oblivate Review

Makeusof.com released their own security app called oblivate, available on Android and iOS. Their announcement article was the typical propaganda saying the app has these features:

• Message delete timers (“self-destructing”)
• No screenshots (Android only)
• No chat history
• Free and no ads

But for a company to say an app is secure, as they are, the app should have at a minimum:

• Encryption
• Open-source or 3rd party auditing

And they do not. (They do not even have picture support!)

Coming soon, obliviate hopes to add encryption, support for audio, pictures, and videos, custom notification sounds, and more! We hope you enjoy the app.

Overview of All Secure Messaging Apps

This is a problem amongst the secure messaging app space, they all have security tradeoffs:

• iOS stores your private keys in their servers.
• Telegram uses its own encryption algorithm.
• Wickr and this app are not open source.

Or usability tradeoffs:

• Signal (Open Whisper System) is confusing to set up and limited users to talk to.

The best compromise out there is Whatsapp. It uses the best open source end-to-end framework, done by Open Whisper System. With end to end encryption, a government cannot force Whatsapp to give up your messages because Whatsapp cannot even see them! The one known security tradeoff is actually a feature – you can recover messages when you switch phones. This could be used by a government to get some of your recent messages. With that security flaw in mind, Whatsapp has a huge user base so you can talk to mostly anyone and the app is easy to use.

I suggest Whatsapp for normal, daily, secure messaging use.