Threema Blog

For the longest time, Swiss German was exclusively a spoken language – everything written had to be in standard German. This has changed with the emergence of chat apps like Threema: with its informal character, instant messaging helped dialects find their way into written communication.

Voice messages polarize: while some use this feature on a daily basis, others prefer to keep their hands off it. Whichever camp you belong to: the most recent Threema update for iOS has something for everyone, sporting a new look for voice messages and adding the option to star messages.

Over the past days, two popular chat services have accused each other of having undisclosed government ties. According to Signal president Meredith Whittaker, Telegram is not only “notoriously insecure” but also “routinely cooperates with governments behind the scenes.” Telegram founder Pavel Durov, on the other hand, claims that “the US government spent $3M to build Signal’s encryption” and Signal’s current leaders are “activists used by the US state department for regime change abroad.”

Imagine searching for an address, a restaurant recommendation, or anything else you’ve recently received via Threema – but you don’t remember who sent it. That’s where the new global search in Threema for iOS comes in handy: it allows you to search across all individual, group, and archived chats at once.

Despite new regulations, Apple is trying to maintain its monopoly on the distribution of iOS apps, claiming it is necessary for security. The real reasons, however, are of economic nature. Not only does Apple’s restrictive model have drawbacks in terms of security, it is inherently hostile to privacy.

Many aspects of our lives have become digital. The more time we spend in the digital sphere, the more we face decisions that have a direct impact on our privacy. However, it often goes unnoticed in what way these decisions put our privacy at risk.

Every year on January 28, the international Data Privacy Day is held. We take this day (or the week it falls in) as an opportunity to highlight once again the significance of data protection and online privacy – and each year, we must stress that these topics are more important than ever before.

Over the past days, push notifications and the impact they have on data privacy has become a hot topic not only in tech circles but also in mainstream media. The debate was sparked by a letter from US Senator Ron Wyden, asking the Department of Justice to allow push-service providers, in particular Apple and Google, to inform the public about government requests for so-called “push tokens.” The topic has stirred up some confusion, which is why we would like to set a few things straight.

As they say, a tidy house equals a tidy mind. Arguably, the same applies to the digital space, which is why the latest Threema versions for Android and iOS come with a handy little feature to tidy up your chats for you.

This probably sounds familiar: you receive a message that has little relevance at the moment but to which you’ll want to refer at a later point – like a shopping list, travel directions, or event details.