Wire Swiss

Last updated
Wire Swiss GmbH
FormerlyZeta Project Swiss GmbH
Company type Private
Industry Communication software
Founded2012
FoundersJonathan Christensen, Priidu Zilmer, Alan Duric
Headquarters Zug, Switzerland [1]
Key people
Benjamin Schilz, CEO
Juan Perea Rodríguez, General Manager, CCO [2]
Products Wire
Number of employees
50 [3]
Website wire.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Wire Swiss GmbH is a software company with headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. [1] Its development center is in Berlin, Germany. [4] The company is best known for its messaging application called Wire.

Contents

The Wire app allows users to exchange end-to-end encrypted instant messages, as well as make voice and video calls. [1] The software is available for the iOS, Android, macOS, Linux and Windows operating systems [5] and WebRTC-compatible web browsers. [6] It uses the Internet to make voice and video calls; send text messages, files, images, videos, audio files and user drawings depending on the clients used. It can be used on any of the available clients, requiring a phone number or email for registration. It is hosted inside the European Union and protected by European Union laws. [7] [ third-party source needed ]

Many employees working on Wire have previously worked with Skype, and Skype's co-founder Janus Friis is backing the project. Audio quality is one of Wire's key selling points. [8]

Since January 2024 the company is headed by Benjamin Schilz as CEO. Before joining Wire, Schilz founded Acorus Networks and later worked for the security company F5. [9]

History

Wire Swiss GmbH was founded in Fall 2012 by Jonathan Christensen, Alan Duric and Priidu Zilmer, who previously worked at Skype and Microsoft. [10] Jonathan Christensen previously co-founded Camino Networks in 2005 with Alan Duric, who also co-founded Telio. [11] Camino networks was later acquired by Skype, a division of Microsoft Corporation. At Skype, Jonathan was responsible for getting Skype into new platforms such as Internet televisions and set-top boxes, [12] while Priidu Zilmer, former head of design at Vdio, lead the Skype design team. [13] On December 7, 2017, the company announced that former Huddle CEO Morten Brøgger had replaced Alan Duric as the company's CEO, and that Duric would join Wire’s Board of Directors and resume his role as CTO/COO. [14] [15]

The company launched the Wire app on December 3, 2014. Shortly after its launch, the company retracted a claim from their website that the app's messages and conversation history could only be read by the conversation participants. [16] [17] In August 2015, the company added group calling to their app. [18] From its launch until March 2016, Wire's messages were only encrypted between the client and the company's server. In March 2016, the company added end-to-end encryption for its messaging traffic, as well as a video calling feature. [1] [3] Wire Swiss GmbH released the source code of the wire client applications under the GPLv3 license in July 2016. [19] [20] The company also published a number of restrictions that apply to users who have compiled their own applications. Among other things, they may not change the way the applications connect and interact with the company's centralized servers. [21] [22] Wire Swiss started open sourcing Wire's server code in April 2017. [23] On September 19, 2017, the company announced that they had finished open sourcing the server code, licensed under the AGPL. [24] In July 2019 Wire raised $8.2m investment from Morpheus Ventures and others. [25] On July 18 of the same month, 100% of the company's shares have been taken over by Wire Holdings Inc., Delaware, USA. As of August 13, 2020 the Wire Group Holding GmbH from Germany is the sole shareholder of Wire Swiss GmbH. [26]

App

Features

Wire allows users to exchange text, voice, photo, video and music messages. [27] The application also supports group messaging.

The app allows group calling with up to ten participants. [28] A stereo feature places participants in "virtual space" so that users can differentiate voice directionality. [18] The application adapts to varying network conditions.

