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I've been seriously considering creating a highly secure text messaging replacement. I'm aware of TextSecure but find it lacking (and only available on Android
by gsibble 14y ago
I've been seriously considering creating a highly secure text messaging replacement. I'm aware of TextSecure but find it lacking (and only available on Android). I'd love to hear if you guys think it would be a worthwhile project.
- niggler 14y agoWhat is the target market? I mentally treat all messages as insecure, and no self-proclaimed secure system would change my thoughts.
- ge0rg 14y agoYou can set up your own private XMPP server and use gibberbot, beem or yaxim on android (or any other XMPP client on the platform of your choice). This is the only way to ensure that your communication is really private.
- gsibble 14y agoThat's actually why I haven't built it yet. I think it should be done, but I'm not sure who would actually care enough to use it. What would change your thoughts regarding a secure messaging system? Open source?
- sachingulaya 14y agoIf it works on android/ios I'm a customer. I'm using textsecure right now.
- msh 14y agoSkype would be a decent bet.
- X-Istence 14y agoI wouldn't consider Skype secure when all traffic for Skype goes through private servers run by Microsoft and there is as far as I am aware no end to end encryption between end users. Also, Skype's protocol and entire stack is entirely opaque and thus hasn't been nearly as checked for security issues as something like XMPP with SSL for example.
- msh 14y agoSkype is end to end encrypted, of cause we don't really know how secure it is.
- mike-cardwell 14y agoI like TextSecure, but it has one main drawback as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't hide who is talking to who and when. It only hides the message content. I imagine a messaging app which works like TextSecure (as far as encryption goes), but integrates with Orbot (Tor for Android). Both phones would set up a Hidden Service so they can communicate directly, over the Tor network, over the Internet without an intermediate server. That would be the perfect messaging system IMO. Not only would the message content be hidden, but who is talking to who, and when, would also be hidden. And it wouldn't require anyone to run a server to handle the messages either. Please, somebody make this app.
- wjruoxue 14y agoMaybe you want to try Musubi, an experimental message app from Stanford's MobiSocial lab which really cares about user's privacy. It's available for Android and iOS
- UnoriginalGuy 14y agoYou could make one but the audience would have almost no cross-over with WhatsApp. Your app would have a nice geeky audience of tech nerds who would drool over how secure it is and how smart they are. WhatsApp on the other hand "just works." It requires zero setup, zero technical understanding, and is available on almost every platform (at least the "biggies" anyway). I would say its audience is teenagers, and the less tech savvy consumer in general. I cannot see them wanting to switch to something else unless you make come up with a USP which appeals to them (i.e. security is not a USP that they're interested in).
- gsibble 14y agoThose are basically the same thoughts that I had. Security is not enough of a concern for most of the market. I wouldn't built it as a commercial product, but basically as art for those of us who value privacy. That said, I think the number of people concerned with message privacy is on the rise around the world. Over a few years, the market may grow significantly as privacy receives more attention.
- jjcm 14y agoAlternately, you could just create a third party client for WhatsApp that uses an actual password. The issue with WhatsApp is on the client end, which you can control.
- mike_esspe 14y agoProbably they will start to care, if whatsapp spoofer would become widely available.