Signal Partners with Microsoft to Bring End-to-End Encryption to Skype

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Instant messaging platforms are incredibly popular these days, as anyone who’s used WhatsApp, WeChat, Line, or Facebook Messenger can tell you. But they aren’t equally secure, which is why one leading IM service — the Microsoft-owned Skype — is teaming up with Signal to bring encryption to users around the globe.

Open Whisper System makes the popular Signal Private Messenger app for iOS and Android, which gained notoriety when privacy advocate Edward Snowden named it his encrypted messenger of choice. It’s based on the Signal Protocol, which powers Skype’s new end-to-end encrypted Private Conversations feature.

“At Signal, our goal is to make private communication simple and ubiquitous,” Joshua Lund, Signal’s community manager, wrote in a blog post. “With hundreds of millions of active users, Skype is one of the most popular applications in the world, and we’re excited that Private Conversations […] will allow more users to take advantage of Signal Protocol’s strong encryption properties for secure communication.”

Microsoft joins a growing list of major tech companies using the Signal Protocol to protect messages from prying eyes. We’ve seen WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, partner with Open Whisper System to incorporate end-to-end encryption technology into its platform. And in April 2016. Google followed suit with Allo.

If you’re eager to try out Private Conservations, go over and grab the newest Skype Insiders build. Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t announced when it’ll make into Skype’s stable channel, but you can sign up for the Skype Insiders program here.