Which Messaging App Should You Use?

TL;DR: For most people, Signal is the best choice — private, free, and easy to use, with all the features you'd expect. WhatsApp is a fine everyday option if your contacts are already there. Telegram is popular but misleading about its privacy. Threema is the most private of all but costs money and requires convincing your contacts to switch.

Why Does Your Choice of App Matter?

When you send a message, that message has to travel across the internet to reach the other person. Along the way, it could potentially be read — by the company running the app, by your internet provider, or by someone snooping on the network.

End-to-end encryption is the technology that prevents this. It means your message is scrambled on your device and can only be unscrambled on the recipient's device. Nobody in the middle — not even the company whose app you're using — can read it.

Think of it like sealing a letter in an envelope only the recipient can open. Without it, it's more like sending a postcard: visible to anyone who handles it.

Some apps also collect metadata — information about who you message and when, even if they can't read the content. This can still reveal a lot about you.

The Apps at a Glance

	WhatsApp	Signal	Telegram	Threema
End-to-end encrypted by default	✅	✅	❌	✅
Open source	❌	✅	Partial	✅
Collects metadata	✅ Yes	Minimal	✅ Yes	❌ No
Requires phone number	✅	✅	✅	❌
Free	✅	✅	✅	❌ (~€5 one-off)
Owned by	Meta (Facebook)	Non-profit	Private company	Swiss company

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is by far the most widely used messaging app in many countries, which is both its biggest strength and the main reason people stick with it — everyone is already there.

Messages are end-to-end encrypted by default, which means their content is private in transit. That part is genuinely good.

The catch is who owns it: Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram. WhatsApp collects a significant amount of metadata — who you talk to, how often, at what times, your location, your device details, and more. This data is shared across Meta's advertising ecosystem. The content of your messages is private; the picture of your life that the metadata builds is not.

Good for:

• Staying in touch with people who are already on it — which in many families and social circles, is everyone
• Group chats and voice/video calls

Worth knowing:

• Your message content is encrypted, but Meta knows a lot about how you use the app
• Linked to your Facebook/Instagram data profile if you use those services
• Requires a phone number to sign up

💡 If everyone you message is on WhatsApp and switching isn't realistic, it's still a reasonable choice. Just know that "encrypted" doesn't mean "private from Meta."

Signal

Signal is the gold standard for private messaging. It was built from the ground up with one purpose: private communication. The organisation behind it is a non-profit, and it makes no money from advertising or data.

Messages, calls, and video chats are all end-to-end encrypted by default — and unlike WhatsApp, Signal collects almost no metadata. It cannot tell who you've been talking to or when, because it was deliberately designed not to know.

The app is open source, meaning independent security experts can and do inspect its code to verify it does what it claims. This matters — it's the reason Signal's encryption protocol is trusted enough that WhatsApp and Telegram both use a version of it for their own encryption.

Signal also has everything you'd expect from a modern messaging app: group chats, voice and video calls, photo sharing, disappearing messages, and stickers.

Good for:

• Anyone who wants genuine privacy without compromising on features
• People who want to know their metadata isn't being harvested

Worth knowing:

• Requires a phone number to sign up (though your number isn't visible to other users if you set a username)
• Fewer people are on it than WhatsApp, so you may need to invite contacts

💡 Signal is the recommendation we'd give to almost anyone. It's free, it's polished, and it doesn't ask you to compromise on anything to use it.

Telegram

Telegram is widely used and has built a reputation for being a "privacy-focused" alternative to WhatsApp. This reputation is not well-deserved, and it's worth understanding why before relying on it for anything sensitive.

Telegram does not use end-to-end encryption by default. Regular chats — including all group chats — are stored on Telegram's servers in a readable form. Telegram can read them. Only "Secret Chats", which must be manually started between two people, are end-to-end encrypted. Most people never use Secret Chats; they use regular chats without realising those aren't private.

Telegram does have genuinely useful features — massive group chats, channels for broadcasting to large audiences, extensive file sharing, and good bots. For those use cases, it's excellent. But as a private messenger, it doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

Good for:

• Following public channels and communities
• Large group chats where privacy isn't the priority
• File sharing without size restrictions

Worth knowing:

• Most chats are not end-to-end encrypted — Telegram can read them
• Secret Chats are encrypted but are an opt-in, two-person-only feature
• Has faced criticism over moderation and the reliability of its privacy claims

⚠️ If someone tells you to use Telegram because it's "more private" than WhatsApp, that's not accurate for regular use. For group chats and channels, it's not private at all.

Threema

Threema is the most privacy-respecting option in this list. It's a Swiss company, subject to strong European privacy law, and the app is designed to collect as little as possible.

It does not require a phone number to sign up — you get a random ID instead, which means you can use it completely anonymously if you choose. Messages and group chats are end-to-end encrypted by default. No metadata is retained after messages are delivered.

The downside is that it costs a small one-off fee (around €5) and has a much smaller user base than the other apps here. Getting your family and friends to switch and pay for it is a real barrier.

Good for:

• People with a genuine need for strong privacy — journalists, activists, or simply those who want maximum control over their data
• Users who want to communicate without tying their identity to a phone number

Worth knowing:

• Costs money — small, but it's a barrier to adoption
• Your contacts need to have it too, which limits its practical usefulness

Which Should You Choose?

For most people: Signal. It's free, private, polished, and has all the features of WhatsApp. The only friction is getting your contacts on it — but once they are, there's no reason to look elsewhere.

If your social circle is committed to WhatsApp: It's fine. Your messages are encrypted in transit, and for everyday conversation the trade-off is a reasonable one. Just don't treat it as a tool for sensitive communication.

If you follow communities and channels online: Telegram is useful for that specific purpose. Just don't mistake it for a private messenger.

If privacy is critical and you're happy to pay: Threema is the right answer — but it requires buy-in from your contacts.

💬 The single most impactful thing you can do is switch to Signal and invite two or three people you message most to join you. It snowballs quickly.