Are WhatsApp Messages Really End-To-End Encrypted? Elon Musk Says No — X Chat, Telegram Emerge Favourites

A class-action lawsuit filed in a California federal court against Meta, WhatsApp, and Accenture has renewed scrutiny of WhatsApp's privacy record, prompting users and critics to weigh alternative messaging platforms such as Telegram and Elon Musk's X Chat.

The complaint, lodged in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by plaintiffs Brian Y. Shirazi and Nida Samson, accuses Meta-owned WhatsApp of intercepting private user messages despite its end-to-end encryption guarantee and sharing them with third parties, including Accenture contractors, Open magazine reported.

The suit names Meta Platforms, WhatsApp LLC, Accenture PLC, and Accenture LLP as defendants, and alleges that backdoor access in the app's source code allowed Meta employees and outside contractors to view user messages. The plaintiffs are seeking declaratory relief, damages, and a jury trial.

Meta has denied the claims, describing them as 'categorically false and absurd' in a statement issued through WhatsApp's official X account. The company said WhatsApp had used the Signal protocol for end-to-end encryption for a decade, and that only senders and recipients could read message contents.

Elon Musk, who owns X, responded to the filing by posting 'Can't trust WhatsApp' and directing users to X Chat, which he said 'comes with this great benefit of actual privacy.' Telegram founder Pavel Durov went further, branding WhatsApp's encryption 'the biggest consumer fraud in history' and accusing the service of deceiving billions of users. Durov said Telegram had never read user messages or shared them with third parties.

X Chat and Telegram Emerge as WhatsApp Alternatives

X Chat has drawn the most attention of the alternatives since the lawsuit surfaced. The service offers end-to-end encrypted text messages, audio and video calls, file transfers, disappearing messages, and an unsend function, and it does not require a phone number to register. Musk said during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience late last year that X had rebuilt its entire messaging stack around a peer-to-peer encryption system modelled on the cryptographic approach used by Bitcoin, and that a standalone X Chat app would follow the integrated version within months.

Security researchers have questioned X Chat's key-management design, and the product has not undergone an independent third-party audit. Musk has also declined to release detailed encryption documentation.

Telegram, meanwhile, has more than a billion monthly active users. Its default cloud chats are encrypted in transit and at rest on Telegram's servers but are not end-to-end encrypted. Only the Secret Chats feature offers full end-to-end encryption, and it is not available for group chats or channels.

Signal Not The Best WhatsApp Alternative?

Signal, widely regarded as the benchmark for secure messaging, has not been included in the list of alternatives as the app is facing fresh scrutiny of its own after US investigators recovered deleted Signal messages from an iPhone by extracting data stored in the device's notification database, NewsBytes reported.

The disclosure came during a federal trial tied to a July 2025 incident at the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas, where a group was accused of setting off fireworks, vandalising property, and shooting a police officer. FBI Special Agent Clark Wiethorn testified that incoming Signal messages were retrieved from the iPhone of defendant Lynette Sharp even after the app had been removed from her device.

According to the report, when iPhone lock-screen message previews are enabled, fragments of Signal messages linger in the phone's internal notification database after the messages themselves are deleted or set to auto-disappear.

The recovered data included only incoming messages, and authorities accessed it after gaining physical possession of the handset and running forensic tools on it. The forensic finding did not break Signal's encryption, and the app allows users to hide message content in notifications, which significantly reduces the amount of data a device retains.

The class-action suit against Meta, WhatsApp, and Accenture remains pending in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, where plaintiffs are seeking to represent a nationwide class of WhatsApp users, along with California and Pennsylvania subclasses.