Deliver Messages Securely: Encrypted Chat and Email

6 min readDeep TechUpdated October 2026

Key points

For chat and calls today: Signal or Threema. For email: Proton Mail or Tuta.
Two ways to send an email nobody can trace to you: over a VPN, or through Tor Browser, with an account that asks for no phone number.
Much of the 2013 list has changed; the update at the top says what still holds.

Deliver Messages Securely: Protecting Your Emails and Chats

Updated October 2026: Much of this 2013 list of ways to deliver messages securely has changed. What still holds and what I would use now:

Chat and calls: Signal for text, voice and video (desktop too), or Threema if you want a paid app that needs no phone number. Wickr Me closed at the end of 2023, Microsoft retired Skype in May 2025, and Cryptocat, Sicher, MyEnigma and Valeso are gone.
Email: Proton Mail or Tuta for easy end-to-end encryption. Thunderbird has OpenPGP built in since version 78, so no plugin is needed. Proton Mail is not fully anonymous: in 2021 it logged a user’s IP address under a Swiss court order, so use it over Tor when anonymity matters.
Anonymity: TorMail was shut down in 2013 and Stealth Walker is an archived project. Use Tor Browser, or Kodachi OS, which I build to route the whole system through VPN and Tor.
Renamed: Google Apps is Google Workspace, Djigzo is CipherMail, Freenet is Hyphanet, and the EFF scorecard is archived in favour of its Surveillance Self-Defense guide.

We all use emails and instant messengers daily. However, we should know how to protect these messages from being intercepted or modified, even if the instant messaging or email service is secured via SSL. There are different ways to deliver your messages securely. I will mention the ones I trust, plus additional ways to remain anonymous and combat spam.

Securing your instant messaging on iPhone

For solid, paid, TNO secure text chat, go for Threema. An excellent free alternative would be Wire, which has web and desktop versions and video calls.
Free secure text chat options were Sicher, MyEnigma and Wickr, but Wickr Me closed at the end of 2023 and the Sicher and MyEnigma sites are gone. Avoid using WhatsApp and Telegram.
For another free secure text chat based on OTR, go for ChatSecure.
For secure free voice calls, go for Signal or Mumble.
For secure text and voice chat with limited free time, go for Seecrypt (friend synchronization is complicated).
For secure paid voice chat, go for Silent Phone or Silentel.
To add an extra layer of security on text chat, you can use iPGMail (the OpenGP app I also listed here has left the App Store).

Blackphone was a smartphone that came unlocked with several pre-installed privacy tools. Silent Circle no longer sells it and offers its Silent Phone app for any Android or iOS device instead.

Securing your emails

When I wrote this, my company used Google Workspace (formerly Google Apps) for email. Though it uses SSL, TLS and point-to-point secure SMTP (Gmail to Gmail), I wouldn’t trust these methods, as they can be intercepted via man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.

For a secure email service that benefits from a security-conscious design and strong cryptography based on the open standards S/MIME and OpenPGP, and that stores all client data on servers in Switzerland, go for Kolab Now (kolabsys.com is gone). For the community edition of it, go for Kolab. Another Swiss-based alternative with end-to-end encryption is Proton Mail (not fully anonymous, see the update above).
To have end-to-end encryption and secure your emails or files sent through mail clients such as Google Workspace, go for PGP here (commercial, now Symantec PGP Encryption from Broadcom), or a free alternative is Gpg4win. For iPhones and iPads, use iPGMail (the OpenGP app has left the App Store).
If you would like to integrate PGP with your webmail, go for Mailvelope.
To secure and encrypt your Internet connection, I offered StealthWalker, now an archived project; today Kodachi OS does this job. To be anonymous, you need to access the email within Tor Browser or Kodachi OS.
To encrypt emails at the gateway level, go for Djigzo (now called CipherMail).
To easily encrypt files using only a web browser, go for miniLock.

Extra email utilities

For a fast sign-up secure service with no third-party add-on needed (automatic PGP encryption between Hushmail users), go for Hushmail. Or if you want end-to-end encryption added to your existing email, you can go for Virtru.
If you need to restrict access via USB dongles, with encryption on top of the normal SSL, go for CounterMail.
To fight spam with a 10-minute email address and no sign-up, go for 10 Minute Mail.
The same as above, plus accepted on Facebook, was 10minutemail.co.za (its site is gone).
For temporary email with any inbox name, go for Mailinator.
For self-destructing email with a tracking feature, go for Self-Destructing Email.
For sending anonymous email with no registration, there was Anonymouse Webmail (its site no longer answers).
For anonymity, go for tools like I2P and Freenet (now called Hyphanet). TorMail, which I listed here, was shut down in 2013.
For secure desktop clients, use Safester (Valeso, which I also listed, is gone).
For encrypted, decentralized messaging, go for Bitmessage.
For normal desktop clients, use Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird. You can secure these clients using PGP (Thunderbird has OpenPGP built in since version 78) or Comodo S/MIME.
To synchronize Google Workspace (formerly Google Apps) with Microsoft Outlook, use Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook®.

Untraceable emails

First Method (Recommended):

Connect to any VPN node via StealthWalker and launch the Stealth Walker browser, which is based on the Tor network (Stealth Walker is now archived; Kodachi OS gives you the same VPN plus Tor setup today).
Register a new account with an email service that does not ask for a phone number, such as Tuta (Yandex, which I first suggested here, now asks for one, and a number ties the account to you).
Send your email to the desired destination.
Never log in to the account again using any other browser, as the StealthWalker browser never kept a trace of your online activities.

Second Method:

Download Tor Browser and run it.
Create a new account via Tor Browser at an email service that does not ask for a phone number, such as Tuta (TorMail was shut down in 2013).
Send your email and close Tor Browser.

You can use both methods to be anonymous on the web as well; these methods will hide your real identity while posting on websites such as forums, blogs, Facebook and X (Twitter).

Securing your instant messaging on PC

For secure text chat with end-to-end encryption that implements perfect forward secrecy, there was Cryptocat, which also had a mobile version; crypto.cat is gone, and Signal Desktop does this job today.
For secure free voice chat, go for Mumble.
For secure voice and video chat, use Wire or Jitsi. I would never use Skype chat, as it was not end-to-end encrypted; find out why here. Microsoft retired Skype in May 2025.

As I mentioned earlier, you should first secure your connection with a VPN tool. StealthWalker is now an archived project; today Kodachi OS, which I build, does this.

Services to send self-destructing notes

To compose a text-only message on their servers via SSL, with iOS and Android support, go for Temp.
For a web service using SSL to send secure self-destructing notes and get notified by email, go for Privnote.
For a web service using SSL to send secure self-destructing notes with control of the number of views and days, go for QuickForget.

Resources

For the EFF’s advice on secure messaging, please visit its Surveillance Self-Defense guide (its old scorecard is archived as out of date), or this sheet.
To learn more about encryption, please read this document.
To learn more about iOS security, please read this document; Apple now publishes the current version as the Apple Platform Security guide.
To learn more about Wire security, please read this document.
To learn more about Wire privacy, please read this document.
To learn more about Threema security, please read this document.

Ways to deliver your messages securely and anonymously