Open Whisper Systems helps WhatsApp achieve end-to-end encryption

The immensely popular Whatsapp instant messenger has the potential to become an even more attractive option for users, as the company has partnered with Open Whisper Systems to implement the latter’s TextSecure protocol into their clients.

Apparently, the two teams have been working on this implementation for the last six months.

So far, the end-to-end encryption provided by the protocol is only available in the most recent WhatsApp Android client, and only for text messages, but support for encrypted messaging for group chat or media messages is coming soon.

“WhatsApp runs on an incredible number of mobile platforms, so full deployment will be an incremental process as we add TextSecure protocol support into each WhatsApp client platform,” the Open Whisper Systems team shared in the announcement. “We have a ways to go until all mobile platforms are fully supported, but we are moving quickly towards a world where all WhatsApp users will get end-to-end encryption by default.”

“We’ll also be surfacing options for key verification in clients as the protocol integrations are completed,” they added.

Also, this doesn’t mean that OWS is abandoning the development of its TextSecure app, which was recently audited by a group od German researchers.

“We’re excited to incorporate what we’ve learned from this integration into our future design decisions, and to bring this experience to bear on integrations that we do with other companies and products in the future,” they noted.