Wickr’s free encrypted messaging app is shutting down next year

Wickr Me, an encrypted messaging app that Amazon Web Services owns, will be closing down on December 31, 2023. In A post from its websiteWickr stated that the app will no longer accept new user registrations after December 31st 2022. Then, it will be gone completely next year.

Wickr was acquired by AWS last yearThe paid version of the secure messaging application was packaged within the company’s offerings for business. This version of the app, Wickr AWS, isn’t going away, and neither is Wickr Enterprise. The only affected app is Wickr Me. This app is used often by journalists, whistleblowers and others who want to keep their messages private from prying eyes.

Recent reports however suggest that the app has been used by criminals. NBC News Reporting in June that the app is “a go-to destination” for people who want to share images of child sex abuse. It’s also been implicated in the past It is a major hub for drug dealers who’ve been forced off the dark web.

“After careful consideration, we will be concentrating Wickr’s focus on securing our business and public sector customers’ data and communications with AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise, and have decided to discontinue our consumer product, Wickr Me,” the post reads. “We also realize that some of our business and public sector customers use Wickr to communicate with individual users outside their network. We’re focusing on enabling this in AWS Wickr too.”