Messenger privacy ratings
Chat and calling apps, including peer-to-peer ones.
27 messengers are rated against 8 public criteria, and 27 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 17 with a known jurisdiction, 10 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 12 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.
Open-source messengers only · Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown
| Name | Grade | Score | Data | Jurisdiction | Open source | No trackers or telemetry | No ads or data sales | Independent audit | End-to-end encrypted by default | No phone number needed | Metadata protection | Decentralized |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Peer-to-peer encrypted messenger for Android and desktop that syncs over Tor, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Messages, forums and blogs are stored only on users' devices. |
Grade A | 94 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Desktop instant messenger that runs each user as a Tor onion service and connects contacts peer to peer, hiding identity, IP address and metadata. Maintained by Blueprint for Free Speech. |
Grade A | 94 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
End-to-end encrypted messenger that uses a random Account ID instead of a phone number and sends messages through onion routing over a decentralized network of community-operated nodes. Stewarded by the Session Technology Foundation in Switzerland. |
Grade A | 94 | 100% | Switzerland Outside Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
End-to-end encrypted messenger that has no user identifiers of any kind, not even random ones. Messages pass through relay servers that anyone can run. |
Grade A | 94 | 100% | United Kingdom Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Peer-to-peer, end-to-end encrypted messenger built on IPFS by the French non-profit Berty Technologies. It needs no phone number or email and can exchange messages offline over Bluetooth and local networks. |
Grade B | 89 | 100% | France Nine Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Decentralized, metadata-resistant messenger from the non-profit Open Privacy Research Society. Contacts talk peer to peer over Tor onion services, and optional group chats use untrusted servers that anyone can run. |
Grade B | 89 | 100% | Canada Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Peer-to-peer team chat, similar to Slack, that runs without servers: community members' devices sync messages directly over Tor. The developers warn it is not yet audited. |
Grade B | 89 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
XMPP (Jabber) client for Android that works with any standard XMPP server, with OMEMO end-to-end encryption on by default for one-to-one and private group chats. |
Grade B | 83 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Paid end-to-end encrypted messenger from Switzerland that works with a random Threema ID instead of a phone number. The apps are open source; the server is proprietary. |
Grade B | 83 | 100% | Switzerland Outside Eyes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial |
Peer-to-peer encrypted messaging protocol with no central servers, and qTox, its desktop client for chat, voice, video and file transfer. qTox is now maintained by the TokTok project after the original repository was archived. |
Grade B | 83 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes |
End-to-end encrypted messenger from France that needs no phone number, email or other personal data; contacts are added by exchanging keys. Certified under the French ANSSI CSPN scheme. |
Grade B | 81 | 100% | France Nine Eyes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Desktop XMPP (Jabber) client for Linux built with GTK, with group chats, file transfers, and voice and video calls. OMEMO end-to-end encryption is on by default for one-to-one and private group chats. |
Grade B | 78 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Independent fork of the Signal Android app that connects to the Signal network and adds database encryption with a passphrase, UnifiedPush notifications and a Molly-FOSS build without proprietary Google components. |
Grade B | 78 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | Yes | No |
Open standard for public-key encryption and signing of messages and files, defined in RFC 9580. It adds end-to-end encryption to existing channels such as email, through implementations like GnuPG. |
Grade B | 78 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Partial | Yes | No | Yes |
End-to-end encrypted messenger for text, voice and video calls, and groups, built on the Signal Protocol. Run by the non-profit Signal Foundation. |
Grade B | 78 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | Yes | No |
XMPP, also known as Jabber, is an open standard for federated instant messaging maintained by the XMPP Standards Foundation, with many independent clients and servers. |
Grade B | 78 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Partial | Yes | No | Yes |
Peer-to-peer encrypted messenger from the GNU project for text, audio and video calls, screen sharing and conferences, with apps for desktop and mobile. |
Grade B | 75 | 100% | Canada Five Eyes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes |
Desktop XMPP (Jabber) client for Linux, Windows and macOS that works with any standard XMPP server, with group chats, file transfer and optional OMEMO or OpenPGP end-to-end encryption. |
Grade C | 69 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partial | Yes | No | Yes |
End-to-end encrypted chat, group chat and file sharing tied to public-key identity proofs. Owned by Zoom since its acquisition, with little ongoing development. |
Grade C | 61 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Partial | Partial | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | No | No |
End-to-end encrypted messenger and team collaboration app from Switzerland, with chats, calls and file sharing using Proteus and MLS. Accounts use an email address, and organizations can self-host federated backends. |
Grade C | 61 | 100% | Switzerland Outside Eyes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Open standard and federated network for real-time chat and calls, with end-to-end encryption through the Olm and Megolm protocols. Anyone can run a homeserver, and many clients such as Element support it. |
Grade D | 58 | 100% | United Kingdom Five Eyes | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes | No | Yes |
Cloud-based messenger with large groups, public channels and bots. Regular chats and groups are stored on Telegram's servers with client-server encryption; only optional one-to-one secret chats are end-to-end encrypted. |
Grade D | 44 | 100% | United Arab Emirates Outside Eyes | Partial | Yes | Partial | No | Partial | Partial | No | No |
Apple's end-to-end encrypted messaging service built into the Messages app on iPhone, iPad, Mac and other Apple devices, addressed by phone number or Apple Account email. |
Grade D | 42 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | Partial | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | No | No |
Messenger owned by Rakuten for chats, groups, voice and video calls, communities and channels, tied to a phone number. Private chats, groups and calls are end-to-end encrypted; the app is funded by ads. |
Grade F | 22 | 100% | Luxembourg Outside Eyes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Partial | No | No |
Messenger owned by Meta for text, voice and video calls, groups and channels, tied to a phone number. Personal chats and calls use the Signal Protocol for end-to-end encryption. |
Grade F | 22 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | No | Partial | Yes | No | No | No |
Meta's messaging app for Facebook accounts, with chats, groups, voice and video calls. Personal chats and calls are end-to-end encrypted by default. |
Grade F | 19 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | No | No | Partial | Yes | No | No |
Google's default SMS, MMS and RCS messaging app for Android, with a paired web client. RCS chats between Google Messages users are end-to-end encrypted automatically; SMS and MMS are not. |
Grade F | 17 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | Partial | No | No | Partial | No | No | No |
Questions
What is the most private option among messengers?
No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.
How are messengers rated?
Each entry answers 8 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, end-to-end encrypted by default, no phone number needed, metadata protection and decentralized. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.
Does jurisdiction matter?
Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.