The application supports the exchange of animated GIFs up to 5MB through a media integration with a company called Giphy. [29] The iOS and Android versions also include a sketch feature that allows users to draw a sketch into a conversation or over a photo. [30] YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify and Vimeo integrations allow users to share music and videos within chats. [10]

Wire is available on mobile and web. The web service is called Wire for Web. [10] Wire activity is synced on iOS, Android and web apps. [13] The desktop version supports screen sharing. [31]

Wire also includes a function for ephemeral messaging in 1:1 and group conversations. [32] [33]

With Wire for Teams, Wire introduced a paid product with a series of features available to businesses. [34] It offers the administration of team members: Adding and removing people, assigning roles, and inviting guests to specific chats. [34]

Technical

Wire provides end-to-end encryption for its instant messages. Wire's instant messages are encrypted with Proteus, a protocol that Wire Swiss developed based on the Signal Protocol. [35] [36] Wire's voice calls are encrypted with DTLS and SRTP, [18] [35] and its video calls with RTP. [1] In addition to this, client-server communication is protected by Transport Layer Security. [4]

Business model

Wire Swiss GmbH receives financial backing from a firm called Iconical. [3] According to an article published by Reuters , Wire Swiss has not disclosed how much funding it has received, and in March 2016, it had yet to discover a sustainable business model. [3] Wire Executive Chairman Janus Friis told Bloomberg that the company will "never create an advertising-based business model", but "might charge for certain premium services in the future". [1]

In July 2017, Wire Swiss announced the beta version of an end-to-end encrypted team messaging platform. [37] In October 2017, Wire officially released the team messaging platform as a subscription based communication solution for small businesses. [38]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Instant messaging</span> Form of computer communication over the internet or locally

Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate (real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involving simple text message exchanges, modern IM applications and services tend to also feature the exchange of multimedia, emojis, file transfer, VoIP, and video chat capabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pidgin (software)</span> Open-source multi-platform instant messaging client

Pidgin is a free and open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple that has support for many instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to simultaneously log in to various services from a single application, with a single interface for both popular and obsolete protocols, thus avoiding the hassle of having to deal with new software for each device and protocol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skype</span> Telecommunications software service/application

Skype is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, debit-based calls to landline and mobile telephones, and other features. It is available on various desktop, mobile, and video game console platforms.

The landscape for instant messaging involves cross-platform instant messaging clients that can handle one or multiple protocols. Clients that use the same protocol can typically federate and talk to one another. The following table compares general and technical information for cross-platform instant messaging clients in active development, each of which have their own article that provide further information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Talk</span> Instant messaging service

Google Talk was an instant messaging service that provided both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service was variously referred to colloquially as Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage among its users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skype for Business Server</span> Real-time communications server software

Skype for Business Server is real-time communications server software that provides the infrastructure for enterprise instant messaging, presence, VoIP, ad hoc and structured conferences and PSTN connectivity through a third-party gateway or SIP trunk. These features are available within an organization, between organizations and with external users on the public internet or standard phones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skype for Business</span> Enterprise instant messaging and video conferencing software by Microsoft

Skype for Business is an enterprise software application for instant messaging and videotelephony developed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft 365 suite. It is designed for use with the on-premises Skype for Business Server software, and a software as a service version offered as part of 365. It supports text, audio, and video chat, and integrates with Microsoft 365 components such as Exchange and SharePoint.

This is a comparison of voice over IP (VoIP) software used to conduct telephone-like voice conversations across Internet Protocol (IP) based networks. For residential markets, voice over IP phone service is often cheaper than traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) service and can remove geographic restrictions to telephone numbers, e.g., have a PSTN phone number in a New York area code ring in Tokyo.

eBuddy Instant messaging software

eBuddy is a privately held Dutch software company that offers instant messaging services. As of 2011, eBuddy reported 100 million downloads. The company's flagship service is XMS, a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging service. After some changes of ownership, the company is now again owned by its original founders, Onno Bakker and Jan-Joost Rueb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WhatsApp</span> Messaging and VoIP service owned by Meta Platforms

WhatsApp is an instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers. The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client.

Silent Circle is an encrypted communications firm based in Washington DC. Silent Circle provides multi-platform secure communication services for mobile devices and desktops. Launched October 16, 2012, the company operates under a subscription business model. The encryption part of the software used is free software/open source and peer-reviewed. For the remaining parts of Silent Phone and Silent Text, the source code is available on GitHub, but under proprietary software licenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upptalk</span> Proprietary voice-over-IP service and software application

Upptalk was a proprietary voice-over-IP service and software application that provided mobile phone numbers in the cloud and allows users to call or text any phone for free whether or not the device receiving the calls and texts has the Yuilop application. The service was discontinued in 2017 and even its domain was abandoned.

