Signal Alternative ‘Threema’ Goes Open Source, Works Without Phone Number – Fossbytes

Threema is an encrypted messaging service that has competed as a Signal alternative so far. In terms of features, privacy, and security, Threema is at par with Signal messenger. However, it wasnt open source until now.

Now, the company has announced that Threema apps will become fully open source, supporting reproducible builds, in the coming months.

As of January 2020, Threema acquired more than 8 million users, including over 2 million users of the business solution Threema Work (which includes nearly 5,000 organizations). This change will definitely help in gaining the trust of several skeptical users.

By going open-source, it will be easier for anyone to review the apps security and verify its code independently.

These days we have multiple secure and private messaging apps that can be used for encrypted communication. But some messaging services store messages on the companys servers, whereas in some encrypted messaging services, the company cannot access the users data. Threema belongs to the latter category.

The best part about Threema is that it can assign the user a unique ID, so it doesnt need a phone number to work, unlike WhatsApp or Hike.

But it is not to be confused with apps like Telegram, which majorly targets the average consumer. Threema is more of a premium product that offers a variety of features like voice/text messages, groups, distribution lists, file sharing, and location sharing.

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Signal Alternative 'Threema' Goes Open Source, Works Without Phone Number - Fossbytes