Bitmessage

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Wickr

Element is an All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations that allow you to own your conversations. With Element you can keep conversations in your control, safe from data-mining and ads. Element utilize the open and global Matrix network for message relay, protected by proven end-to-end encryption.

Matrix.org is an open network for secure, decentralized communication. It gives you a simple HTTP APIs and SDKs (iOS, Android, Web) to create chatrooms, direct chats and chat bots, complete with end-to-end encryption, file transfer, synchronised conversation history, formatted messages, read receipts and more. All conversations on Matrix are replicated over all the servers participating in them, meaning there are no single point of control or failure.

Signal is a cross-platform encrypted messaging application that has a strong focus on privacy. The application is developed by Signal Messenger LLC and provides users with features like one-to-one and group messages, which can include files, voice notes, images and videos. The software is famous for being used by the whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden who once said "I use Signal every day, it is the most scalable encryption tool we have".

WeChat connects a billion people with voice calls, video calls, photo sharing, chats and payments. The multi-purpose application is developed by the Chinese company Tencent and is and in China, it is described as "the app for everything". WeChat is primarily developed for the mobile consumer, but is also avalible on desktop and in the browser.

Facebook Messenger is a free standalone chat application that is well integrated with the social network, Facebook. With Facebook Messenger you can stay in contact with friends and family, and other contacts from Facebook. The applicaiton has a ton of built-in features that make communication fun and engaging. Send images, gifs, video messages, voice notes, and stickers or share content from around the web. Facebook Messenger automatically syncs with your Facebook contacts without the need of adding phone numbers or identification manually.

A mobile group messaging app developed and owned by Microsoft. GroupMe was first launched in 2010, today the application has over 12 million registered users that engage in group communication. The application makes it easy to stay in touch with those who really matter to you, and to do so in groups.