
To read it, they use the matching private key to unlock the message. To send someone an encrypted message, you encode it using their public key. Everyone can see someone's public key, but the private key is a total secret. To oversimplify things dramatically, every user has a pair of keys: a public key and a private key. The underlying principle that enables end-to-end encryption is called public-key cryptography, and how it works is incredibly cool. Even the tech company operating the whole system can't see the contents of your messages. It doesn't matter if someone gets access to your "message" while it's in transit-without the encryption key that only your intended recipient has, it can't be read. This means that from the moment your message leaves your phone until it reaches your recipient, it's just strings of unintelligible data. The gold standard in secure communications is end-to-end encryption. No amount of promises that your data won't be used or can't be accessed is enough to overcome the fact that if it is at all possible, people will do it. Everything else is kind of unimportant if criminals, governments, or tech company employees can potentially access your messages, whether it's through hacks, the legal system, or admin tools. The best encrypted messaging app is, first and foremost, actually secure. What makes the best secure messaging app? WhatsApp for the best secure messaging app that everyone uses Session for the best totally anonymous messaging app Signal for the best secure messaging app available With that, here are our three favorite secure messaging apps. Instead, I used the assessments and opinions of security researchers and experts like Bruce Schneier and Brian Krebs. To assess the security of the different encrypted messaging apps, I didn't just rely on my judgment. Most of all, though, I'm an expert in handing things off to more qualified experts. I've been writing about security for over a decade (and texting for a lot longer than that), and cybersecurity and encryption are part of my beat over at Popular Science.

I looked at over 20 different texting apps that purport to be secure and found three standouts that keep your secrets (and dinner plans) completely safe. It's just about using an encrypted message app that's designed from the ground up to keep your communications private.

The good news is that sending secure, encrypted messages is as simple as sending unsecured, unencrypted messages.
