Encrypted messaging app Peerio launches on Android and iOS

Startup Peerio today announced the availability of its encrypted messaging app on both iOS and Android. They’re a long time coming; Peerio first launched in January 2015, but it’s only been available on desktop, and the alpha and beta testing for the mobile apps — which support cloud storage, group chat, and offline read access — have been going on for several months. Now the iOS app is on the App Store, and the Android app is on the Google Play Store.

Plus, all the code for the app is available for anyone to inspect on GitHub under an open source GPL license.

“With the mobile apps now in the wild, the desktop clients now logged with 15 months of user testing and feedback, and three independent security audits, we’re plenty confident in presenting Peerio as the well vetted, stable, and secure platform that it is — one that has ‘officially’ moved out of beta and is ready to handle your real-world applications,” the Peerio team wrote in a blog post.

Encryption has been in the international spotlight as a result of a public battle between Apple and the FBI over whether the former will help the latter unlock San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook’s work iPhone. Meanwhile, Telegram and Facebook-owned WhatsApp have attracted attention recently because they offer encrypted messaging to millions of people. Other encrypted messaging apps include Signal and Threema.

The startup was founded in 2014 and is based in Montreal.