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Wire Secure Messenger Review 2022 (The Good and the Bad)

January 30, 2022 By Heinrich Long — 38 Comments
Wire Messenger Review

In this updated Wire review for 2022, we took a close look at the service to see if it’s worth your time.

Wire is a well-regarded corporate collaboration suite with secure messaging, group chat capabilities, file-sharing, and the ability to collaborate securely with external clients. In this Wire messenger review, the focus is on the personal secure messaging app. We’re going to look at its capabilities, its usability, and its security.

We’re also going to talk a bit about how the company has shifted its focus from the consumer to the corporate market, and what that might mean for the future of the personal app. Does it still have a future? Is Wire the answer for people who want private and secure communications with other like-minded individuals?

I think you’ll find this Wire review interesting, so let’s get started.

+ Pros

  • End-to-end (E2E) encryption
  • Encryption algorithms: Proteus protocol, WebRTC (DTLS, KASE, SRTP) with PFS
  • Open source
  • Self-destructing messages
  • Published transparency reports
  • GDPR compliant
  • Wire has a free version

– Cons

  • Registration requires email address or phone number
  • Some logging of personal data
  • Does not support 2FA
  • Small number of Wire users (roughly 500,000)
  • Company focuses on corporate market, not individuals

Now we’ll briefly examine the features of Wire messenger.

Features summary

Here are some key features to consider when deciding whether Wire is right for you:

  • 100% open source code. The code is available on GitHub.
  • The code was independently audited by X41 D-SEC GmbH.
  • The option to register using a (potentially throw-away) email address offers more privacy than those services that force you to enter a phone number when your create an account.
  • The service is fully GDPR compliant. For personal users this means that your data is protected by strong privacy laws as well as strong encryption.
  • Clients for Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux (experimental), and popular browsers

Company information

The company behind the Wire app is Wire Swiss GmbH. The company was founded in 2012 by former Skype and Microsoft employees, Jonathan Christensen, Alan Duric and Priidu Zilmer. They launched the Wire app in 2014. One important security milestone came in 2016 when they added end-to-end (E2E) encryption to Wire.

Not surprisingly given its name, the company is based in Switzerland, with offices in Berlin and San Francisco. Switzerland is one of the best jurisdictions in the world for any kind of secure online service, so this is a plus.

Where is Wire data stored?

While all user data does flow through the company’s network of EU-based servers, the only time messages are stored there is if the recipient is not currently on line. Thanks to the E2E encryption that Wire uses, even messages awaiting transfer to their recipients are encrypted and cannot be read by the company.

As soon as a message is delivered to the recipient, it is deleted from company servers. All sent and received messages are stored in encrypted form on your devices.

So to answer the original question, all user data is stored locally, in encrypted form, on user devices. Storing all user data encrypted on user devices is a strong security move. Even if someone were to hack the Wire servers, none of your data (except messages waiting to be transferred) would be there to steal.

Third-party testing and audits

One of the great things about Wire is that they have not only had outside testing done, but that they have published results. In case you are like me and don’t have the time/energy/expertise to analyze the open source code that comprises their system, here are some published findings by experts you can review instead.

Security audits

In early 2018, Kudelski Security and X41 D-sec GmbH published the results of security reviews they conducted on Wire the previous year. The reviews identified various problems that the team at Wire resolved according to this Medium post. You can find links to the results of the reviews at the bottom of the Wire Security & Privacy page.

While it is great that they did these audits, that was way back in 2017. Hopefully the company will commission another audit soon.

Informal Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP) lab analysis

In 2016, a researcher in the Cryptography, Security, and Privacy (CrySP) lab at the University of Waterloo analyzed the Wire Security and Privacy white papers in a fairly detailed post that the team at Wire responded to. The post cites several concerns about the implementation of the Wire protocol at the time. It includes responses from Wire, and updates showing that the company had resolved most of the concerns raised in the original post.

I like that Wire put the effort into responding to this post and making changes to their system to resolve the issues cited by the researcher. It makes me more confident in the strength of their technology.

