Encrypted Chat App 'Cryptocat' Launches on iOS

Open source web and Mac application Cryptocat is now available on iOS. Designed to allow secure online chatting, the app encrypts chat messages to allow users to have single and group conversations that are secure and unable to be intercepted or monitored.

Everyone's favourite privacy-loving cat is now on iPhone! Get an encrypted cat in your pocket, have private chats with friends any time.

Easily have group conversations with your friends without fearing monitoring or interception. Cryptocat is free, open chat that aims to provide an open, accessible Instant Messaging environment with a transparent layer of encryption that's easy to use.

Unlike other secure chat apps, including Confide, Cryptocat does not require usernames, email addresses, or accounts to use, with users entering a one-time nickname to chat. There are also no buddy lists or account history, making conversations ephemeral.

According to the developers, Cryptocat is a native iPhone application that uses iOS APIs rather than web cryptography, but it is designed to work seamlessly with other Cryptocat clients. Along with an iOS app, Cryptocat is also available for the Mac and as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Cryptocat was originally announced for iOS in December, but the app was initially rejected by Apple, a decision that has since been reversed. According to the app's developer, who spoke to The Verge, the issues with Apple have been resolved.

"There was some very important help given by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and we ended up scheduling a conversation with Apple, and after a while Apple was very gracious and understanding,” he said. "I couldn't be happier with Apple right now."

Cryptocat can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

subsonix

65 months ago

iMessage is vulnerable to man in the middle. Just google iMessage and nsa.

BS, just google anything and you'll find support for it.

Rating: 7 Votes

BillyBobBongo

65 months ago

Your discussion with 'The Wife' about what's for dinner isn't of national importance. Just use iMessage. :cool:

Rating: 4 Votes

CoreForce

65 months ago

They don't offer a public encryption validation service like Threema does, do they?

Rating: 3 Votes

subsonix

65 months ago

iMessage is not true end to end encryption, and this is not a "someone said" it's a big world wide news story taken up by the biggest computer news networks.

You are mixing up a lot of different things here. An SSL bug reported about last week, NSA's alleged dragnet and man-in-the-middle attacks.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/27/apple-explains-exactly-how-secure-imessage-really-is/?utm_campaign=fb&ncid=fb

Rating: 2 Votes

2457282

65 months ago

I'm content with iMessage. Don't see the need for another app. I understand that if you are talking to someone not an iPhone you may want an app that is more secure than SMS, but I just try not to message anyone that fails to have an iPhone. :D

Rating: 1 Votes

msandersen

65 months ago

I can see how the extremely paranoid, or those on the shadier side of the law, would go for this. Anything by a big corporation is already suspect in their eyes, even a service like BBM.
To be fair, the NSA and various other 3-letter agencies are doing their best to thwart privacy and secrecy "in the national interest", forcing US companies like Skype/Microsoft to put in backdoors. And being a non-US citizen, even the supposed safeguards against spying on US citizens which they obviously haven't been adhering to, is not an issue for them. They believe in "big data", scouring up as much data as possible, regardless of how relevant at the time, "just in case".
But for most of us, in the West at least, it is not a concern, esp as iMessage's end-to-end encryption is good enough, whether or not the NSA has a backdoor, which really comes down to whether you trust Apple's commitment to our privacy and assurances even they can't read them (whether or not it is "theoretically" possible as has been shown) and their strong assurance the government would have to cart away their servers to get at it. But on the whole, we mainly care about cyber criminals stealing our personal details, and to that end, iMessage is all we need or want AS LONG AS the recipient has an iPhone. Which is where all those myriad of other messenger apps come in.

This one lives on the Paranoid end of the spectrum, which is fair enough. Esp for those not fortunate enough to live in a fairly free country where you live without fear of persecution for things like your religious or political beliefs, ethnicity or sexual orientation, either of which might get you life in a prison camp, or torture and death. In various countries like China, which probably wouldn't allow an app like this anyway, it is a genuine concern, there are good sound reasons to be paranoid if you are in a group they disapprove of, say from Tibet or member of Falun Gung or a Democracy group.

Rating: 1 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]