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Is anyone else using any encryption software to communicate by phone ? There are a few kinds available that are all very similar and very easy to use. They replace the standard messenger in your phone and then you can send end to end to encrypted messages (you still have the option to send a regular SMS), SMS,MMS, calls and video calls to other people running the same system. They allow for encrypted group messages and they all have a companion desktop app that runs on your computer so you can send your messages using a computer keyboard and not have to use the dinky little phone keyboard. A few of the more common ones are Signal, Telegram and Whatsapp. Signal and Whatsapp both use the same protocol and all their messages are encrypted by default. Telegram uses a different protocol and you need to choose to send an encrypted message. They all have have features like self destructing messages and the ability to delete messages which has its benefits if you don't want sensitive information hanging around on your phone for someone else to discover. The last time I checked Telegram seemed to be leaving more of a trail of metadata (particularly for unencrypted messages) but Signal eliminates most of the metadata by design. If any authorities want to subpoena Signal for server records etc there is almost nothing for them hand over because their servers don't store calls just connection data. Anyway, I'm using Signal as it seemed to offer everything I needed and also I've got my elderly parents using it so we can do video chats with the kids. Video chats are easy, you just click on the name of the contact and hit the phone button (in the signal messenger) to ring them and then you have the options to switch your camera and/or microphone on and off. Electronic Frontiers - How to use Signal iOS Electronic Frontiers - How to use Signal Android One caveat, you need mobile data switched on your phone (sender and receiver) or you need to be connected to wifi for messages to go through. If either the sender or receiver are not connected to the web either through their router, a wifi hotspot or their 3G or 4G connection, the messages won't get through. So if you are like me and several people I know with limited mobile data plans on their phone and have mobile data switched off by default you can send a regular SMS first and tell them to flick their data on because you are about to send a Signal message (or just text something pre arranged to let them know it's coming - an emoji ect) After you install Signal it will import your contacts list (you still add new contacts there as normal) and let Signal become your new messenger (give it permissions at the prompts). All messages to other people not using Signal will just proceed as normal (you don't need mobile data or wifi for them). Signal will default to sending other signal users encrypted messages but if you just want to send them a normal SMS (maybe you have no data left on your plan or need to tell them to switch their data on) you write the message as normal and then do a long press on the send message button and select unencrypted to send a regular SMS.