Note: The original 2016 analysis and the 2018 update were based on the opinions of one of the researchers at the lab. The analysis includes a prominent disclaimer that the opinions expressed in the post do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other CrySP researchers or the university. Apparently the lawyers run amok in Canada too.

Wire hands-on testing

For purposes of this review, I used the Wire desktop apps for Windows and Linux (an AppImage). I also worked with the browser interface and the Android app. All the versions are very similar, with minor differences depending on the platform. For example, the Android app included phone-specific issues, such as the ability to upload photos from your phone.

Installing Wire

From the main pricing page, you can see the free version of Wire that is available for download. Click the green Download Now button, and you end up at the Download page where you can download the version that is right for you.

From here, installing Wire is just like installing any other app for a particular operating system. You’ll need to create a username and password. You’ll also need to supply either a phone number or an email address. Using your phone number to create an account is not ideal from a privacy perspective. One way to boost your privacy is to use a throw-away email address, and delete it once you’ve replied to the Confirmation email Wire sends you.

Check out our guide to the best temporary disposable email services or our guide on secure email services that respect your privacy if you decide to register with an email address instead of a phone number.

If you are planning to use Wire on a Linux device, you might want to use the AppImage version of the Experimental Binary for Linux. I had trouble getting the Ubuntu binary to run, so switched to the AppImage, which worked perfectly. AppImages install slightly differently than regular Linux apps, but the Wire AppImage installed the same as any other AppImage.

Note: If you want instructions on working with AppImages on a Linux system, this It’s FOSS guide should get you up and running quickly.

Working with Wire

As you can see below, the Wire user interface is clean and modern looking. Your contacts appear on the left side of the window, and your current conversation on the right. As part of its security system, Wire clients negotiate new encryption keys for every message. Even if someone somehow figures out the encryption keys used for a single message, those keys will only help decrypt that particular message. The rest of the messages in the conversation will remain secure.

wire chat desktop
Wire provides a simple, clean chat window and works much the same as any other chat app.

As far as the basics go, Wire works like any other messaging app. Simply select a person and start a conversation. Wire gives you lots of control over each and every message that appears in a conversation. Select the three-dot icon next to any message and you’ll see a menu with a range of options like these:

wire message options
Wire message options. Note the use of the new Dark Mode for the message window.

What if you have something to say, but you don’t want it preserved for all eternity on your own or someone else’s device? Make it a timed message. Find the little stopwatch icon at the bottom of the Wire window (it is circled in red a couple of images back). Click it to see a menu of time delays. Select one of those delays, say 5 minutes. Every message you send while the timed message option is active will automatically disappear from every device where it appears after that amount of time.

In addition to plain text messages, you can conduct voice and video chats, attach files, and so on. Everything is protected by end-to-end encryption, keeping your communications secure from outside snoops.

To help you keep everything organized, you can:

  • Create groups and communicate by text or voice with the entire group at once.
  • Create folders to hold related contacts.
  • Archive or delete conversations.

If you are using the mobile apps you may have additional capabilities, such as creating voice memos, attaching animated GIFs to the conversation, location sharing, or drawing pictures with your finger on your device’s touchscreen.

Do you ever worry that the person you are talking to in a messaging app is actually an imposter? Wire has you covered there too. You can verify that the current conversation is secure for both messages and voice calls using key fingerprints. The exact steps to follow to verify key fingerprints are found here.

Wire mobile apps

Wire publishes mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices. At the time of this Wire review, these messenger apps were getting identical 3.6 out of 5 star ratings in both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Why not a higher rating?

Wire App messenger
Wire gets 3.6 stars on Google Play and 3.5 stars on the Apple App Store.

From skimming through the comments at the app stores, it appears that many people are experiencing bugs of various kinds. I’ve used the Android app a lot and have only one complaint. When I look at key signatures on the phone, the signature text doesn’t fit into the space the app gives it. As a result, the bottoms of every character in the keys is cut off. This isn’t a major issue, but users in the app stores are reporting more serious bugs, such as the app failing to display alerts, crashing and freezing.

