Wickr
Wickr is a free end-to-end encrypted text, video, picture and voice messenger with full sender control.
What is Wickr?
Wickr is a free end-to-end encrypted text, video, picture and voice messenger with full sender control.
Shredder – Irreversibly remove all deleted messages, images, and video content from your device
Configurable Timer – Set the expiration time on all your messaging content
No Metadata – Wickr removes all records, geotags and identifying information from your messages and media
No Ads – Ever
Secure – Send and receive secure messages, documents, pictures, videos and audio files
Connect Safely – Your address book will always remain private and will never be stored on our servers
Anonymous – Your Wickr ID is anonymous to us and anyone outside your Wickr network Your conversations can not be tracked, intercepted or monitored.
Groups – Communicate with groups of up to 10 contacts
Fun – Add stickers, graffiti and photo filters
Wickr will not accept user registrations for Wickr Me after December 31, 2022, and will discontinue Wickr Me on December 31, 2023.
Wickr Screenshots
Wickr Features
Wickr information
- Developed byWickr Inc
- LicensingProprietary and Freemium product.
- PricingSubscription that costs between $0 and $25.
- Written in
- RatingAverage rating of 3.7
- Alternatives84 alternatives listed
Supported Languages
- English
- French
- German
- Hindi
- Russian
- Spanish
Apple AppStore
- Updated
- 4.75 avg rating
GitHub repository
- 351 Stars
- 91 Forks
- 1 Open Issues
- Updated
Comments and Reviews
Tags
- Encryption
- Anonymity
- Chat Clients
- Smartphone Messaging
Although Wickr is not fully open sourced, like Signal or Wire, it does make end-to-end encrypted, zero-knowledge, ephemeral message a priority. It also has the backing of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (one of the few good guys fighting for your rights online) for Wickr's adoption of industry best practices.
The basic idea is that the developers/owners of the app you are using should not be able to a) read your messages, b) give them to authorities, c) have them in a readable format that hackers could get at if they breached the servers. The way to ensure this is to use end-to-end encryption and, potentially, to have a policy of deleting messages after some time. This is the approach Wickr implements and does it well.
Switch to Wickr, Signal, Wire or Peerio or Threema if you use Facebook Messenger, Google Allo, Yahoo Messenger, Slack or any of the other privacy disrespecting/disregarding services.
Hi, John, I like your reviews. Are you a security pro? It sounds like it. I tried Peerio and I was just told they are closing down. Do you know a good group chat app that uses end-to-end encryption, is user-friendly, has mobile and desktop apps and potentially does threaded response feature?
I use Wire for one-on-one communication but for a group, it's really messy, as you can't respond to a response. It's all in the same hierarchy so who knows who is responding to what. Even with one-on-one, we are lost sometimes.
I will check Wickr and Threema as per your recommendation, but if you have anything more please let me know. I have an active YouTube community that I want to find a free speech safe haven for.
Reply written ago
Very well written, John. Unfortunately this information is out of date. Wickr was purchased by AWS (aka Amazon Web Services) in 2021, and it's been funded very well by our Intelligence agency. If Amazon owns it, the CIA and the guy that started Blackwater fund it, and the NSA loves it, I'm noping out of it. I am aware that any one of those things or all of them may or may not be a concern when it comes to how the average end-user is affected; the CIA funding something doesn't inherently make it evil. I get that. But those four things are big red flags that people should be aware of. Also, the service that was very cool, Wickr.me has been killed as new users are not able to register and product support ends for good 12/31/23. Sad to see it go. But my advice is wipe away and kick it off of your device.
Reply written ago
the encryption is a nice feature
Not open source. After Wickr has been bought by Amazon it's not safe to use this messenger
officially bad.
Reply written ago