Social
Signal - Private Messenger
Nonprofit end-to-end encrypted messenger for texts, calls and groups, with no data collection.
Get the app
Opens the official store page
- Developer
- Signal Messenger, LLC
- Score
- 4.7
- Downloads
- 1M+ ratings
- Age
- Rated 12+
- Version
- 8.35.1
- Price
- Free
Screenshots
About this app
End-to-end encrypted messaging run by a nonprofit. Signal encrypts texts, calls and attachments so that nobody between the two phones, Signal itself included, can read or hear them. It's for anyone who wants private conversations without trusting a company's promise to behave. Messages, voice notes, photos, videos, GIFs and files travel over the data connection, so there are no SMS or MMS charges. Voice and video calls are encrypted too, with group calls for up to 50 people. Group chats scale to 1,000 members with admin controls over posting and membership. Stories (images, text or video) vanish after 24 hours and have their own audience controls. The Signal Protocol is open source, and the full app code is published. Signal Messenger is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by donations rather than advertising or investors, which is why there's no data collection to speak of.
Signal - Private Messenger: the full guide
What the app is
Signal is the messenger security researchers tend to recommend, and the reason is structural rather than a marketing claim. Every text, call and attachment is end-to-end encrypted, so nobody in between the two devices can read or hear it, Signal included. The protocol and the app code are open source, so the claims can be checked.
Photos, video, voice notes and files go over the data connection rather than SMS. Encrypted calls support groups of up to 50, text groups can reach 1,000 members with admins deciding who posts, and Stories vanish after 24 hours. A donation-funded nonprofit runs it, hence no ads and next to no data collection.
How it works day to day
Once contacts are in, the app behaves like any modern messenger, and that ordinariness is deliberate. Family chat in the morning, a photo sent at lunch, a voice note on the walk home, a video call in the evening, all encrypted without any setting to toggle. Larger groups, a club or a workplace, use the admin controls to decide who can post. Stories offer a lighter channel for photos that don't need to persist. The only visible difference from mainstream apps is what's absent: no ads, no suggested content and no data-driven nudges.
Why people look for it
Searches spike whenever a mainstream messenger changes its privacy policy or a news story reminds people how much their chats reveal. Journalists, activists and lawyers have long used it; increasingly ordinary users arrive after a friend asks them to move a conversation there. The nonprofit structure matters to people who don't trust promises from ad-funded companies.
Look and feel
Five screenshots are listed, and a messenger of this kind will show a conversation list, an open chat with media, a group or call screen and perhaps Stories. The description points to a conventional messaging layout with the usual bubbles and attachments. The listing doesn't describe themes or customisation, though the emphasis on function over flourish suggests a plain, legible design.
Updates and upkeep
Version 8.35.1 indicates a long-running project with frequent minor releases. Signal Messenger, LLC operates under a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so maintenance depends on donations rather than revenue, a model that has sustained it so far. The 4.7 rating comes from more than a million reviews, the biggest sample in this batch alongside Priceline. Only an App Store link appears here.