Your best bet? Take advantage of the fact that the app is free, and give it a thorough test to see how it works with your device.

Support

You can reach the Wire Support & FAQ page from the Resources link at the top of the site. There is a good amount of information here for resolving problems. One drawback is that the information here is oriented toward the business versions of Wire, and not the personal version. Searching for information about a specific feature of the personal version is easy, but much of what you would find by browsing randomly through the topics here will turn up features that don’t work on your version.

wire support faq page
Lots of info here, but most of it is for the paid versions, so may not apply to you.

When it comes to support from a real, live human being, Wire (free version) users are pretty much out of luck. Here’s the response I received when I sent a couple of questions related to this review:

We currently offer limited support to our Wire Personal users. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Due to limited resources we can only fully serve Wire Pro users and help with very urgent or security-related tickets from Personal users. Please search our extensive Support site for frequently asked questions.

Even though we cannot respond to every ticket, we take notice of all issues, feature requests, and any other feedback you share.

The rest of the message consisted of links to articles from the Support site which might have been helpful. While I can understand the company’s desire to focus on helping paying customers rather than those using a free version, it does illustrate how individual users are a low priority.

How secure and private is Wire?

Wire has strong security. The Proteus protocol they use to encrypt text and images is based on the encryption approach used in the Signal app. Without getting into the technical details, Proteus uses the Curve25519, ChaCha20, and HMAC-SHA256 algorithms. Voice and video communications use WebRTC with Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS). All communications are end-to-end encrypted.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that on September 21, 2019, Edward Snowden recommended people avoid using any email service and instead use Wire or Signal.

snowden recommends wire
Edward Snowden recommends abandoning email for any meaningful communication and using Wire or Signal instead.

The privacy situation with Wire is a little less clear.

The service collects some information in logs, which they says they keep for 72 hours (maximum). What exactly they collect isn’t clear to me. According to a February 2018 report by the CrySP team at the University of Waterloo, Wire, “…does not attempt to hide metadata, other than the central server promising not to log very much information.” Additionally, according to the report, the process of authenticating the clients with the servers involves sending your unencrypted password to Wire, where it is hashed and compared to the stored, hashed version of the original password.

A May 2017 article on Vice.com reported that Wire keeps an unencrypted list of everyone you have ever contacted using the service, along their email address or telephone number, for as long as your account exists.

This isn’t surprising for a service that focuses on the corporate market rather than individual users. Corporate buyers want security against outside threats, but also want some level of visibility into who their users are communicating with and access to their accounts when needed. These issues mean that you need to have a certain level of trust in Wire to protect your metadata and password.

Wire business features

Paid Wire plans pack in a lot of features that aren’t available in the free version of Wire:

  • Group Messaging
  • Video and audio calls with more users than the personal plan supports
  • Guest Rooms
  • Member roles
  • On-premises and private cloud capabilities

Wire is truly a team collaboration tool. For a full view of the features packed into the Wire business-oriented plans, see the Pricing page.

Wire prices

As you’ve already seen, Wire is a free service. We have seen past rumors that Wire will be converting the personal plan to a freemium model at some point, but for now, it is 100% free of charge. The pricing page on the site addresses only Wire Pro (4 euros per user per month billed biennially), Wire Enterprise (8 euros per user per month billed biennially), and Wire Enterprise Technology.

Wire Prices

Wire free version

Having tested out the Pro and Personal versions, I can see that the free plan can likely meet most of your needs. While the team collaboration features are limited, you can always upgrade to Pro if necessary.

Wire review conclusion

The free version of Wire has a lot going for it as a secure messaging app. The messaging service is strong and secure, with the personal edition of Wire riding on the business-oriented paid services. In September of 2019, it even got mentioned by Edward Snowden as one of two secure messaging services that he recommends for meaningful communication.

