Apple has built its brand on the security and privacy of its billion-plus iPhone users—but there’s a catch—a blindspot, and it’s a serious one. Fortunately, there’s now something you can do, with a stunning new update that has suddenly gone live earlier than expected…
iMessage is an exceptional messaging platform—and that was the case even before Apple announced it was future-proofing its security with post-quantum cryptography. But there’s a catch. Message someone outside Apple’s walled garden, and all those advantages fall away—including PQ3.
Later this year, we will see some improvement with Apple’s reluctant adoption of RCS, upgrading those green bubbles. But that is not a full integration and there won’t be end-to-end encryption between iMessage and Google Messages anytime soon. We can also say with some certainty that Apple won’t be taking up Meta’s kind offer to push iMessages into WhatsApp third-party chats.
Ordinarily, I would recommend everyone to use WhatsApp as their daily messenger. Its user base is so vast that almost everyone has it installed. Its security is excellent—and its privacy is good enough for daily use—despite its Meta ownership. But you can go one better—and you should.
Signal—the world’s best secure messaging platform has just seriously upped the stakes on its rivals, with yesterday’s release of a superb user name feature with Version 7.0. I reported this was in beta a week ago—now it’s live earlier than expected, and the update should be available soon, if not already.
Just open your App Store app, click on the account icon, and select “Update All.” If you don’t have Signal installed, you can find it by searching for “Signal Messenger.” You will need to apply the update to Signal installs on each of your devices.
This update means you can hide your real phone number and pick a user name instead for people to find you on the app—they can’t even see your number when they message you. It remains completely hidden, unless it’s already on their phone. If you so choose, you can even stop people searching for you on Signal, so you’ll be entirely hidden except from those with whom you choose to connect.
This latest update also means you can message new contacts without giving them your number—which is likely the unique identifier across many of your accounts. The user name you select is just for adding new contacts—it doesn’t feature as your account identifier, and you can change it at anytime.
It’s hard to overstate just how significant an update this is in the world of secure messaging.
This plugs a huge gap in the messaging world—it’s one WhatsApp beta leaks suggest is in the works, but it’s not here yet and it has been in the works for some time. If you have an iPhone, then it’s likely that security and privacy are important to you, which means you should use Signal where your contacts have the app installed. It’s the very best secure messenger available.
The timing of Signal’s update is also notable given the huge SMS warning just days before, as fraudulent messages surge globally. According to ENEA, “4.8% of global messaging traffic is fraudulent… between 19.8 billion and 35.7 billion fraudulent messages were sent in 2023.”
SMS is best avoided, which is another reason to split your messaging between WhatsApp and Signal. I can’t advocate for iMessage unless and until it provides fully encrypted cross-platform messaging. It’s not at all good that in 2024, Android-iPhone texting still relies on a 1990s technology. And while RCS is a step-up, it fails to meet the level of security now becoming the default.
The one weakness with Signal is the lack of automated off-device backups, meaning that if you lose your phone, you lose your message history. The risk is mitigated to an extent by its excellent multi-device access—which is better than WhatsApp’s, with a dedicated iPad app amongst other options. But if you lose your primary device, you will have a major issue.
But now, we know that Signal also has something in the works to fix this. Cloud backups. How this will be implemented remains to be seen. But it’s now the only missing feature that sets it apart from the pack. Signal has always avoided the cloud given its acute security focus, but an optional plan that users can elect to use—or not, would seem to appeal to both the secure and mainstream camps.
Clearly, you will continue to use iMessage—it’s the only SMS client available on your iPhone. But for personal messaging—unless you associate only with other Apple users, you should go elsewhere.
In the past I have suggested iPhone users stick to WhatsApp as their daily messenger, but now I strongly recommend you default to Signal where you can—this update is that significant. Signal is an app that every iPhone user should now update—or install if it’s new to you.
