When you are making a phone call over your mobile network, it doesn’t matter how secure your mobile is (iPhone in this case). Because it all ends in the hands of the mobile networks! The traditional and old 2G networks use a very weak encryption method, while 3G offers a little extra protection. So it doesn’t matter if you have an encrypted cell phone or not!
Normally, whenever you make a phone call with iPhone or any iOS device – You have to accept the fact that anyone (hacker, wiretapper, government, mobile network) can listen to your phone calls! But with various messaging apps offering end-to-end encryption when you send messages or make calls via their apps, a normal user has many options available now!
How to Make Encrypted Calls on iPhone
Let’s look at different ways through which you can make encrypted calls on your iPhone or any other iOS device:
Silent Phone
Using the Silent Phone app, any user can make encrypted video and voice calls along with messaging as well. The company behind the “Silent Phone” is Silent Circle which is very famous when it comes to privacy.
All the communications (calls & messages) using the Silent Phone app on the iPhone will be end-to-end encrypted. As a result, it can protect you from hackers, criminals, or any other 3rd party. You can download Silent Phone for iOS here.
Signal
Privacy should not be a pipe dream, and the Signal app wants to make it easy for everyone! Want to create encrypted calls and messages for free? Maybe you want to send a self-destruct message that disappears after a set time period? You can do all that with the open-source Signal app for free!
Unlike other applications, Signal doesn’t store any private data and is open-source as well. Being open-source, anyone can look at the source code of the Signal app and check if there is anything fishy or not. Another benefit of being open-source is that people from all over the world can collaborate and improve any security flaws in the Signal app.
Blackberry BBM
Blackberry BBM used to be very popular and was only available on Blackberry mobile phones. But it can be downloaded on both Android and iOS devices now! With the BBM, you can make phone calls and send instant messages to other people who also have the Blackberry BBM installed on their phones.
Blackberry BBM is available for both Android & iOS.
WhatsApp is among the top messenger applications for mobile devices. Despite getting under the spotlight for questionable practices, WhatsApp does offer end-to-end encryption for all the messages (text and media) and calls (voice & video).
WhatsApp is owned by the parent company “Facebook,” and under the umbrella of Facebook, other applications such as Instagram and Facebook are also available.
Apple FaceTime
Apple FaceTime is a messaging app developed by the Apple Company. Since it is made by Apple, it is only available on the iPhone and other iOS devices.
According to the company, any messages and calls made using this app are yours and not the company’s business. That’s why all the communications carried out by Apple FaceTime are protected using full encryption (end-to-end). Since the Apple-owned apps can co-exist over the entire Apple ecosystem, it means that you get to use secure messaging across all your iOS devices.
