(Note: I do not recommend Whatsapp any more. I now recommend Signal.)
Long-time readers of this listserv will recall my suggestion that the smart way to do messaging is not through cell service text messaging and is not through most of the available messaging apps. As I wrote in this blog article, in my view by far the best choice is Whatsapp. Whatsapp is encrypted from end to end. Whatsapp gets through any firewall, no matter where you are in the world, and nobody can eavesdrop on the messages. You can use it for messaging but you can also use it to send attachments, including large files, again safe against eavesdropping. No other messaging app or service is quite this safe against eavesdropping.
Just now I have added a Whatsapp plugin to this blog. If you are viewing this blog article on a smart phone or tablet, you should be able to see a Whatsapp button (like the icon at right) below this posting.
Here’s the fun part. The first three readers who successfully share this very article with me using the Whatsapp share button below (visible only if you are using a smart phone or tablet) will win a prize, namely a spiffy OPLF digital voltmeter.
To do this, you will need to install the Whatsapp app onto your smart phone or tablet (if you have not done so already) and then you will need to add me to your Whatsapp contacts list (if you have not done so already). Then you will need to view this blog article on your smart phone or tablet, and scroll down to the Whatsapp share button, and click on it.
Although I also use WhatsApp by default, that’s at least partly because I only know one person who doesn’t use it, and that person is not my 92 year-old grandmother. The person who doesn’t use it quit it out of privacy concerns when it was acquired by Facebook, and lauds Telegram as a more secure alternative. I don’t know enough to have an opinion on the security of these apps, but I expect that Telegram is at least as secure as WhatsApp. I’d say that the primary reason to use WhatsApp is that you don’t have to wonder if the recipient uses it (and it’s at least reasonably secure). Other reasons that I prefer WhatsApp over SMS: (1) Moving to a new phone without losing your message history is effortless. (2) There is a web interface – so easy typing of messages when you’re at your PC.