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Both apps are encrypted. Both apps respect privacy. But only one is anonymous. And that’s a big the difference.
Contents
Wickr vs Signal
Signal
Signal has become very famous since new privacy policy of the controversial WhatsApp (detained by facebook, also very famous for data leakage and abuse of privacy rights) has surged in 2020.
Signal has always been a reliable messenger, and is regularly updated with big fixes, performance improvements and tweaks. It’s most recent update has given it a massive yet subtle facelift that now has the look and feel of a modern app, a great improvement over the previously dated (although functional and consistent) interface.
Indeed Signal is free and is encrypted its own open source protocol, but absolutely not anonymous ! And for one good reason, it requires your phone number to sign in and to identify your contacts.
The app is multi plateforme: Android and iOS; but it is also available on Windows, MacOS and Linux.
More information: https://www.signal.org/fr/
Wickr
Wickr is above all military and intelligence community standards for top-secret communications is now the default communication and collaboration platform for the US Department of Defense, many other agencies and many Fortune 100 companies.
Wickr (Wickr Me), which is fully-encrypted , is on the contrary completely anonymous, and also ephemeral. It is not as famous as Signal, but it is still used by millions of users worldwide.
This app was seen in the Mr Robot series, and allows group discussions up to 10 people. Messages can be deleted automatically after a lapse of time ranging from 3 seconds to 6 days. The conversations are encrypted.
The app is free and open source. It is multi plateforme: Android and iOS; but it is also available on Windows, MacOS and Linux.
More info: https://wickr.com/me/
Conclusion
The main obstacle to wickr is that there are few users on it, a bit like Signal before the 2020s. Too bad, because we like Wickr better since no phone number is required to register.
There is also twinme which is free and totally anonymous voip / messenger (with no registration).
Please note that AWS has acquired Wickr in June 2021:
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/aws-welcomes-wickr-to-the-team/