privacyguides.org/_includes/sections/instant-messenger.html

<h1 id="im" class="anchor"><a href="#im"><i class="fas fa-link anchor-icon"></i></a> Encrypted Instant Messenger</h1>

<div class="alert alert-warning" role="alert">
  <strong>If you are currently using an Instant Messenger like WhatsApp, Viber, LINE, Telegram or Threema, you should pick an alternative here.</strong>
</div>

<div class="row mb-2">
  {% include card.html color="success"
  title="Mobile: Signal"
  image="/assets/img/tools/Signal.png"
  url="https://signal.org"
  footer="OS: Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux"
  description="Signal is a mobile app developed by Open Whisper Systems. The app provides instant messaging, as well as voice and video calling.
  All communications are end-to-end encrypted. Signal is free and open source, enabling anyone to verify its security by auditing the code. The development team is supported by community donations and grants. There are no advertisements,
  and it doesn't cost anything to use."
  %}


  {% include card.html color="primary"
  title="Riot.im"
  image="/assets/img/tools/riot.png"
  url="https://riot.im/"
  footer="OS: Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Web"
  labels="warning:beta:The software is currently in beta and the mobile client states 'End-to-end encryption is in beta and may not be reliable. You should not yet trust it to secure data.'"
  description='Riot.im is a decentralized free-software chatting application based on the <a href="https://matrix.org/">Matrix</a> protocol, a recent open protocol for real-time communication offering E2E encryption. It can bridge other communications via others protocols such as IRC too.'
  %}

  {% include card.html color="warning"
  title="Desktop: Ricochet"
  image="/assets/img/tools/Ricochet.png"
  url="https://ricochet.im/"
  footer="OS: Windows, macOS, Linux."
  description='Ricochet uses the <a href="#browser"><i class="fas fa-link"></i> Tor network</a> to reach your contacts without relying on messaging servers. It creates a hidden service, which is used to rendezvous with
  your contacts without revealing your location or IP address. Instead of a username, you get a unique address that looks like <em>ricochet:rs7ce36jsj24ogfw</em>. Other Ricochet users can use this address to send a contact request - asking to be
  added to your contacts list.<br>
  <span class="badge badge-danger">Danger</span> <strong>Always keep Tor up to date. See below: </strong><a href="#ricochetTor"><i class="fas fa-link"></i> Updating the Tor binary included with Ricochet</a>'
  %}

</div>

<h3>Worth Mentioning</h3>

<ul>
  <li><a href="https://retroshare.cc/">RetroShare</a> - An E2E encrypted instant messaging and voice/video call client. RetroShare supports both TOR and I2P. </li>
  <li><a href="https://www.chatsecure.org">ChatSecure</a> - ChatSecure is a free and open source messaging app that features OTR encryption over XMPP. </li>
  <li><a href="https://kontalk.org/">Kontalk</a> - A community-driven instant messaging network. Supports end-to-end encryption. Both client-to-server and server-to-server channels are fully encrypted.</li>
  <li><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations">Conversations</a> - An open source Jabber/XMPP client for Android 4.4+ smartphones. Supports end-to-end encryption with either OMEMO or openPGP. There is also <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations.legacy">Conversations Legacy</a> which still supports OTR.</li>
  <li><a href="https://get.wire.com/">Wire</a> <span class="badge badge-warning" data-toggle="tooltip" title="Wire stores metadata such as your contacts in plaintext (= not encrypted).">experimental <i class="far fa-question-circle"></i> (<a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/secure-messaging-app-wire-stores-everyone-youve-ever-contacted-in-plain-text">more info</a>)</span> - A free software End-to-End Encrypted chatting application that supports instant messaging, voice, and video calls.</li>
  <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging#Client_support">List of OTR Clients - Wikipedia</a></li>
</ul>


<h3>Related Information</h3>

<ul>
  <li><a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/read/ricochet-encrypted-messenger-tackles-metadata-problem-head-on">Ricochet, the Messenger That Beats Metadata, Passes Security Audit | Motherboard</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/14/communicating-secret-watched/">Chatting in Secret While We're All Being Watched - firstlook.org</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://signal.org/android/apk/">Advanced users with special needs can download the Signal APK directly. Most users should not do this under normal circumstances.</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://security.stackexchange.com/a/49802">Telegram encryption isn't secure.</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/comments/6r655i/telegram_isnt_safe/">Telegram is marketed as a private messenger, but it's not private by default.</a></li>
</ul>

<!-- Updating the Tor binary included with Ricochet -->
<h3 id="ricochetTor" class="anchor"><a href="#ricochetTor"><i class="fas fa-link anchor-icon"></i></a> Updating the Tor binary included with Ricochet</h3>

Currently there are no known vulnerabilities with Ricochet. The software is safe to use as long as you update the included Tor binary to the latest version.

<ol class="long-string-list">
  <li>Download the <a href="#browser"><i class="fas fa-link"></i> Tor Browser</a>.</li>
  <li>Run the Tor Browser installer or extract package for your platform. Windows (.exe), MacOSX (.dmg) and Linux (.tar.bz2).</li>
  <li>Copy the Tor binary or create a symbolic link to it: </li>
  <br>
  <ul>
      <li><strong>Windows: </strong>Copy the Tor binary included with the Tor Browser and overwrite the old one included with Ricochet.</li>
      <ul>
          <li>Tor Browser binary: <code>%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Tor\tor.exe</code></li>
          <li>Ricochet's included binary: <code>%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\Ricochet\tor.exe</code></li>
      </ul>
      <br>
      <li><strong>MacOSX: </strong>Assuming you copied the <code>Tor Browser.app</code> and <code>Ricochet.app</code> from their respective .dmg install media to <code>/Applications</code>: <br>
          Create a symbolic link to the Tor binary in Terminal. Ricochet will continue to use the up to date version of the Tor binary when you update the Tor Browser Bundle.</li>
      <ul>
          <li><code>rm ~/Applications/Ricochet.app/Contents/MacOS/tor <br>
                    ln -s ~/Applications/Tor\ Browser.app/Contents/Resources/TorBrowser/Tor/tor \ <br>
                          ~/Applications/Ricochet.app/Contents/MacOS/tor</code>
          </li>
      </ul>
      <br>
      <li><strong>Linux: </strong>Assuming you extracted the Tor Browser Bundle and Ricochet tarball to your home directory:</li>
      <ul>
          <li><code>rm ~/ricochet/tor <br>
                    ln -s ~/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/TorBrowser/Tor/tor ~/ricochet/tor</code>
          </li>
      </ul>
  <ul>
</ol>