Wickr is an American software company based in New York City. It is known for its instant messaging application of the same name. The Wickr instant messaging apps allow users to exchange end-to-end encrypted and content-expiring messages, and are designed for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. Wickr was acquired by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in mid-2021. The free version of the app was discontinued in December 2023.

TextSecure was an encrypted messaging application for Android that was developed from 2010 to 2015. It was a predecessor to Signal and the first application to use the Signal Protocol, which has since been implemented into WhatsApp and other applications. TextSecure used end-to-end encryption to secure the transmission of text messages, group messages, attachments and media messages to other TextSecure users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open Whisper Systems</span> Open source software organization

Open Whisper Systems was a software development group that was founded by Moxie Marlinspike in 2013. The group picked up the open source development of TextSecure and RedPhone, and was later responsible for starting the development of the Signal Protocol and the Signal messaging app. In 2018, Signal Messenger was incorporated as an LLC by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton and then rolled under the independent 501c3 non-profit Signal Technology Foundation. Today, the Signal app is developed by Signal Messenger LLC, which is funded by the Signal Technology Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Threema</span> Instant messaging smartphone service

Threema is a paid cross-platform encrypted instant messaging app developed by Threema GmbH in Switzerland and launched in 2012. The service operates on a decentralized architecture and offers end-to-end encryption. Users can make voice and video calls, send photos, files, and voice notes, share locations, and make groups. Unlike many other popular secure messaging apps, Threema does not require phone numbers or email addresses for registration, only a one-time purchase that can be paid via an app store or anonymously with Bitcoin or cash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signal (software)</span> Privacy-focused encrypted messaging app

Signal is an open-source, encrypted messaging service for instant messaging, voice calls, and video calls. The instant messaging function includes sending text, voice notes, images, videos, and other files. Communication may be one-to-one between users or may involve group messaging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signal Protocol</span> Non-federated cryptographic protocol

The Signal Protocol is a non-federated cryptographic protocol that provides end-to-end encryption for voice and instant messaging conversations. The protocol was developed by Open Whisper Systems in 2013 and was introduced in the open-source TextSecure app, which later became Signal. Several closed-source applications have implemented the protocol, such as WhatsApp, which is said to encrypt the conversations of "more than a billion people worldwide" or Google who provides end-to-end encryption by default to all RCS-based conversations between users of their Google Messages app for one-to-one conversations. Facebook Messenger also say they offer the protocol for optional Secret Conversations, as does Skype for its Private Conversations.

Wire is an encrypted communication and collaboration app created by Wire Swiss. It is available for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and web browsers such as Firefox. Wire offers a collaboration suite featuring messenger, voice calls, video calls, conference calls, file-sharing, and external collaboration – all protected by a secure end-to-end-encryption. Wire offers three solutions built on its security technology: Wire Pro – which offers Wire's collaboration feature for businesses, Wire Enterprise – includes Wire Pro capabilities with added features for large-scale or regulated organizations, and Wire Red – the on-demand crisis collaboration suite. They also offer Wire Personal, which is a secure messaging app for personal use.

