House Speaker Mike Johnson said that text messages are his "main means of communication."
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he doesn't use Signal, an encrypted messaging app.
"A lot of them text," Johnson said of his GOP colleagues. "That's our main means of communication."
He jokes that his texts are "probably being monitored by the Russians."
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Wednesday that he doesn't use Signal, telling an interviewer that he's in "zero" chats on the encrypted messaging app.
Instead, Johnson said, he primarily communicates via regular text messages.
"I get about 400 a day literally just from members," Johnson said at an Axios News Shapers event in Washington, DC. "A lot of them text. That's our main means of communication."
He added, jokingly: "Probably being monitored by the Russians, for all I know."
Signal is an popular messaging app that uses end-to-end encryption to keep text messages secure, preventing third parties — including foreign governments — from being able to read messages.
While Apple's iMessage also uses end-to-end encryption, regular SMS text messages are generally not encrypted, leaving them vulnerable to hacking.
Signal was at the center of a recent scandal in Washington, when Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to a chat on the platform in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, and other Trump administration officials discussed upcoming strikes in Yemen.
Trump recently discouraged members of his administration from using the app following the incident.
"If you want to know the truth. I would frankly tell these people not to use Signal, although it's been used by a lot of people," Trump told The Atlantic. "But, whatever it is, whoever has it, whoever owns it, I wouldn't want to use it."
Google announced last year that it would deploy safety tools in Google Messages to help users avoid unwanted nudes by automatically blurring the content. Now, that feature is finally beginning to roll out. Spicy image-blurring may be enabled by default on some devices, but others will need to turn it on manually. If you don't see the option yet, don't fret. Sensitive Content Warnings will arrive on most of the world's Android phones soon enough.
If you're an adult using an unrestricted phone, Sensitive Content Warnings will be disabled by default. For teenagers using unsupervised phones, the feature is enabled but can be disabled in the Messages settings. On supervised kids' phones, the feature is enabled and cannot be disabled on-device. Only the Family Link administrator can do that. For everyone else, the settings are available in the Messages app settings under Protection and Safety.
To make the feature sufficiently private, all the detection happens on the device. As a result, there was some consternation among Android users when the necessary components began rolling out over the last few months. For people who carefully control the software installed on their mobile devices, the sudden appearance of a package called SafetyCore was an affront to the sanctity of their phones. While you can remove the app (it's listed under "Android System SafetyCore"), it doesn't take up much space and won't be active unless you enable Sensitive Content Warnings.
Chatbots and other kinds of AI agents may feel like a dime a dozen these days. But the truth is that, for both businesses and consumers, some may be infinitely more useful (and perhaps less dystopian) than others. Today, a startup that’s built a successful business around that concept is announcing a major growth round […]
As previously rumored, Discord, a popular communications platform, is working with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase to plan an IPO as soon as this year, according to a recent report by Bloomberg. The report cites people familiar with the matter and notes that more advisors may come on board as the talks progress.
This isn't the first we've heard about plans for an IPO; an article in The New York Times claimed that Discord had begun exploratory meetings with bankers earlier this month. Even way back in 2022, Discord was exploring the option of a direct listing, but it now seems the company plans to go with a traditional IPO.
Launched in 2015, Discord was initially conceived as an improved way to facilitate communication while playing video games—and gaming-related uses still account for more than 90 percent of its activity. While some previous tools focused mainly on in-game voice chat, Discord supports text, voice, and video, as well as game streaming. It also has robust features for managing communities outside the game and has developer APIs for developing bots, tools, and games that can be used within its channels.
Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Signal is a messaging app that uses end-to-end encryption to keep your messages private.
When you send a message on Signal, the only people who can see it are the recipients.
You can use the Signal app to send texts, photos, videos, and voice messages.
Over the last few years, Signal has become one of the most popular messaging apps. Favored by tech giants, cybersecurity experts, journalists, government officials, and many more, Signal has gone from a darling secret of the security community to a group chatting phenomenon.
It's recently been thrust into the spotlight after the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat where top Trump administration officials discussed bombing Yemen.
According to Goldberg, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio all appeared to be members of the group chat, which was called "Houthi PC small group," referring to the principals committee.
Signal founder and former CEO Matthew Rosenfeld, who goes by the pseudonym Moxie Marlinspike, poked fun at the botched chat in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.
"There are so many great reasons to be on Signal," he wrote. "Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations."
Elon Musk has also endorsed Signal before, writing simply in a post on X in 2021, "Use Signal."
He changed his mind about the app a few years later, though, writing in May 2024 that it had "known vulnerabilities." Signal's president, Meredith Whittaker, later told Wired she went two nights without sleeping "just dealing with Twitter stuff."
"He's been a fan. So I don't know what changed," she said. "What I do know is that, as far as we know, the claim was completely baseless." Whittaker added there was no "serious report" backing up Musk's claims.
