2021.

Signal's developers have found creative ways to circumvent censorship, but it's not foolproof. In December 2016, Egypt blocked access to Signal.

Signal's domain fronting feature relies on the Google App Engine (GAE) service, but this doesn't work in Iran because Google has blocked Iranian access to GAE. Iran removed the app from app stores in January 2021 and blocked Signal.

Signal made a public change to use Amazon CloudFront for domain fronting, but AWS announced changes to prevent this. Signal switched back to Google in April 2019.

Signal was blocked in Russia on August 9, 2024, due to "violations of the law on combating terrorism and extremism".

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If you're looking for an alternative to Facebook, consider your motivations first. If privacy is your top concern, you're best sticking with options like Signal and Wire.

If your concern is Facebook's impact on civil rights, you might want to consider Mastodon. It's a decentralized platform that allows users to have more control over their online experience.

A fresh viewpoint: Facebook Messenger Whatsapp

If you're looking for a platform with a strong focus on community and discussion, you might want to consider Mastodon. It's not as widely used as some other platforms, but it has a strong following among those who value community-driven online spaces.

Ultimately, the best alternative to Facebook will depend on your individual needs and preferences.