"Signal, the favorite chat app for spies and journalists, got an unusual kind of endorsement this week after U.S. national-security officials were revealed to be using Signal to share information about a pending U.S. military strike and mistakenly included a journalist in the chat.
Here's what to know about Signal and the rules governing how federal officials communicate:
What is Signal?
Signal is an encrypted chat app that offers text, voice and video chats free of charge. The app, which works on phones and desktop computers, uses a technology called end-to-end encryption.
That means that it scrambles your messages on your device in a way that should only be able to be unscrambled on your recipient's device. In theory, this protects messages against anyone being able to understand them as they pass through the internet.
Top Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, used Signal to hold detailed discussions of plans to launch airstrikes against Yemen's Houthi militants this month, according to the Atlantic magazine, whose editor was inadvertently included in the Signal chat.
Speaking to reporters at the White House Tuesday, President Trump suggested the administration would limit its use of Signal in the future. "Generally speaking, I think we probably won't be using it very much," he said.
National-security experts say discussing classified information on an app designed for use on consumer phones would be a serious breach of security procedures and create a big risk for leaks.
Communicating securely
Normally, conversations concerning classified military plans to strike foreign targets would be expected to occur solely in secure compartmented information facilities, or SCIFs -- rooms that are specifically designed to prevent conversations from being spied on. Cellphones, which can be hacked, are typically banned from SCIFs, as are other electronic devices.
While most SCIFs are housed within government offices, there are overseas secure facilities in embassies, and very senior national-security officials often have personal SCIFs built into their private homes.
Who owns Signal?
Signal is owned by a Mountain View, Calif.-based nonprofit organization called the Signal Technology Foundation, which is largely financed by donations and grants. That structure was set up by the app's founder, cryptographer and entrepreneur Moxie Marlinspike, with an initial $50 million from WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton.
Acton left WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms in 2017, but remains on Signal's board. The app is now run by Meredith Whittaker, who previously worked at Google and co-founded the AI Now Institute.
The foundation paid more than $5.5 million in 2023 for cloud-hosting services from Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft, according to a federal filing.
Signal vs. WhatsApp
WhatsApp actually uses Signal's open-source encryption protocol to power its end-to-end encryption, making the level of encryption between the two apps similar. Because the algorithm is open-source, anyone can try to break it, but no one has succeeded.
Signal, in addition to being encrypted, also says it keeps almost no data about how its users use the app. That means that even if it were hacked, or if the government came with a subpoena to ask for information about a user, it would only be able to provide two kinds of what is called metadata: the date an account was created and the last time it was used, but not when messages were sent or to whom [1].
Could Signal be hacked?
So far, there is no evidence Signal's open-source encryption algorithm has been broken -- and indeed intelligence officials sometimes use the app on their personal smartphones or computers. Following revelations reported by The Wall Street Journal last fall about the deep compromise of U.S. telecommunications firms by Chinese state-backed hackers, Signal grew even more in demand as cybersecurity officials urged everyone to move to encrypted apps." [2]
1. WhatsApp collects and stores data about how users interact with the app, including activity, interactions with others, timestamps, and features used, though it claims to prioritize user privacy and uses this data for internal purposes, like improving the service. WhatsApp may share data with government agencies when required by law. Since government agencies attract hackers like honey flies, this information might end up in any hands.
2. U.S. News: How Signal Works and Why Officials Used Chat App. Schechner, Sam; Volz, Dustin. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 26 Mar 2025: A4.
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