Wire • Secure Messenger

This is a nice, well-designed app, but unfortunately it has major security flaws. Wire keeps logs of any contact you’ve ever contacted saved on their servers forever. Even your account password is insecurely handled. Security auditor CrySP noted: “The Wire client authenticates with a central server in order to provide user presence information. (Wire does not attempt to hide metadata, other than the central server promising not to log very much information.) The Wire whitepapers spend an unusual amount of space discussing the engineering details of this part of the protocol. However, the method of authentication is the same as it is on the web: the Wire client sends the unencrypted, unhashed password to the central server over TLS, the server hashes the plaintext password with scrypt, and the hash is compared to the hash stored by the server. This process leaks the user's password to the central server; the server operators (or anyone who compromises the server) could log all of the plaintext passwords as users authenticate.” I don’t know why an app that is allegedly security-focused leaves such huge compromises to basic account security.

I just started using this app as a fun way to message “in character” with the characters I write with my friends. So far, I’m loving the ability to customize the appearance of each account and have more than one logged in at once. It’s such a clean interface with no intrusive ads, and pretty easy to get the hang of. I’m having so much fun with it. However, PLEASE up the 3 account limit! I would love to add more accounts rather than be limited to 3 at once without having to log out (and lose all of my conversations.) Having no limit to accounts (or at the very least a higher limit than 3), would be extremely helpful and I would likely keep using this app indefinitely.

Update: I’m revising my rating from 5 stars to 4 stars. Wire team, please provide the option to register with only an email address from within the mobile app (instead of having to go to the website on a computer and find the email registration option). Also, please improve app launch time, similar to Whatsapp and Signal. Wire has better privacy than virtually any other messaging app. EVERYTHING is end to end encrypted. Providing access to your contacts info is optional because usernames are used. You can register with an email address on their website or with your phone number in the app. Wire has virtually every feature a messaging app can have including texting, calling, video calls, group chat, voice messaging, expiring messages, attachments, GIFs, and more. The interface is nice and clean with no ads whatsoever. I still haven’t found another messaging app with the same combination of privacy and features. This one is a keeper.

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This app worked well for about a month, but with long conversation history it began to lag. Within the last week or so, messages - especially multiple messages or ones sent as the same time as the receiver sends a message - will cause the app to slow significantly, delaying delivery of messages or not sending them at all. The keyboard will lag when typing or not show your input until about 15 seconds later, while completely freezing the screen. I’ve tried restarting my phone, force closing the app, force closing other apps, but nothing seems to work. Love the interface and capabilities of the app, but will be choosing something else until these issues are fixed.

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I’ve used this app for about a month now and at first it was fast, but now it’s super slow with all the messages that I don’t want to delete. Groupme works better in this aspect. At first this app was amazing! I also wish that the text tones wouldn’t be as INTENSE when you have the chat already open. A subtle one would do just fine if I could have a loud one in the app. And there’s no way to turn off tones or have a softer one when you’re in the chat. You can only have ONE for notifications when not in the app or chat and when you’re on a chat. Finally, video connection even on LTE stinks hard core even with good signal. I have been super frustrated with this.