
You can only send encrypted messages, and make encrypted calls, to other people who are on Signal. Verify that the encryption isn’t under attack using safety numbers.Send messages to numbers without adding them to your contacts.Send and receive private photos and videos.Hide Signal messages on your lock screen.

If you wish to jump ahead to a specific section, you can click the appropriate link: I discuss these at length below - and in the video above, created with Lauren Feeney. (I outlined some of these steps last year, but Signal has changed significantly since then.) There are also some useful features in Signal that you might not know about. You can download Signal from the Android Play Store and the iPhone App Store.Īlthough Signal is well-designed, there are extra steps you must take if you want to maximize the security of your most sensitive conversations. It also has open source code, so experts can verify its security claims. The Signal app is easy to use, works on both Apple’s mobile operating system iOS and Google’s Android, and encrypts communications so that only you and the people you’re talking to can decipher them. Then you’ll want to tweak the settings to lock everything down. It starts with installing an app known as Signal, and getting your friends to install it too. Some of them can even be read by anyone in a position to simply glance at your phone’s lock screen and read the notifications displayed there.īut it’s possible to make sure that your private conversations are actually private. They can also be seen by anyone who can pick up your phone and sift through it. Your chats can be accessed by police, the FBI, and spy agencies like the NSA. Your phone company, internet provider, and the corporations that make the apps you use to communicate can spy on what you say. Unfortunately, most ways that people communicate with their phones - voice calls, SMS messages, email, Facebook, Skype, Hangouts, etc. The list goes on.įortunately, privacy is a fundamental human right. You might be dating someone new and not want your coworkers to find out.

You might send private selfies to your partner that you don’t want anyone else to see. You might talk to your friends about attending a protest, getting an abortion, or buying a gun. You might discuss something with a lawyer. There are others you might worry about too: You might want to apply for a job without your current employer finding out. Criminals might be interested as well, especially when you send someone a password or credit card number. Whether your private conversations are personal, professional, or political, what you say or type into your phone may be of interest to snooping governments, both foreign and domestic.
