Kate is an award winning and widely-recognized cybersecurity and privacy journalist with well over a decade’s experience covering the issues that matter to users, businesses and governments. If you are after a super-secure app with end-to-end encyrption, try one of these 4 Zoom alternatives. MORE FROM FORBES Zoom Alternatives: Here Are 4 End-To-End Encrypted Video Chat Apps By Kate O'Flaherty Signal is my absolute favourite, but until it supports group chat, I’ll stick to FaceTime. I’m hoping Jitsi becomes more stable as the service grows, because I like its ethos and it’s pretty secure. Fancy a chat with multiple Apple-using friends or family? FaceTime is ideal. Got a big party situation on the go? It has to be Houseparty. No one of these video chat apps is perfect, but they can each be used for different purposes. You can also use fake names and birth dates for extra security. However, the privacy policy does outline some intrusive data collection practices, so you need to head to your settings, use private mode, and turn off location tracking. Just ensure you take advantage of the ability to lock rooms to stop uninvited guests from crashing your party. Forbes spoke to ESET security researcher Lukas Stefanko to see if there were any major cybersecurity concerns and he said there was nothing to be worried about. Houseparty isn’t super secure, but it’s very functional for casual chats and you can lock it down. Thankfully these rumours are unfounded: Houseparty was not hacked, but the firm thinks it’s a smear campaign and has offered $1 million to anyone who can prove this to be true. You’ve probably already heard of group chat app Houseparty, which hit the headlines during the coronavirus lockdown after rumours started circulating of a hack. Still, it’s improving all the time, and is certainly something to try out if you are looking at an alternative to Zoom. It offers multiple video chatting features, and people joining your chat don’t have to create an account.Īll information that leaves your device is encrypted but again, it’s not end-to-end encrypted, and I have found the app can become a little jittery when multiple people join the chat. Jitsi is a very cool and secure open source app that’s recently launched to the market. It “enforces team-wide and organization-wide two-factor authentication, single sign-on through Active Directory, and encryption of data in transit and at rest,” according to Microsoft. Microsoft Teams is the video meeting choice for businesses using Office 365. One caveat though: Although video calls are encrypted, Skype isn’t end-to-end encrypted, so for those super sensitive calls, you are better with an option such as Signal. It’s very stable, supports large group chats, you don’t need an account to use it, and it’s easy to create your own meeting and control who’s allowed in. Skype is a solid Zoom alternative mainly because it is nearly as functional. Unlike Zoom, Signal doesn’t support group chats, so it is really for use when you are having a one to one–perhaps with your therapist. As with Apple’s FaceTime, Signal is protected by end-to-end encryption, powered by the open source Signal Protocol.īut as is often the case with highly secure apps such as Signal, it does lack some functionality. Think of it as a WhatsApp alternative, and like WhatsApp, Signal offers video functionality.
SignalĪlready beloved of the security community, Signal is a highly private and secure app.
FaceTime is stable –I haven’t experienced any lag while using it–and it allows you to add multiple people to your video chat. Unlike Zoom, FaceTime uses end-to-end encryption, which means even Apple doesn’t have the key to view your chats, according to Apple. Apple’s FaceTime is a perfect alternative to Zoom, as long as everyone who’s part of the meeting or chat has access to an Apple device.
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