As much as I hate to admit it, I’m guessing you don’t really give a shit about privacy, or at least the privacy of your text messages. I think it’s fair to assume that you won’t be marching or protesting any time soon.
Even after the leaks, revelations, whatever you want to call them, nothing has changed in any meaningful way. The world keeps on spinning. That’s why I’m not going to try and bash you over the head with expansive lists of reasons you should really care (at least a little), but instead appeal to your desire for free, handsome looking messenger apps – apps like WhisperSystems’ recently overhauled TextSecure private messenger for Android phones and soon iPhones.
So lets do it like this…
Are you looking for a free texting/messenging app to replace the rubbish known as WhatsApp? Tired of iMessage, Viber, or whatever other nonsense you’re using? Great, because…
- TextSecure looks great.
- TextSecure sends free messages through data, but falls back to SMS when you don’t have internet access.
- TextSecure is extremely fast.
- TextSecure has group messaging so you can easily spam your friends with pictures of your cats.
- Will allow texts/messaging between Android, iPhone, and even your Windows Desktop.
And if you do happen to care about your privacy…
TextSecure just happens to be made by Moxie Marlinspike, a cryptographic genius with a passion for secure protocols, cryptography, privacy, and anonymity. He also happens to be an all around cool dude.
More importantly, TextSecure is completely encrypted – the only people that can read your messages are you and the recipient. No data is left on any servers, not even the mythical meta-data you’ve been hearing so much about, and you can even encrypt/password protect your messages locally in-case your phone is stolen or you don’t want your loser friends going through your texts when you pass out drunk.
If you’re worried about your friends not having a copy of the app, fear not, it comes with an install base of 10+ million users thanks to Cyanogenmod integration (another project to check out), and that number is growing rapidly.
Yes, you’ve really got nothing to lose. But don’t take my word for it, you can just, you know… try it for free and see what you think.
