The free messaging app Signal is a good choice. It’s considered to be one of the most trusted secure messaging apps by cybersecurity experts. If you’ve never used Signal before, the Electronic Frontier foundation has a guide, and The Intercept published tips for using the app in the most secure way possible.
Signal requires using your phone number rather than a screenname, but if you’d rather not give your real phone number to your sexting partner, there are workarounds available that will allow you to use a dummy phone number.
You can turn this feature off, but it’s not good to choose an app for sexting that you and your partner need to adjust to work most securely
Signal also has a disappearing messages feature, which lets you set messages to self-destruct after a period of time of your choosing. To use it, open a chat and tap the recipient’s name, then toggle Disappearing Messages on. One word of caution: Deleting messages on your mobile phone will not automatically delete them on the desktop version of the app.
WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, is also end-to-end encrypted by default, unlike https://hookupdate.net/escort-index/fullerton/ Facebook Messenger. But I don’t recommend it for sexting, because you need to take extra steps to protect yourself when using it to sext.
When your partner sends you a photo on WhatsApp, for example, it is automatically saved to your camera roll on both iOS and Android. It’s easy to turn this feature off on iOS, but the process is more complicated on Android-making WhatsApp a poor choice.
iMessage is also end-to-end encrypted, but it backs up messages to iCloud by default, which is why you can iMessage from all your devices. iMessage also does not have a disappearing messages feature.
No matter what app you use, it’s never going to be 100 percent possible to prevent someone from taking a screenshot or recording of the photo or video you’ve sent, thereby creating a second copy of it.
With that said, there are a number of apps designed to deter against screenshotting and taking photos of sexts using additional devices
Abusers can take screenshots on their device, even if they risk notifying the sender that they have done so. They also always have the option to use another phone or camera to take a picture of the sexts they receive. Lastly, there no guarantee that a partner is alone when they’re viewing sexts-they can always be in the presence of other people.
The problem with many of them is that they have not been updated to account for a new feature of iOS 11: screen recording. As part of its latest software update in late 2017, Apple made it possible for iPhones and iPads to record everything happening on the screen. Most apps designed to deter against screenshotting have not yet been updated to take this into account.
Snapchat is the only disappearing messages app we tested that notifies users when someone has recorded their messages using iOS 11’s built-in screen recording. Instagram’s disappearing messages feature notifies you that someone took a screenshot, but it does not yet differentiate between screen recording and screenshots.
Both Snapchat and Instagram should still be used cautiously for sexting, because they’re apps where many people already talk to their friends-increasing the odds of accidentally sending a sext to the wrong person. With that said, these are solid options if you are primarily concerned about screenshotting and screen recording.
Privates!, is another app that has a number of screenshot deterrents and security measures you can choose from. Users can set messages to disappear, require recipients to tap two circles on the screen simultaneously to view them, or make them hold the phone very still. You can also recall a message before it’s been viewed by its recipient. The app’s security features are customizable and you can change them on a per-message basis. Privates! is free and available only on iOS.
