Google has a new messaging app, Allo, which was announced yesterday during the Google I/O 2016 opening keynote. One of the features of the application is private messages that self-destruct once a user exits the private messaging window, incognito mode. Open Whisper Systems, the company behind secure private messaging application Signal, is apparently behind Allo’s incognito mode.
In a blog post, the company notes that it had been working with Google for a while for its open source encryption protocol, Signal Protocol, to be the power behind Allo’s end-to-end encryption.
The same protocol is in force in another messaging application, Facebook’s WhatsApp. WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption to all chat messages, multimedia content and calls early last month. Open Whisper Systems also uses the same encryption protocol on its own secure messaging app, Signal.
Allo’s implementation of end-to-end encryption is a bit different from WhatsApp’s
Encryption is not turned on by default on Allo. Users have to enter incognito mode in order to have encrypted chats. This is in contrast to Signal and WhatsApp’s implementation where every communication is encrypted by default and there is no way to switch it on and off.
You can pre-register to be notified when Allo becomes available on the Play Store here.
