WhatsApp bulks up its Android encryption efforts

WhatsApp has made end-to-end encryption the default for all Android users, following a partnership with nonprofit software group Open Whisper Systems.

Privacy is a big deal with users and it should be. Private messages and information should remain exactly that, private. With this encryption, WhatsApp messages are more private than they have ever been.

Open Whisper System’s encryption protocol is also used to secure TextSecure. The encryption does not need users to turn it on.

Read more: Yahoo’s end-to-end encryption tool will combat email snooping

According to Open Whisper Systems founder Moxie Marlinspike, Android users are the first users to get the added security but the protocol will be rolled out for all users across platforms in the near future.

“We’re interested in making private communications ubiquitous. We’re interested in making private communications ubiquitous,” Marlinspike said.

Marlinspike explains why Open Whisper Systems has gotten into a partnership with WhatsApp:

“I don’t think that we’re ever going to get an app like TextSecure to be as popular as WhatsApp and really I don’t know that’s where we need to focus our efforts,” he said “It makes more sense for us to integrate this stuff into existing apps than to try to compete with them.”