Many of you may have heard of Signal, an open-source encrypted messaging app long touted by privacy—and security-conscious individuals. Signal is the preferred choice of journalists, politicians, refugees, and anyone who feels their privacy is at risk (among other reasons). While it may have seemed excessive to use Signal as a “regular” person with no known threats against them, times have changed.
Today, I want to make a strong case for why you should ditch those unencrypted SMS texts and even those cross-platform iPhone-to-Android messages and embrace Signal for all your encrypted chat communication.
Signal provides encrypted calls and chat
Signal is a free, open-source messaging app that prioritizes your privacy and security. Here’s why it’s a game-changer:
- End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): This is the core of Signal’s security. E2EE means that your messages are encrypted on your device and can only be decrypted by the recipient’s device. Not even Signal’s servers can read your messages. This is a huge leap forward from the vulnerabilities of SMS.
- Open-Source and Audited: Signal’s code is publicly available for anyone to review. This transparency allows security experts to identify and fix any potential vulnerabilities, ensuring the app remains secure.
- No Data Harvesting: Unlike many other messaging apps, Signal doesn’t collect or sell your data. It doesn’t track your usage or build profiles on you. Your privacy is its priority.
- Beyond Text: Signal isn’t just for text messages. You can also make encrypted voice and video calls, share files, and create secure group chats.
- User-Friendly: Despite its robust security features, Signal is incredibly easy to use. Its clean and intuitive interface is easy for anyone to grasp. You’d be surprised how many non-technical people use Signal today, and that’s a testament to its user-friendliness.
- Disappearing Messages: You can set messages to automatically disappear after a certain period, adding another layer of privacy.
- Free and Ad-Free: Signal is free to use and doesn’t bombard you with annoying ads. It also doesn’t harvest your data, sell it to data brokers, or repurpose it internally for revenue generation.
Another great feature of Signal is the ability to send yourself encrypted messages and voice messages with Note to Self. This is a game-changer for those who need to save important notes for future reference–whether it’s your shopping list or something much more sensitive.
Reason #1: Data Brokers use Ad Tech to sell your data
Data brokers are collecting and selling our data globally, harvesting our geolocation and app usage, and understanding what and how we use our smartphones in a market called “ad tech.” We’re constantly sharing information online, and while convenience is king, we often sacrifice security and privacy.
As an ordinary citizen and smartphone user, you may think you have “nothing to hide” or are “careful with what apps you download and use.” Unfortunately, that’s not enough. You may be surprised to learn that thousands of apps harvest and sell your data for profit to data brokers. Advertising and media firms then pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to be able to access and use the datasets to precisely target users for many reasons: sell products or services, influence political action (e.g., vote or participate in an event aligned to your political ideology), or other possible nefarious uses.
These apps include:
- Tinder
- Candy Crush
- Duolingo
- Angry Birds (and any subsequent versions)
- Life360
- LA Metro and Bus
- MyFitnessPal
- Yahoo Mail
- Yahoo Weather
- Yahoo Finance
- Zynga Farmville 3
Using Tinder as an example, thousands of users of the app in the United Kingdom have their data regularly sold to the data broker firm Gravy Analytics, which was just breached. Visualizing Tinder users across a map of the UK is startling:
Cybersecurity researcher Baptiste Robert went through some of the Gravy Analytics data breach dataset leaked by Russian hackers. It includes millions of geolocation points across the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
Why should you use Signal to protect against data brokers?
You might wonder how apps selling or using your data have anything to do with Signal.
If you allow an app to access your messages, contacts, or phone call history, you’re enabling them to create a digital twin of your phone and text communications.
Suppose you regularly shop on Amazon.com and book travel through the same agency. Suppose that data is also sold to a data broker. In this example, data points of your pattern of life and behavior become significantly more apparent to whoever is trying to understand who you are and what you do online and with smartphones.
Using Signal for encrypted calls and chats will prevent any of these apps from understanding your call or text use. It also removes the chance of your telecom providers, such as Verizon or AT&T, to provide or sell this data–to anyone–because they can’t access or “see” what you do on Signal. You’re now taking action to mitigate and reduce your digital footprint–and exposure to potential data-siphoning apps that ultimately feed a data broker.
Reason #2: Salt Typhoon and U.S. Telecom Hacks
There is also, more importantly, the massive breach of all major United States telecom providers by the Chinese government and PRC-sponsored hacking groups such as Salt Typhoon.
That means that our unencrypted cell phone calls and texts can be potentially intercepted and read by China and used for whatever purpose they deem necessary.
Think of it this way: sending an unencrypted text is like shouting your message across a crowded room. Anyone with the right tools can listen in. Signal, on the other hand, is like having a private conversation in a soundproof booth. Only you and the intended recipient can hear what’s being said.
Reason #3: SMS and cross-platform texts are unsafe and outdated
Your smartphone may be secure, but that doesn’t mean that the data you transmit and exchange to other users is. Indeed, SMS text messaging is an outdated, insecure method of communication.
As of today, if you use iMessage and message someone on an Android phone, the message won’t be encrypted even if the Android phone is using RCS. This will soon change, but using an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform like Signal is still preferable.
So why is SMS still used in 2025?
SMS has persisted for decades because it is universally supported across telecoms and phone operating systems. Until recent years, with growing consumer privacy concerns, encrypted messaging was never a priority, either.
Using SMS, your messages travel across networks in plain text, making them vulnerable to interception by hackers, governments, and even your mobile carrier.
Metadata (who you’re talking to, when, and where) from SMS can also be valuable in the wrong hands. Even if the content of your message isn’t intercepted, the metadata can still be collected and analyzed. This can reveal a lot about your life and relationships.
Use Signal today. Assume your insecure messages are publicly accessible
Privacy in 2025 is increasingly difficult to obtain in an ever-connected world. We are creating an infinite amount of data that corporations and organizations use daily for their own purposes.
You should assume that your insecure messages through any platform or even your telecom provider (especially if you are in a nation or territory with authoritarian infrastructure control) are accessible. If your insecure messages appeared on the front page of the New York Times, would you be embarrassed? Almost all of us would say yes. So why leave it to chance?
Thankfully, we have a choice and a better option.
End-to-end encrypted messages and video are rare forms of communication that can still provide privacy today. Whether you use Signal or a competing encrypted messaging platform, I highly encourage you to choose one and use it now.
It’s a small change that can make a big difference in safeguarding your digital life.
What are your thoughts? Have you made the switch to Signal? Let me know in the comments below!
Disclaimer: The author of this article is a current employee of Google. This article does not represent the views or opinions of his employer and is not meant to be an official statement for Google, Google Cloud, or the Alphabet holding company.
