Switzerland-based Threema has unveiled various Christmas improvements, bug fixes and additional features in its data privacy and sovereignty focused secure messaging app for businesses.
Threema’s Android edition, now in 5.2.1, has new translations as well as a fixed user interface (UI) bug in the group details and another fix of a crash that had been happening when the app wasn’t permitted to display notifications. In v5.7.1 for iOS, various improvements and bug fixes were also rolled out.
“As they say, a tidy house equals a tidy mind. Arguably, the same applies to the digital space,” the vendor said in a related blog post.
These fixes follow 12 December changes in v5.7 for iOS including a new option for periodic deletion of old messages after a specified amount of time and an overhauled Profile tab, as well as improved voice message performance, and group calls.
According to Threema, a new ‘set and forget’ feature also enables users to specify a time span after which old chat messages can be automatically deleted, instead of relying on a manual process – reducing storage challenges.
In the Desktop version, fixes and updates were rolled out to accessibility, media downloads and more, such as support for archived and pinned chats and ‘scroll to bottom’ buttons in the chat view, the vendor said.
According to Threema, the 10-year-old messaging vendor aims to provide a business-grade alternative to the likes of Whatsapp, Signal or Telegram. There’s a comparison (by Threema) here.
Threema‘s open-source derived messaging app aims to offer privacy by design, with no phone number or email address required; end-to-end encryption of transmitted messages; and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.
The vendor boasts its own servers in two independent locations in Switzerland, with one able to take over the tasks of the other during outages.
“All software is developed in house in Switzerland. No work is outsourced,” according to the Threema website, adding that because it’s not financed by advertising, the company does not collect user data.
“Where there is no data, no data can be misused. Threema’s server only assumes the role of a switch: After a message has been delivered to its recipient, it will be permanently deleted at once.”
The approach has been recently extended to push notifications with the launch of Threema Push, avoiding use of push tokens. Some users may have concerns about the potential for governments to request detail associated with push tokens.
“If government authorities are given certain user data of a push-notification service and certain user data of a messenger service, they can potentially establish a connection between someone’s messenger identity and their Apple or Google account,” the company explained.
( Photo by Mourizal Zativa on Unsplash )
