Text Messaging Android App WhatsApp starts End-to-End Encryption

WhatsApp, the most widely used messaging app, that Facebook acquired for $19 billion earlier in the year, has teamed up with Open Whisper Systems to offer end-to-end encryption on messages sent through the app.

With the encryption, messages exchanged between users will be encrypted by default with a password so that only the senders and the receivers will be able to read them.

The company said that it has been working with WhatsApp for the previous half year to incorporate the TextSecure protocol into the app.

The TextSecure protocol is a strong, open source encryption protocol that the company has been developing for the past three years. It works by scrambling the messages using a cryptographic key that only the user is able to access. Since the key permanently stays within the user's device, the encrypted messages are practically uncrackable externally.

The protocol also uses a feature called "forward secrecy," which creates new encryption keys for every message sent. This means that even if a hacker would be able to access a user's encryption key, only the message that used that key will be compromised. All the other messages are still safe.

Open Whisper Systems, which developed the encryption software, announced that messages of users of Android devices with the latest version of WhatsApp are already being encrypted and that the process will gradually be applied to other platforms.

Only user-to-user messages for the Android version are encrypted for now, with support for group chats and media messages containing pictures and videos to be rolled out soon.

End-to-end encryption will deliver complete privacy to WhatsApp users, as the system will mean that WhatsApp will not be able to hand over information contained within WhatsApp messages even if law enforcers request for it.