Wickr vs Signal vs iMessage – Are you looking for the best messaging app? Thinking which is the best safe messaging app? Or How does these messaging apps work? What is the difference between Wicker, Signal and iMessage? These might be the question that has kept you searching for the best answer. In this article, I’ll give you a detailed information on Wickr, Signal, and iMessage.
Everyone has their own reasons for wishing to use a safe or secure messaging service whether it is a gossip, or an embarrassing story, or sharing important files, the last thing anyone want is for someone to see their messages. Even though Wickr, Signal, and iMessage are similar, yet they have several different features.
Wickr vs Signal vs iMessage: What are they?
Wickr
Wickr is an online messaging platform where you can instantly connect with your friends with fully encrypted voice callings, or video conferencing. You can be able to have full control over who can access to your content and how long it will remain accessible. It says that it has world’s most advanced multi-layered encryption and ephemerality.
Wickr provides a protected messaging and communication platform for government enterprises, agencies and the military. The messages are attachments that you send through Wickr are ephemeral as they only exist for a certain amount of time. Messages may even not get delivered or get deleted from the server, if the recipient don’t log into his Wickr account regularly enough.
Its message handling is pretty unusual. Messages are assured to both your account and a definite device. You can be able to have many devices connected to an account, but messages will only deliver to the exact targeted devices. This means, messages are not synced across all your devices as with several other messaging services.
Pros:
- GDPR complaint
- Provides Transparency Reports
- Anonymous accounts
- Transient messages and attachments
- End-to-end (E2E) encryption
Cons:
- Messaging handling is quite unusual
Website: https://wickr.com/
Signal
Signal is an encrypted messaging service which became popular when Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk announced to ‘Use Signal’ in his twitter account relating to WhatsApp’s privacy concerns. It uses typical cellular mobile number as identifiers and lock up all communications to other Signal users with end-to-end encryption.
It allows its users to send messages, make video and audio calls with their friends. You can also share links, photos and videos, just like the way other messaging applications works. Likewise, it also lets you separately reply to a particular message or sending an emoji-based reaction to that particular message. You can delete a particular message from the chat by simply clicking ‘Delete for everyone” option.
With its messages disappear feature, you can set disappearing messages for every individual chat separately and select the time ranging from five-seconds to one week. Its QR code feature permits you to use Signal on your laptop or iPad by linking the account to your mobile device. Nonetheless, you chat history cannot be transferred when you link.
Pros:
- User-friendly
- Easy interface
- Various privacy focused features
- End-to-end encrypted
Cons:
- You cannot backup your chats
Website: https://signal.org
iMessage
iMessage is Apple’s instant messaging service that was released in 2011 with iOS 5 for devices like iPad, Mac, and iPhone. It lets you to send photos, stickers, stickers and much more between any iOS devices over the internet connection. First of all, let me make you clear that iMessages appear in blue bubbles and test messages appear in green bubbles in your iOS device.
As you receive, send, and delete messages on your device, the iMessages app syncs these modifications to your other apple devices. This occurs over iCloud and makes it so you can impeccably switch devices amid the conversation. You can also use this feature with text messages by turning on Text Message Forwarding from your device settings.
In a group conversation, it lets you to tag certain individual by using the @symbol and respond to certain message with inline replies, and even use custom photos as the group conversation icon. If your friends are an Android user, you cannot be able send message though iMessage. However, in this case, you can simply use the text messages.
Pros:
- End-to-end encrypted
- Easy interface
- Automatically built-in with Mac and iOS
Cons:
- It is only compatible with Apple devices.
Wickr vs Signal vs iMessage: Quick Comparison
| FEATURES | Wickr | Signal | iMessage |
| End-to-end encrypted | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cryptographic primitives | Curver25519/ AES 256/ Salsa20 128/ HMAC-SHA256 | Curve25519/ AES-256/ HMAC-SHA256 | RSA-1280, ECDSA 256/ AES 128/ SHA-1 |
| Transparency report | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | Yes | No |
| Anonymous sign up | Yes | No | No |
| Self -destructing messages | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2-Factor Authentication | Yes (password for account used) | Yes | No |
| Customers data | Contact info and usage data (not when you’re logged in anonymously) | Contacts info | Yes (difficult to access) |
| Funding | Gilman Louie, Juniper Networks, The Knight Foundation, Breyer Capital, CME Group, Wargaming, Merlin international, Lytical Ventures | Freedom of the Press Foundation, The Knight Foundation, Signal Foundation, The Shuttleworth Foundation, The Open Technology Fund | Apple |
| Rating | Google: 4.6/5 Apple: 4.6/5 | Google: 4.4/5 Apple: 4.5/5 | Only available in Apple devices |
Check out the below for further detailed information on Wickr vs Signal vs iMessage comparison.
Wickr vs Signal vs iMessage: Key Features
Wickr
Here are some key features to contemplate while deciding whether Wickr is perfect for you.
- It allows voice message, photo, video, and file sharing.
- Audio and video conferencing.
- You don’t need any email address or phone number to register on Wickr.
- Its each call, message, and files are device-to-device encrypted which makes it impossible to break.
- Its encryption algorithms are AES 256, RSA 4096, and ECDH521, along with a Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS).
- All attachments and messages are temporary.
- It is perfectly compatible with Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Chromebook devices.
- It has published its crypto library as an open source but the remaining of the code is not an open source.
Signal
Here are some key features to contemplate while deciding whether Signal is perfect for you.
- It allows voice message, text messages, GIFs, photo, video, and file sharing.
- HD Audio and video conferencing.
- You can create group with around 150 members.
- It is compatible with Android, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, and Linux.
- It not only offers end-to-end encryption, but also selects to accumulate minimal user data without negotiating on its features.
- Its PIN security feature allow you to keep your account much safe.
- Built-in editing feature lets you to crop, sketch, and even flip your outgoing photos.
- It also allows Android users to use to as a simple SMS application.
- It automatically permits users to blur their photos to safeguard their identities.
iMessage
Here are some key features to contemplate while deciding whether Signal is perfect for you.
- It allows voice message, photo, GIFs, links, video, location, Memoji animations, file sharing and much more.
- Its each photos, videos, message, and files are device-to-device encrypted.
- It gives you the ability to check when people receive and read your message.
- It keeps updating or add much advanced features with each new version of iOS.
- You can create a Memoji video which mirrors your expressions with your iPhone Face ID.
- It syncs messages across devices.
- You can start a group conversation with lots of other people at the same exact time.
- Through your iMessage, you can automatically get access to Apple Store, photos, music, Apple Pay, and much more.
The Bottom Line: Wickr vs Signal vs iMessage
Texting can create huge mess in your life if your “Private or Personal” messages or other shared content gets into wrong hands. So, I hope the above article on Wickr vs Signal vs iMessage comparison has helped you choose the best text application that makes your texting or calling experience more confidential.
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