Signal is owned by the nonprofit Signal Foundation, which was set up in 2018 by the app's cofounders, Rosenfeld and Brian Acton, who also cofounded WhatsApp. The foundation has five board members and serves to "support Signal's growth and ongoing operations as well as investigate the future of private communication," according to its website.
Here's a guide to the Signal app, including why it's become so popular.
The Signal app, explained
Signal is safer and more secure than most messengers because of a process called "end-to-end encryption." This works by encoding a sender's message in such a way that only the intended receiver can view it.
Neither Signal, nor your phone company, nor the government can read your messages. That's why it has remained popular.
Signal lets you chat securely.
Signal
However, Signal's messages are only secure if both the sender and receiver are using the app.
Encryption itself isn't a unique feature, as apps like iMessage, Telegram, and WeChat also offer it. But one of Signal's selling points is that its source code is also publicly available, so experts have been able to poke and prod at its defenses for years, strengthening it in the process.
Signal's key features
Signal is similar to other messaging apps but with more robust security features. It's available for free on iPhone, Android, Mac, and PC.
Android users can even set their default messaging app to Signal if they want to.
There's a Signal app on nearly every major system.
Signal.org
On a basic level, you can have one-on-one conversations with someone or start a group chat on Signal. In these chats, you can send pictures, videos, internet links, voice messages, and more.
Signal's beta version has tested new kinds of chats with forum-like features, including group admins, updates, and timers for disappearing messages. For now, groups are capped at 1,000 people, but adding and removing people from a Signal group is simple.
If you're concerned about someone accessing the app from your phone, you can lock the Signal app with the same passcode or fingerprint scan normally used to lock your phone.
Signal requires a phone number to join the app. To keep yours private, you can sign up with a Google Voice number. Apple users will want to visit their privacy settings within the app and turn off "Show Calls in Recents" to prevent their history from syncing with the cloud.
You can also set your messages to disappear over time, or set photos to disappear after a single viewing.
Barbara Smith and Vivian McCall contributed to an earlier version of this story.
Instagram is upgrading its direct messages, also known as DMs, with a handful of new features that make its messaging system more competitive with alternatives, like Apple’s iMessage and other third-party apps. On Wednesday, Instagram users globally will gain access to tools to translate messages across 99 languages, tools to schedule and pin messages to […]
Toll booths at Atlantic Beach Bridge on Long Island.
J. Conrad Williams, Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images
Authorities are warning about scam texts that claim unpaid toll fees to access bank info.
Scammers imitate legitimate toll services like FastTrak and EZdriveMA to deceive users.
Avoid clicking links in suspicious texts; report scams to 7726 to protect personal data.
Did you get a text saying that you owe unpaid toll fees? It's probably a scam.
Authorities across the United States are warning about a wave of scam text messages that claim the person receiving the message has unpaid fees. The real goal of the scam is to give the criminals access to your bank account information, police say.
The text messages are the latest phishing scam targeting victims across the country, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a warning that the text messages usually contain a link designed to "deceive drivers into entering banking or credit card information into a website."
"Scammers have become skilled at imitating legitimate companies, sometimes even linking to legitimate websites," Bonta said in a statement. "Text-based toll charge scams are prevalent right now and knowing what to look for can keep consumers safe against these tactics."
Bonta said that scam texts in California may claim to come from the state's toll payment service, FastTrak. One scam text message reviewed by Business Insider claimed to be from Massachusetts' EZdriveMA toll service.
Both state services, EZdriveMA and FastTrak, say they do not send text messages to non-account holders to collect toll payments.
Authorities say the best way to avoid becoming a victim of these fake toll text messages is not to click on the link provided in the message.
Clicking on the link could expose your personal information, such as a driver's license number, to the scammers and put you at risk of identity theft.
The FTC also recommends checking where suspicious messages may come from to see if the source is legitimate and forward scam messages to 7726 (SPAM) to report them as junk mail.
Melanie McGovern, BBB director of public relations, also told BI that the best method to spot a phishing scam is to check from where the text or email came. Scam text messages from the USPS scam last month and the toll collection scam viewed by Business Insider had area codes of +63, originating in the Philippines.
Mastercard wants to help small and midsized businesses harness the power of artificial intelligence. The payments company began a pilot Monday of a generative AI chatbot tool Mastercard Small Business AI, designed to help SMB owners in all categories, regardless of what stage their business has achieved. "AI can't replace the power of human connection,...
Meta is introducing new features for Messenger, its messaging app, including AI-powered noise suppression. Messenger is getting HD video calls and voice isolation, both of which can be enabled via the call settings menu. HD calls are now the default for calls placed over Wi-Fi, Meta says, and an option for calls over cellular. Messenger […]
