Just how seriously do you take your communication security? The data connection to your email server may be protected by encryption, but what happens once the message gets there? Are you cool with Gmail having to those unencrypted conversations? Or do you place a higher value on your privacy, insisting on end-to-end encryption such that not even the companies controlling the servers over which your message travels are capable of reading it? Last month we told you about some efforts to bring just that kind of security to WhatsApp, expanding beyond end-to-end-encrypted text communication to similarly protect voice traffic. Today Open Whisper Systems announces the culmination of its partnership with WhatsApp, completing its implementation of the secure Signal Protocol across all WhatsApp communication.

Whether you’re working with text chat, voice messages, full voice calls, or file attachments, all your WhatsApp data will now be encrypted from the moment it leaves your phone to when it hits the recipient’s devices. Support isn’t just for WhatsApp’s most popular platforms, either, and even with plans to shutter support for Blackberry and old Nokia platforms later this year, encryption will work for the time being.

Users will notice some new messages popping up to alert them when conversations switch over to encrypted mode, and once users make that change there’s no going back: in order to protect against attacks that might trick your phone into thinking other users are on pre-encryption versions of the app, WhatsApp keeps track of who’s already upgraded and won’t allow their apps to return to non-encrypted traffic.

Confused about how all this works? Click on through to Open Whisper Systems’ announcement post through the source link below for full details, including learning how to verify your encrypted connection with other users.

Source: Open Whisper Systems
Via: The Verge