Security is on the forefront of many mobile users minds and if it isn’t on yours, then it probably should be. We are hearing more and more about security breaches, hacks, etc. so users need to be a bit more careful. In today’s review, I am looking at PGPTools from SJ Software Development.
PGPTools is an inexpensive app that allows users to encrypt text messages. After you encrypt the message, you can send it however you wish: SMS. email, Skype, whatever you might use on your mobile device. The app is currently available for both Android and iOS, see the market links below.
Now PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy encryption that was created back in 1991 and provides a pretty secure way to protect your information.
Overall the app is not that hard to use, but for some it might take a few minutes to figure out. When you first start the app, you will get a small image tutorial. The developer also created a helpful FAQ page, that provides some explanations.
So what do you do?
- You will need to create a key, which can be 1024, 2048, or 4096 length and a password.
- Type you message in the appropriate box and then hit Encrypt.
- Once your message is encrypted, then you can copy/paste it into another program or hit send email.
- The person who gets the message will need to have access to the key you created. You will be able to send them to them in a separate message.
- If you get an encrypted message and the key you can input that info into this app and quickly translate it. That is it!
So you can see it is not rocket science. 🙂 The apps works great and I had no problems encrypting or decrypting messages.
The app allows you to create as many keys are you want and to import keys also. The keys can be secret or public (those you share). The navigation within the app was a bit confusing at first but after a few minutes using the app, I figured it out quickly.
This app definitely has a lot of applications. Right now I see this more as a business application but anyone who needs to send a message with information they do not want made public could and should use it. Sending an email or message using this app, will take a bit longer to do but the whole point here is to secure your message so the extra time it takes should not be an issue.
PGPTools is an easy to use encyption device that I can recommend to any mobile users.
Download for Android on Google Play
For iOS users:
