How to encrypt communications to have secure Android calls and text messaging

Image courtesy of Steve Crane at Flickr.com

In the digital age, maintaining your privacy seems to be a never ending battle sometimes. All kinds of companies and organizations have access to your personal data and information, and a few of them can spy on almost all methods of modern communication. 

In an effort to fight this trend, Open Whisper Systems has been at the forefront of encrypted mobile communications for quite some time. Their apps TextSecure and RedPhone, originally an exclusive feature in the CyanogenMod ROM, have brought secure and fully encrypted calls and text messages to smartphone users from all over the world.

With the aim of consolidating both options, Open Whisper Systems combined those two applications for secure communications into a single one, Signal. As a result, your calls and text messages can now take place away from prying eyes by installing a simple application, so we’ll take a look at how to achieve this:

1. Install the Signal app

All of TextSecure and RedPhone’s functionalities have been grouped into a single, open sourced application, called Signal. In order to start having encrypted communications that no one can eavesdrop, open the following link from your Android device to install the application:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcrime.securesms

The installation of Signal can be performed, free of charge, from the Google Play Store. If you were previously a user of TextSecure or RedPhone, you'll notice that Signal will be installed as an upgrade to your existing TextSecure application. Basically, the only difference is that Signal provides all of the functionalities of RedPhone plus encrypted SMS, so, if you wish, you can uninstall the RedPhone app once you’re done. Signal is also available on iOS, so your friends and family members who own an iPhone can also use the app on their devices.

2. Activate Signal and import messages

Once you’ve installed Signal for the first time, you will be prompted to register the device. Make sure the phone number is correct, then tap the “Register” button and click “Continue”. From here, an encrypted text message will be sent to your device to automatically complete the registration process. Once you have registered, you will be prompted to set Signal as your default SMS app. Tap the banner at the top of the screen to do this, then press “Yes” in the pop-up. From here, you’ll see a second banner that lets you import existing SMS messages, so touch it if you’d like to have all of your text messages brought to Signal.

3. Invite your friends to join

At this point, app itself is all set, but before you start making calls and sending text messages, you should familiarize yourself with how the system works. Signal can only fully encrypt calls and text messages if both parties in a conversation are using the app. Otherwise, all communications will be carried out via standard connections. To start a secure conversation, press the action button in the lower right corner, then select a contact from the list. If the user you selected doesn’t have the app installed, you’ll be notified and will have the chance to invite him or her to do so. The other party will receive a link to download the Signal app for iOS or Android.

4. Make encrypted calls and send encrypted text messages

Image courtesy of Mister G.C at Flickr.com

Once you have made sure that the other party has installed the Signal app on their device, the text box on the bottom of the screen will say “Send Signal message”. This means that the messages you send to this person will be encrypted end to end, so there is no way for anyone to spy on the conversation. If you wish to make an encrypted call, just find the phone icon at the top of the chat window and make sure it has a small padlock icon superimposed on top of it. If so, simply press the button and the call interface should appear, and the banner at the top of the screen will read “Signal call”, which means that the conversation will be fully encrypted. The little padlock icon may not be displayed on top of the call button on all devices. In some cases, even when both parties have the application installed, the call button might have the lock icon missing and the system’s stock dialer interface is launched instead of Signal’s calling interface. So apparently there are still some rough edges in the app, but these issues should be resolved soon.

Do you feel more comfortable knowing that all of your Android communications can now be encrypted? Hopefully this app will continue to grow, in order to restore people’s peace of mind when it comes to regaining their privacy and the right to protect their personal information and conversations.