However, the future of Wire (as a free tool for the masses) is less clear. Beginning in late 2017, Wire Swiss GmbH started moving more and more toward a corporate focus, and away from worrying about individual users. Then it was announced (in November 2019) that in February 2019 Wire had raised $8.2 million from Morpheus Ventures and moved its holding company to the United States.

This triggered outrage from many privacy advocates, including Mr. Snowden, who tweeted,

“Wire was always for profit and planned to follow the typical venture backed route.” [
@Wire CEO] Brogger… describes individual consumers as “not part of our strategy.”

This is a grim turn for a once-promising app, and a window for
@Signalapp to exploit.

Is Wire right for you?

At the moment, Wire is a great secure messaging app for individuals. The Wire messaging service is secure, with independent reviews stating that the service is sound. While it does have some drawbacks, we do consider it to be one of the best alternatives to WhatsApp.

While I like and regularly use Wire myself, you may want to think about the tradeoffs between security and privacy before settling on Wire as your messaging app of the future.

Other secure messenger reviews on RestorePrivacy:

Signal Review
Threema Review
Telegram Review
Session Review
Wickr Review
Keybase Review

This Wire messenger review was last updated on January 30, 2022.

About Heinrich Long

Heinrich was born in a small town in the Midwest (USA) before setting sail for offshore destinations. Although he long chafed at the global loss of digital privacy, after Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013, Heinrich realized it was long past time to join the fight. Heinrich enjoys traveling the world, while also keeping his location secret and digital tracks covered.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. abaabdella

    March 13, 2022

    Audio or video cannot be connected via groups in the free version

    Reply
  2. Paranoid

    January 12, 2022

    As for dating online and not comfortable with giving out any of my info. What is a good messaging and video app that you recommend in which the person you are talking would have a hard time trying to hack/ or get any of your information from?

    Reply
    • alsoparanoid

      March 23, 2022

      Signal is sort of still the king in privacy msg apps

      Reply
  3. David Sugar

    December 3, 2021

    Wire is back in Europe (Germany) after learning the US is indeed a terrible place to operate any kind of real secure communications company. They at least did come to appreciate this was a mistake, and fled.

    Reply
    • meme

      January 22, 2022

      really? i dont find source.
      plz.

      Reply
  4. Rebekah

    November 23, 2021

    We use this for our team and all the iphone users have no problem, but the three android users often miss out on messages and don’t always receive updates. Any progress on androids or tricks as to why this happens? Thank you

    Reply
    • Marcus

      November 26, 2021

      Solved: Android 8 – Wire/ Settings / Advanced / “Reset Push Notification TOKEN”. As Its saying: ” ..problem with notifications…”.

      Enjoy.

      Reply
  5. tony

    June 20, 2021

    “As soon as a message is delivered to the recipient, it is deleted from company servers. All sent and received messages are stored in encrypted form on your devices.

    So to answer the original question, all user data is stored locally, in encrypted form, on user devices. Storing all user data encrypted on user devices is a strong security move. Even if someone were to hack the Wire servers, none of your data (except messages waiting to be transferred) would be there to steal.”

    Wire (android client) has “perform full synchronization’ feature to sync android client with server. If the messages are supposed to be deleted from server, how would I be able to sync my other devices if the messages are already deleted from their servers?

    Also, in the version 3.69.996, wire added ‘Legal Hold Support’. Not sure what that means either. I been looking around, couldn’t find much.

    Reply
  6. Paul

    May 11, 2021

    Vsee and Element hardly ever get reviewed but have been around for a while and deemed to be secure. It would be great if you could check them out since no reviews equals no users.
    Vsee was designed for the medical industry and has some great sharing options. Element competes directly with Wire but isn’t based in the USA.
    The free version of Vsee appears to have support that none of the other options get close to offering!

    Reply
  7. Morganna S Williams

    March 2, 2021

    Well this is my first time and before I condem someone or something try it you might like it. I try as much as my wee rabbit brain can handle. I am adventurous and willing so long as there is someone on the other end helping me out.

