Silent Text 2 2.0.1

Worried about who could be reading your messages or snooping on files you share? Silent Text 2 is an encryped messaging app designed to ensure that your chat conversations stay private and offering a way to send files that cannot be intercepted.

Military-grade encyrption

Silent Text 2 behaves in many respects like WhatsApp, LINE, or Viber. It allows you to text chat, send photos, videos, and voice messages, and share your location with another person. You can also use Silent Text 2 to send contacts securely.

The difference is that Silent Text 2 applies end-to-end encryption to secure everything that you send and receive through the app. Messages are encrypted on your device, and keys are stored locally, rather than on a server. This further reduces the chance of third parties getting hold of what's being sent. Keys are destroyed after a conversation is complete.

Silent Text 2 is free to download but a subscription to the Silent Circle service is required in order to use the app. At the time of writing, prices start from $9.95 per month.

Burn after reading

Silent Text 2 looks and behaves a lot like rival private messaging app Threema. An advantage of Silent Text 2 is that it contains a 'burn' feature. With everything you send through the app you have the option to delete it (known as 'burning') from the recipient's device whenever you like, removing all traces of it. It's even possible to schedule burns so you know the message, file, or data won't be sat around for very long.

One of our complaints about Threema was that it isn't great for browsing media files you've been sent. Silent Text 2 does this better, with an 'All Media' section that shows you photos, video, and audio that has been shared.

In general, the user interface is very simple to get around, and anyone who's used a chat messaging app before won't have a problem figuring out what to do. The design is optimized for iOS 7, and you have a choice of four themes which you can use to customize the look of the app.

It's very easy to make a call through the Silent Text 2 app, by tapping the call icon in the chat menu. This will then open up sister app, Silent Phone, where you can make a call safely using a secure line.

Threat assessment

Silent Text 2 offers a solid, reliable way to make sure that messages and files are only seen by their intended recipients and not by outsiders. There are plenty of user cases for the app: journalists working in hostile territories, political organizations in oppressive regimes, celebrities, organizations, the military, and many more.

However, the average Joe who just wants to send harmless messages to their pals might not benefit a great deal, especially given that using Silent Text 2 requires each user to pay a monthly subscription.

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