Edward Snowden, the courageous NSA whistleblower who finally inspired large portions of the world’s population to ask "Who watches the watchmen?" in unison, has long championed the need for encrypted smartphone communications. Upon the announcement that a free encrypted call and/or texting app known as Signal would finally be making its Android debut, Snowden promptly sent out a quick endorsement of the app:
As noted by Wired, this move doesn’t mark the first time the privacy-centered nonprofit software team at Open Whisper Systems has enabled such features on Android devices. Open Whisper actually launched two separate Android apps, RedPhone and TextSecure, back in 2010. "Mostly this was just about complexity," Open Whisper founder Moxie Marlinspike tells Wired. "It’s easier to get people to install one app than two. We’re taking some existing things and merging them together to make the experience a little nicer."
Signal first hit Apple’s App Store in 2014, immediately becoming a popular service among the increasingly vocal supporters of tighter security and privacy measures in the digital age.