Comparison of user features of messaging platforms refers to a comparison of all the various user features of various electronic instant messaging platforms. This includes a wide variety of resources; it includes standalone apps, platforms within websites, computer software, and various internal functions available on specific devices, such as iMessage for iPhones.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kahn, Jeremy (10 March 2016). "Amid Apple's FBI fight, app developers are ramping up encryption". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  2. ↑ Lösel, Sylvia (April 3, 2023). "Fujitsu-Manager wechselt zum Security-Spezialisten Wire". IT-BUSINESS.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Auchard, Eric (11 March 2016). "Skype co-founder launches ultra-private messaging, with video". Reuters. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  4. 1 2 Dredge, Stuart. "Skype co-founder backs Wire – to take on Skype". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "Ex-Skypers Launch 'Wire' Chat App". PCMag. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Perez, Sarah (April 29, 2015). "Wire, The Communications App Backed By Skype's Co-Founder, Arrives On The Web". TechCrunch.
  7. ↑ "Wire · Secure messenger". wire.com. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  8. ↑ Dredge, Stuart (2014-12-03). "Skype co-founder backs startup Wire's 'reimagination of communication'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  9. ↑ "Porträt von Benjamin Schilz - Tagesspiegel Background".
  10. 1 2 3 Perez, Sarah. "Skype Co-Founder Backs Wire, A New Communications App Launching Today On iOS, Android And Mac". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
  11. ↑ "Initial Thoughts On "Wire", The New Communication App From Ex-Skypers". DisruptiveTelephony.com. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  12. ↑ "A veteran & key Skype executive leaves. Quietly!". GigaOm. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  13. 1 2 Sawers, Paul (2 December 2014). "Wire wants to be Skype for the modern age, launches with the backing of Skype co-founder Janus Friis". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
  14. ↑ Ghosh, Shona (7 December 2017). "Huddle's CEO, CTO, and COO have quit 3 months after its acquisition". Business Insider. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  15. ↑ "Tech industry veteran Morten Brøgger joins Wire as the new CEO". Medium. Wire Swiss GmbH. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  16. ↑ "New communications app Wire tones down encryption claims". PCWorld. 5 December 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  17. ↑ Cox, Joseph (4 December 2014). "App Built by Former Skype Employees Retracts Promise Not to Read Your Messages". Wired. Condé Nast. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  18. 1 2 3 Pierce, David (12 August 2015). "Messaging App Declares War on Crappy Conference Calls". Wired. Condé Nast. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  19. ↑ Meyer, David (22 July 2016). "Wire Wants to Bring Encrypted Chat to Cars and the Internet of Things". Fortune. Time Inc. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  20. ↑ "Wire Swiss GmbH". GitHub. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  21. ↑ Menge-Sonnentag, Rainald (27 July 2016). "Wire-Messenger ist jetzt vollständig Open Source". Heise.de (in German). Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  22. ↑ "Wire iOS client". GitHub. Wire Swiss GmbH. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  23. ↑ Lunduke, Bryan (11 April 2017). "Instant messaging service Wire open-sources its server code – Wire has started the process of releasing its server code on GitHub". Network World. IDG. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  24. ↑ "Wire server code now 100% open source – the journey continues". Medium. Wire Swiss GmbH. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  25. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid; Lomas, Natasha (November 14, 2019). "Messaging app Wire confirms $8.2M raise, responds to privacy concerns after moving holding company to the US". TechCrunch.
  26. ↑ "Wire Swiss GmbH". Handelsregister Kanton Zug. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  27. ↑ "Meet Wire, A Communications App Backed By Skype Co-founder Janus Friis". Fast Company. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  28. ↑ "How do I start or end a group call?". Wire Swiss GmbH. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  29. ↑ "Wire and Giphy Make Communication Fun". AppMess. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  30. ↑ "Communicating "I Love You" in the Emoji Era". PSFK. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  31. ↑ Lopez, Napier (30 July 2016). "Open-source Wire messenger gets encrypted screen-sharing". The Next Web. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  32. ↑ "Safe and tidy with Timed Messages". Wire Swiss. 25 October 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  33. ↑ Mott, Nathaniel (25 October 2016). "Encrypted Messaging Apps Wire And Signal Turn To Ephemeral Messages". Tom's Hardware. Purch Group Inc. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  34. 1 2 Darrow, Barb. "In Age of Email Hacks, Startup Brings Secure and Encrypted Chat to Businesses". Fortune. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  35. 1 2 "Wire Security Whitepaper". Wire Swiss GmbH. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  36. ↑ "Add attribution". GitHub. Wire Swiss GmbH. 9 May 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  37. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (20 July 2017). "Wire launches e2e encrypted team messaging in beta". TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  38. ↑ "Encrypted messaging app Wire is taking on Slack with its new business messenger platform | Verdict". www.verdict.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
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