LOOKLOCK vs the 8 most used apps
Data obtained as of today by consulting their official websites.
Data verified on 2026-08-05. Apps change often: if you find an outdated cell, tell us and we will correct it.
| Feature | LOOKLOCK | Messenger | Telegram | iMessage | Viber | Signal | Threema | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Only the user knows and holds custody of their keys[4] | Yes | Partial | Yes | Partial | No | Partial | — | Yes | Yes |
| Usable without giving your phone number[1] | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | — | No | No | Yes |
| End-to-end encryption by default (1 to 1)[2] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| End-to-end encryption in groups[3] | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No | — | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| The private key lives only on your device[4] | Yes | Partial | Yes | Partial | No | Partial | — | Yes | Yes |
| End-to-end encrypted backup[5] | Yes | Optional | Yes | No | No | Optional | No | Optional | Optional |
| App source code published[6] | Partial | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Server source code published[7] | Partial | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | — |
| You can host the server yourself[8] | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Partial | Partial |
| You choose where your mailbox lives[9] | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Partial |
| Forward secrecy in normal chats[10] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| No ads or advertising profiling[12] | Yes | No | Partial | Partial | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Two threads inside the SAME conversation (normal and restricted)[13] | Yes | No | No | Partial | No | No | No | No | No |
«—» means we could not confirm it in the vendor official documentation.
The cells that are not a clean yes or no
- Signal still requires a phone number in 2026; usernames let you hide it, not replace it (signal.org). The same goes for WhatsApp with the aliases announced in 2026. Messenger allows sign-up with an email because it uses the Facebook account. Telegram anonymous numbers (Fragment) are still numbers, and since 2024 buying one requires identification. We could not confirm the iMessage requirement in a primary source.
- In Telegram, normal chats are not end-to-end: «Cloud Chats use client-server/server-client encryption» (telegram.org/faq). «Secret chats» are, but you have to open them by hand, one by one, and they do not exist in Telegram Desktop or Telegram Web. In iMessage the encryption covers Apple devices; with a recipient who is not on one, the SMS is not encrypted. According to the Citizen Lab analysis (2024), WeChat «is not an end-to-end encryption system» and «its servers can and do decrypt every message transmitted» (citizenlab.ca).
- Meta has not published that Messenger groups are end-to-end by default: its technical documentation speaks of making it «optionally available» for groups, and its help page still says the rollout is under way. In Telegram, secret chats are two-person only: no group or channel can be end-to-end (its group calls are, which is a different thing). In Viber, Communities and Channels are left out.
- WhatsApp own technical paper admits that if a business delegates its account to a provider, that provider accesses its private keys, «even if that provider is Meta», and that groups using the Cloud API are not considered end-to-end. In Telegram the key is local only in secret chats.
- This is the point most people take for granted and get wrong. In WhatsApp the encrypted backup is optional: you have to switch it on by hand, and by default the Google Drive or iCloud backup is not protected by its encryption. In iMessage it depends on three things at once: whether you have Advanced Data Protection on (which does not come switched on), whether you use iCloud backup, and what country you are in: Apple withdrew that protection in the United Kingdom in 2025 and as of today it is not on record as restored. Signal and Threema backups are also optional, but when switched on the key never leaves your device.
- Our code is licensed AGPL-3.0, but the repository is not public yet: until it is, you cannot check it yourself and claiming a «yes» would be dishonest. Telegram apps are open (GPL); its server is not. Threema apps have been AGPL since 2020, with the caveat that the app is paid and a self-built copy cannot create an identity.
- WhatsApp using the Signal protocol does not mean its code is open: what is open is the encryption library, not the client or the server. For Threema we found no statement about the central server.
- The Signal server is AGPL and can be downloaded, but actually running it requires AWS, Google Cloud, Twilio, Stripe and Intel processors with SGX; its antispam filter is a private module they themselves declare unrunnable by third parties. And even if you managed it, you could not talk to Signal users. Threema OnPrem does allow your own infrastructure, but it is an enterprise product, with sign-up, annual licence and price on request: not something an individual can set up.
- None of the eight lets an individual user choose a server. Threema OnPrem creates a private island for an organisation, which is not the same as federating: we could not confirm that two OnPrem instances talk to each other. In LOOKLOCK the mailbox can live on a node you choose, one you set up yourself, or one the central server does not even know about.
- It means stealing a key does not open the history: each message uses a different key that is destroyed on use. Active since version 0.10 (August 2026) in one-to-one conversations. Our group rooms do not have it yet: they encrypt one copy per member with the previous encryption. If your contact has not updated yet, the app automatically uses the previous encryption with them, so nobody is left unable to talk. Caveats on the other side: in WhatsApp and Messenger the groups use a weaker mechanism than one-to-one chats, and in Threema the phone has it but its multi-device protocol does not.
- A recent and counter-current fact: WhatsApp introduced advertising in June 2025 in Status and Channels, and for anyone who has linked their account to the Accounts Centre it also uses information from the rest of their Meta services. In the opposite direction, Messenger withdrew its inbox ads in November 2025, so saying today that it has them would be false; the advertising profiling, however, remains. Telegram shows ads but states it does not use your data to target them, which is why we do not put «no». Signal is a non-profit foundation and Threema is paid for once.
- La misma conversación tiene dos hilos: el normal y el RESTRINGIDO, que se abre con huella o PIN, guarda lo suyo aparte y tiene su propia caducidad. Se pasa de uno a otro sin salir del chat, y lo que hay en el restringido no aparece en la vista normal.
What makes LOOKLOCK different
No app is perfect and they all evolve. LOOKLOCK's core difference is twofold: it doesn't tie you to a phone number, and it doesn't force your messages (or their metadata) through a central server, because the mailbox can live on a node you run yourself. And, being an invite-only club, it isn't a mass service open to anyone.
Where we're behind (and we say it plainly)
We would rather you heard it from us: today the leading privacy-focused messengers are cryptographically ahead of us on forward secrecy. We are working on it and we say so openly.
How we built this table
Every cell has been checked against each vendor official documentation. Anything we could not confirm in a primary source is marked «—» and stated as such. A declared gap is defensible; an invented cell is not.