Messaging apps
Google Play shows a data-safety declaration one app at a time. Here are 6 messaging apps side by side, so the differences are visible rather than remembered. Categories none of them declares are hidden.
Messaging apps are the clearest case where the declaration matters more than the marketing. Nearly all of them now advertise end-to-end encryption, which protects message content and only message content — but the data-safety form asks about everything around it: who you talked to, when, from where, and on which device. Two apps can both encrypt every message and still declare completely different amounts of metadata collection, and metadata is what reveals your social graph. Read the Contacts, Device IDs and App activity rows below more closely than the Messages row.
| Data category | Messengerdeclares 14 collected, 2 shared | Sessiondeclares 0 collected, 0 shared | Signaldeclares 1 collected, 0 shared | Telegramdeclares 7 collected, 0 shared | Viberdeclares 10 collected, 4 shared | WhatsAppdeclares 7 collected, 0 shared |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Collected | Collected & shared | Collected |
| Personal info | Collected & shared | Not declared | Collected | Collected | Collected & shared | Collected |
| Financial info | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared | Collected & shared | Collected |
| Health & fitness | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared |
| Messages | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Collected | Collected | Not declared |
| Photos & videos | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Collected | Collected | Not declared |
| Audio | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Collected | Not declared | Not declared |
| Files & docs | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Collected | Not declared | Not declared |
| Calendar | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared |
| Contacts | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Collected | Collected | Collected |
| App activity | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared | Collected | Collected |
| Web browsing | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared | Collected | Not declared |
| App info & performance | Collected | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared | Collected | Collected |
| Device or other IDs | Collected & shared | Not declared | Not declared | Not declared | Collected & shared | Collected |
| Declares data encrypted in transit | Yes | Not declared | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Declares you can request deletion | Yes | Not declared | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Source | Play listingVerified 2026-08-06 | Play listingVerified 2026-08-06 | Play listingVerified 2026-08-06 | Play listingVerified 2026-08-06 | Play listingVerified 2026-08-06 | Play listingVerified 2026-08-06 |
Questions about messaging apps
- If a messaging app is end-to-end encrypted, does its data-safety declaration still matter?
- Yes. End-to-end encryption protects the contents of your messages from the provider. The data-safety form covers everything else the app collects — contacts, device identifiers, usage patterns and location. An app can encrypt every message it carries while still declaring that it collects and shares who you contacted and when, which is often the more revealing dataset.
- Why do some messaging apps declare collecting no data at all?
- Some apps genuinely do not collect the data categories Play asks about, particularly those that do not require a phone number or account. Others declare very little because the form covers only what the developer's own systems collect. Either way, the declaration is the developer's own statement and is not audited by Google.