A Project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation 
We don't currently recommend WhatsApp for secure communications. See here for a full explanation.
, which ensures that a message is turned into a secret message by its original sender, and decoded only by its final recipient. We take no issue with the way this encryption is performed. In fact, we hope that the encryption protocol WhatsApp uses, the Signal Protocol, becomes more widespread in the future. Instead, we are concerned about WhatsApp’s security despite the best efforts of the Signal Protocol.If you would still like to use WhatsApp, see our tutorial below and be sure to turn off cloud backups and turn on fingerprint change notifications (see section on Additional Security Settings).
WhatsApp is an application that allows users on mobile devices to communicate with each other using end-to-end encryption. With it, users can securely chat with and call each other, send files, and engage in group chats. Although WhatsApp uses telephone numbers as contacts, calls and messages actually use your data connection; therefore both parties to the conversation must have Internet access on their mobile devices. Due to this, WhatsApp users don't incur SMS and MMS fees.
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. The app itself is closed-source software, which means that it is very difficult for outside experts to confirm that the company has implemented their encryption in a secure way. Nonetheless, the methods that WhatsApp uses to send encrypted messages are public, and regarded as secure.
Installing WhatsApp on your iPhone
Step 1: Download and Install WhatsApp
Step 2: Register and Verify your Phone Number
WhatsApp will request access to your contacts. If you grant this access, WhatsApp will have a full list of your contacts' phone numbers. If you do not grant this access, you can manually add each of your contacts for chat messages, however you cannot make a new call without granting WhatsApp access to your phone's contacts. If you'd like to send photos, media, or files, Whatsapp will request access to these files as well.
Using WhatsApp
. Tap for more info." At this point, you can verify the authenticity of the person you are talking with, to ensure that their encryption key wasn't tampered with or replaced with the key of someone else when your application downloaded it (a process called key verification). Verifying is a process that takes place when you are physically in the presence of the person you are talking with. To verify, you can manually view the contact by tapping on their name at the top[1], then in the subsequent screen, tapping on the blue lock icon[2]:
Another verification method you may want to consider is taking a screenshot of the numbers and sharing it over a secondary secure channel, like PGP-encrypted email.
Additional Security Settings
Show Security Notifications
As stated above, if for any reason the encryption key of a contact changes, you may want to be notified of this change.
changing is no cause for alarm: this often happens as a result of app re-install or switching phones. There is, however, the possibility of a key change being caused by a malicious third party performing a man-in-the-middle attack. For this reason, it is good practice to verify (as described above) once again when the key of your contact changes. By default, WhatsApp doesn't display when contacts keys change. To enable this, go into Settings → Account → Security, and slide 'Show security notifications' to the right:
iCloud Backup
Also stated above, you'll probably want to ensure that unencrypted backups are not sent to Apple.
Navigate to Settings → Chats → Chat Backup to ensure cloud backups are turned off. Under "Auto Backup" choose "Off":
