WhatsApp’s Android iteration can now
boast end-to-end encryption for your
messages, according to a new report.
The functionality has been baked into
the latest update for the app, and the
encryption is turned on by default. The “end-to-end” part means
WhatsApp (or Facebook, its owner)
won’t be able to decrypt your
messages, even if it is compelled to do
so by law enforcement agencies. This, in fact, makes WhatsApp more
secure than most of its competitors, as
it now has the strongest security ever
seen on a mobile messaging app.
WhatsApp partnered with Open
Whisper Systems for the implementation, using open source
code to build the new features. Getting
the code ready for WhatsApp to use
took around six months, so it was no
easy task. Right now the encryption is only
available on Android, and it’s unclear
when it will be baked into the iOS app.
There are similar apps offering this
level of privacy, but none of them has
WhatsApp’s reach, which has over 600 million users worldwide.

Good!