    Reply
  8. Anonymity

    February 26, 2021

    What about Matrix.org? (Element Message)

    Reply
    • Anonymity

      February 26, 2021

      [https://element.io/]

      Reply
      • Marcus

        November 26, 2021

        It’s worth a great try!

        Doing well with Element.

        Reply
  9. Ray

    February 20, 2021

    Still using Wire for personal usage.

    Some things that bug me over the few years I’ve used it:

    – Wire interface is outdated
    – Cannot do group video calls on Wire Personal plan. When the pandemic hit, I just discovered this was a paid feature. Really disheartening when I found this out.
    – Some bugs in Android app pop up from time-to-time

    Reply
    • eskay

      February 26, 2021

      Try [www.realtyme.com], it is a Swiss App and comes from the team that built [www.adeya.ch]

      Reply
    • daniel

      January 15, 2022

      I would say the interface is very basic and more business formatted which one is why you’re about…

      Reply
  10. John Doe

    January 15, 2021

    What’s new in this updated review of Wire?

    Reply
    • Sven Taylor

      January 15, 2021

      Heinrich verified all info is updated and correct.

      Reply
  11. abaabdella

    November 4, 2020

    Can the Wire app be considered better than Signal in terms of privacy because it is of Swiss origin and registration is done through the mail?
     

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Sven Taylor

      November 4, 2020

      Yes, probably to some. Registering with a phone number and operating from the United States are notable drawbacks to Signal.

      Reply
      • abaabdella

        November 4, 2020

        Thank you very much ❤️

        Reply
  12. Tuulia

    November 4, 2020

    In the 2017 Vize article you mentioned, Wire said it was looking to change in terms of storing data in plaintext to smoothen multiple device usage. Any updates there now at the end of 2020? Does Wire still store metadata about contacts?

    Reply
  13. Bruce Maples

    September 30, 2020

    Thanks for the article, and the site. I am a journalist looking to set up some channels for whistleblowers and tipsters to contact me securely. I was thinking seriously of using Wire for a text messaging solution – now I’m not so sure.

    I will spend some time reading other articles on your site. Perhaps I can put together a suite of tools for secure, private communications. Thanks again.

    Reply
    • Sven Taylor

      September 30, 2020

      Sure thing Bruce, I’m happy to help. Wire is still a good solution, but we review other options in our Secure and Encrypted Messenger roundup.

      Also, you may want to check out Tutanota and their Secure Connect feature. And if you read the blog post below, they are making this free for journalists to use on their websites.

      https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/tutanota-launches-secure-connect-encrypted-contact-form/

      Reply
      • ReaderX

        February 11, 2021

        Tutanota is a gamble. They disclose very little information about themselves and their products’ construction, essentially asking for blind trust and claiming blind trust is a good thing. If you want to blindly trust shadowy strangers who obscure security details, then Tutanota is absolutely perfect for you.

        Reply
        • Sven Taylor

          February 11, 2021

          What? Tutanota is transparent about the team and their open source email service. Just browse through their website.

  14. C.

    July 7, 2020

    I know you have lots on your plates, but could you please do a review of jami.net ? It’s free, open-source code, encrypted audio/videochat. Data except for some circumstances is stored on one’s own device. Audio/video quality depends on what one’s device uses. Since none of the people I mentioned it to has it, haven’t been able to try it out yet.

    Reply
  15. C.

    April 28, 2020

    If Snowden recommends wire, then it’s okay that it “does not attempt to hide metadata”? I know that this article is about wire messaging, but would wire voice and video chat be more private and secure than zoom? I’m looking for a private and secure alternative to zoom. Please let me know any suggestions! [What does a fake-email look like? My offerings are met with ‘ERROR: please enter a valid email address.]

    Reply
    • Sven Taylor

      April 28, 2020

      Yes, in my opinion Wire would be better than Zoom, which is basically spyware.
      Choosing a good secure messenger all comes down to your needs and threat model. See our secure messenger reviews for more options. We’ll be adding more soon, as well as an in-depth roundup guide for the best secure messengers.
      You can use any email that matches the basic format with an @ symbol and domain, such as fake@email.com

      Reply
      • C.

