New iPhone app encrypts your SMS for privacy and… fun?

Here’s an interesting one. App developer Ellis Vigeo has released an iPhone app that applies encryption software to your SMS. The TextSafe app is directly marketed as the thing to use if you want to make sure that someone “snooping” through your phone won’t read your texts.

What does the app do?

The TextSafe application has 10 different classic encryption methods you can choose from. Morse code is in there, as well as methods that cipher enthusiasts will recognise: ROT13, the Vigenère cipher or the Playfair cipher. You simply enter your SMS or email into the app, choose the encryption method you wish to use, and hit send. As long as the person at the receiving has a passcode you’ve both agreed on previously, they can use the TextSafe application to decode the tumbled mess of letters you’ve just sent. Along with Morse code is Tap code - both of which work on an audible level. So the app translates your message into a series of clicks or beeps that it plays at you.

The app is available right now for under $1.50

What we think?

I have to admit, it was the word “fun” that caught my attention. Mobile security companies very rarely use the word fun. This app is more about giving people the opportunity to play around with classic encryption methods than it is about actual security. And when I say “classic”, I mean it. Some of these methods are over 150 years old, and are more likely to be used to teach basic cryptography than anything else. A cryptanalyst could bust most of these wide open with a pen, paper and some free time. Nevertheless, this app does strike me as fun. It’s one of the things that applications are really good for - honestly, how often would you get to play around cryptography day to day? I just wish the press release hadn’t said things like “given the lack of privacy in today’s digital world, TextSafe provides a great foundation for privacy in personal electronic communications.” If you want true privacy, you’re going to have to pay a bit more than one dollar fifty.