Amazon buys Wickr encrypted messaging

Amazon announces the acquisition of Wickr, an encrypted messaging which, in addition to being available to individuals, is accessible to businesses and federal agencies.

Takeover of Wickr by Amazon (AWS)

The interesting thing about the Wickr buyout is that it is advertised by Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is the cloud branch of the American giant. “Today, public sector clients use Wickr for a wide variety of missions,” explains AWS. “Companies use Wickr to maintain the confidentiality of communications between employees and business partners, while complying with regulatory requirements,” adds the new owner. There is no information regarding the amount of the repurchase.

According to Stephen Schmidt, vice president of AWS, “The need for this kind of secure communications is accelerating.” He adds : “With the transition to hybrid work environments, especially due to the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses and government agencies have a growing desire to protect their communications in many remote locations”.

The encrypted messaging market is already busy. There is in particular WhatsApp which has more than two billion users worldwide. Another popular service is Apple’s iMessage. There is also Signal. As for Telegram, there are 500 million users, but conversations are not encrypted by default.

So it will be interesting to see what Amazon’s plans are with Wickr. The group does not say anything about the future, but nevertheless specifies that the existing uses remain in place with the takeover.