        April 28, 2020

        Thanks so much for the reply! Read the TechCrunch article about wire, now not sure what to do. Wire placing security about privacy, as it seems, doesn’t gain my confidence. Have read all three secure messenger reviews here. And hours on other articles here as well.
        So many people I know use zoom video to ‘meet’. The more I read about it, the more I don’t want to use it. I’m looking for something where 10 to 12 people can meet privately and securely by voice or video.
        Regarding signal, it looks like one can only video chat with one person at a time, and “Desktop and Linked devices do not support calling at this time.” To do a group chat (on the signal website it shows empty text message fields for illustration) with 10 or 12 people for over an hour would, I imagine, require one to type a lot if one’s answers are long, and slow the whole ‘conversation’ down. This doesn’t seem very practical. (sigh)

        Reply
        • Restorer

          April 29, 2020

          List of (mostly) free, no sign-up, browser-friendly video call / video conference apps. Alternatives to Zoom and Hangouts. Powered by WebRTC and end-to-end encryption. Some are 1-to-1, some can support much more participants:
          – https://airmink.com
          – https://talky.io
          – https://crossyworld.com
          – https://itshello.co
          – https://talk.vasanthv.com
          – https://video.spike.chat
          – https://8×8.vc
          – https://meet.jit.si
          – https://fairmeeting.net
          – https://whereby.com
          – https://helloaiko.com/meet
          – https://touchbase.team
          – https://draw.chat
          – https://zipcall.io
          – https://gotalk.to
          – https://brie.fi
          – https://air.additor.io

  16. nvmnd

    April 19, 2020

    So .. Snowden doesn’t recommend using tutanota? hmm >>? I think he never heard of .. or, what?

    Reply
  17. J.M.

    April 19, 2020

    @Heinrich @Sven,

    Good review and I have been looking forward to it. Some basic questions that I could use advice on:

    1) If moved to US with Venture Capital money, why is it trusted still?

    2) I have tried twice to use it but I could never add contacts. They would have to sign up as well. How does this even work?

    3) If Signal itself is also US based, who do you recommend?

    3) What do you think of Delta Chat, Silence (appears dead) QuickSMS (SP?) off F Droid, or what should we use?

    4) If moving to payed products, what about Silent Circle? Any better?

    Thanks.

    Reply
    • Sven Taylor

      April 19, 2020

      1. Trust? That’s subjective and is up to you.
      2. Correct, you can contact other Wire users.
      3. Signal is free, and completely open source, and doesn’t store data like Wire (see the upcoming Signal review).
      We’ll be testing and reviewing other options in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

      Reply
      • J.M.

        April 20, 2020

        @Sven,

        Excellent! Just logged on and saw the new Signal review. I will check that out. Thanks.

        Reply
  18. J

    April 19, 2020

    I would just like to post this little blog post which raises some noteworthy privacy concerns regarding Wire

    https://blog.privacytools.io/delisting-wire/

    Reply
  19. Peter

    April 19, 2020

    Great review with some info I hadn’t seen before about the service.

    Some small additions/corrections:

    – It’s possible to create a personal account directly from a web browser. Go to https://wire.com > “LOG IN” > Click on the arrow pointing left > “CREATE ACCOUNT” > “Personal”. Or just use the following link: https://app.wire.com/auth/?hl=en#createaccount.

    – The price for Wire Enterprise is wrong in this paragraph:

    “The pricing page on the site addresses only Wire Pro (4 euros per user per month billed biennially), Wire Enterprise (4 euros per user per month billed biennially), and Wire Enterprise Technology.”

    Should say (as seen in the screenshot next to the paragraph):

    “The pricing page on the site addresses only Wire Pro (4 euros per user per month billed biennially), Wire Enterprise (8 euros per user per month billed biennially), and Wire Enterprise Technology.”

    Reply
    • Sven Taylor

      April 19, 2020

      Thanks, it’s fixed now.

      Reply

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