Encrypted Messaging App Signal Coming To Google Chrome, Will Sync With Android

Signal, the encrypted open-source messaging app, is now set make its way to desktops and will run via the Google Chrome browser. If you are deciding to join the beta now, you would be standing behind a queue formed by almost ten thousand members that are waiting to try the desktop beta version. Messenger, or Apple iMessage, Signal will sync all conversations across devices, including text, images, and video.

The app, first appeared on Android and later expanding to iOS, has been endorsed by the biggest privacy groups around, including by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), which also lauded the fact that it open-sourced its code, submitting it to public review.

Signal Desktop is Chrome app that will sync messages transmitted between it and an Android device, wrote Moxie Marlinspike, a cryptography expert who had helped develop Signal, in a blog post on Wednesday.

When he was asked which is a good app to use as far as encryption is concerned he suggested Redphone/TextSecure for Android and Signal for iOS. Open Whisper Systems can’t even get access to the content shared between users since the platform never stores encryption keys.

Marlinspike has also divulged that while Signal Desktop does not offer voice support, the developer intends to bring file sharing and voice calling support in the long term. The hope in making the source code for these apps open, is that it will act as a sort of security protocol for anyone developing a communication tool. There has been growing concern that software vendors may have been pressured into adding capabilities in their products that would assist government surveillance programs.