How to verify the safety of your conversation with Private Chats

The new Private Chats feature gives all Voxer users the option to send end-to-end encrypted messages. End-to-end encryption essentially means that the only person who can see or hear your message is the person to whom you send it, and no one else. Not even Voxer or any third-party that could potentially gain access to our servers thru legal or illegal means. The content of your message — whether it is a voice, text, image, or video — cannot be decrypted from the time it leaves your device to the time the recipient opens it.

Here is what you need to know to verify the privacy of your conversation and ensure only the intended recipient has access to your messages.

Once a Private Chat is initiated, a unique safety number is created between members of the chat.

The safety number on your phone should always match the safety number on your contact’s phone. You can verify the privacy of your conversation by comparing your safety number with your contact’s.

A safety number will only change if a user has switched devices, logged out and back into their account, reinstalled Voxer, or if someone else is trying to eavesdrop into the conversation. In any of these cases, you will be prompted by default to verify the new safety number for that Private Chat. If the new safety number doesn’t match, you could be exposed to a man-in-the-middle attack.

It is specially relevant to note that if a user logs out or switches device, Voxer will not attempt to redeliver messages that were sent during the time the recipient was inactive. As a result, you are not exposed to the security risk of messages being intercepted with no indication to the parties involved. Any messages sent during this inactive period will not be decrypted at any point.

‘Private Chats’ uses the Signal Protocol, an open-source encryption technology created by Open Whisper Systems. This technology is known as the gold standard for secure message encryption. Signal is highly esteemed by security experts around the world. It allows for a new era of message security, powerful yet simple and easy to use.

The Private Chats feature is available now for all user on iOS and Android devices.