Still worried about privacy on WhatsApp? Here're five trustworthy alternatives

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform in the world as far as number of users using it is concerned. Not many can complain about its security features either but still the recent controversy surrounding its parent company Facebook and its plans to dominate the internet have people worried. Facebook has recently been plagued with data leaks, it has been accused for its failure to clamp down on fake news, censorship and much more. WhatsApp has also become a source of fake news, abuse and antisocial hatred.

If you are uncomfortable with WhatsApp's association with Facebook and it feeding more and more data to the social giant then here're some of your alternatives.

Telegram: If privacy is your biggest concern with WhatsApp then Telegram is the most secure chat app on the Play Store with its 256-bit symmetric AES and 2048-bit RSA encryption. Telegram has features like Secret Chat that provides end-to-end-encryption but also allows messages to self-destruct after a set amount of time. They are a non-profit and have no reason to collect your private information.

Signal: Another privacy chat app like Telegram, Signal encrypts all calls and messages made through the app. Its servers do not store any data and have no access to any form of your communication. The end-to-end encryption employed by Signal is lot more secure than the one used by WhatsApp. It is open source and is constantly updated with new security features.

iMessage: This messaging app is only available to the users of Apple iPhones. iMessage is considered the most secure messaging platform and even Apple can't read the messages. Apple allows users to install other chat applications but iMessage remains the most popular and secure chat app for iPhone users.

Viber: Viber is popular messaging app in South-East Asia and has end to end encryption set as the default mode for all messages. It allows the users to set the self-destruct times on messages so that they can be deleted after a certain period of time. There is also a "Hidden Chats" section that can only be accessed with a PIN code.

India's own chat app: India is thinking of building its own chat app to cut down on its reliance on foreign companies. The app is still in ideation stage but is going to be an important step towards self-reliance. Recently, Indian government was denied a backdoor entry into WhatsApp causing it to ponder over the need to have home-grown chat apps.

Edited By: Udit Verma

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