AWS Acquires Encrypted Messaging App Wickr

Amazon Web Services is acquiring the encrypted messaging app Wickr, the company announced Friday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Launched in 2012, Wickr's end-to-end messaging service was one of the early pioneers of ephemeral communication, offering encrypted and disappearing messaging long before Signal took off and WhatsApp rolled out encryption of its own. 

Wickr gained traction among enterprises, public sector and government agencies for its advanced security features and zero trust platform design, with the US Department of Defense among its list of customers.

"Today, public sector customers use Wickr for a diverse range of missions, from securely communicating with office-based employees to providing service members at the tactical edge with encrypted communications," said AWS chief information security officer Stephen Schmidt, in a blog post. "Enterprise customers use Wickr to keep communications between employees and business partners private, while remaining compliant with regulatory requirements."

Schmidt said the need for Wickr's style of secure communication is accelerating across sectors. In other words, AWS sees an opportunity to use Wickr to bolster its own portfolio of communication, collaboration and productivity services.

Schmidt said Wickr's services will be offered to AWS customers effective immediately, but notes that Wickr's services will continue uninterrupted for new and existing users.