When chatting, we want to know that our secrets are kept safe, so Michael Reed is taking a look at five security-conscious chat systems.
HOW WE TESTED…
We installed each chat client on to our Linux Mint test machine and an Android phone. Where possible, we also tried out the web client using Google Chrome. Once installed and signed in, we added some contacts and a number of groups.
We feel that this is a good way of using these systems – taking advantage of a computer setup, when available, and swapping to mobile on the move. We looked for any synchronisation issues as we swapped between mobile and desktop platforms, but we didn’t run into any problems with any of the systems.
We prefer to examine areas of a system where there is significant distinction. Video chat and voice chat are important features, but our finding was that all five systems had fairly comparable facilities in this area, including group video conferencing.
If people like cosmetic features such as stickers and purchasable emojis, good for them, but we’ve decided not to delve too far into this area.