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

13 points by mellamoyo ↗ HN
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

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blindrooster
self hosted IRC
skrowl
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.
ryck
What's wrong with Telegram?
mellamoyo
No private chats for Windows/Linux.
skrowl
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

zurn
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?

mellamoyo
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.

cyphar
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).
Synaesthesia
iMessage has end-to-end encryption.
skrowl
No mobile client (for Android or Windows Phone), no desktop client (for Windows or Linux).
zbuf
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.

pullany
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
mauropolli
+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).