The messaging app Signal, which has a good record on the privacy front, has added encrypted video calls as a new feature in its latest beta release.
Noted cryptographer Moxie Marlinspike, the head of Open Whisper Systems, the company behind Signal, said the new feature should improve the quality of voice calls as well.
The new feature brings into play an entirely new calling infrastructure for Signal.
Signal users will need to enable the video calling beta in order to make it use the new calling system.
{loadposition sam08}"We think it's a big improvement, but we're rolling it out in stages to collect feedback from people with different devices, networks, and regions in order to ensure there are no surprises when it's enabled for everyone by default," Marlinspike said.
The beta is available for both iOS and Android.
Marlinspike said enabling the new calling feature on iOS would enable the use of Callkit which allowed for answering calls with a single touch from the lock screen. For this, both parties have to be using the new beta.