WhatsApp is getting more and more competition.
The multi-billion dollar online retailer Amazon is also targeting the messenger service.
Seattle - When WhatsApp tweaked its data protection rules, the messenger Croesus drew a lot of resentment.
Although there was no major migration to the competition, alternative news services such as Telegram or Signal still experienced a little hype.
Now the retail giant Amazon is also getting into position and buying Wickr.
Wickr is a US messenger platform designed for communication in companies and organizations and, according to the company, particularly secure.
Messages, calls and video chats are fully encrypted.
The US Army, among others, is building on the program, which is why Wickr is also known as a “military messenger”.
The service recently became part of Amazon.
Competition for WhatsApp: Amazon buy Wickr - also interested in Signal
"The need for this type of secure communication is increasing," wrote Stephen Schmidt, Information Security Officer at Amazon Web Services (AWS), in a blog post last Friday.
The Wickr purchase explained the growing need for communication and security by companies and authorities since Corona made the world of work hybrid.
According to reports, Amazon's Web Services division has been toying with productivity apps for some time. Accordingly, until recently, the Internet trading giant was considering placing a bid for the currently hyped messenger service Signal. Ultimately, however, the decision fell on Wickr. Although Signal would have resulted in a significantly larger user base, Wickr owns "valuable intellectual property in areas such as encryption" - and was simply cheaper, according to an anonymous source. It is not known under what conditions Amazon bought the “military messenger”.
Although the new Amazon Messenger with its subscription models Wickr Pro and Wickr Enterprise is primarily geared towards companies and authorities, private individuals can also use the Messenger (Wickr Me) free of charge, albeit with a few restrictions.
For example, video chats and calls are only possible with one person and group chats are limited to ten people.
It is currently not known whether Amazon will break this structure in order to fish in WhatsApp waters in the future.
But what you do know: Most of the executives of the security team at Amazon do not use Wickr to communicate with others - they use Signal.
