A little old but interesting non the less
The DoD recommended apps are Signal and Wickr .
Surprising isn’t it
Although to be far those have both been around for a while
if a hostile party has access to the handset, that encryption isn’t particularly helpful
Things like Molly-FOSS might help better with that, keeping its database locked and encrypted at rest on its own separately from any OS encryption or security. Perhaps GrapheneOS or similar could be beneficial as well.
If you want something with not so many government ties, and maybe more decentralized, there is also SimpleX, Briar and Tox.
The problem with Molly encryption is that you can’t receive notifications when it is locked. That isn’t a easy problem to solve but it is something to keep in mind.
Remember, of course, that Wickr has been owned by Amazon since 2021.
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/25/aws-is-buying-encrypted-messaging-service-wickr/
It’s also funded by the CIA. Although Signal is/was also indirectly funded by US Congress via OTF, and some claim that means the CIA is somehow involved too. Of course, computers, the internet and tor also had major US government funding, for what it’s worth.
That’s probably why it is recommended by the US government. They like things they have control over.
Why not telegram?
I hope you are joking
Telegram has strong ties to the US government. It isn’t encrypted by default and has a closed source system.
Because in most cases it isn’t encrypted, when it is it severely reduces functionality, and it doesn’t even use a crypto alg that’s widely approved of by trusted crypto experts?
