What matters most when choosing a private messaging app?

Building a private messaging app has made us think a lot about what “privacy” actually means to everyday users.

Encryption is obviously important, but we’ve found that privacy goes beyond encryption alone. Things like requiring a phone number, collecting unnecessary data, showing ads, or making privacy features difficult to use can also shape how private a messaging experience feels.

While building Rackon, we’ve tried to approach this by combining end-to-end encrypted communication with an ad-free experience, minimal data collection, and the option to connect through a unique ID instead of sharing a phone number.

We recently reached a milestone by bringing Rackon to the App Store, and it has made us even more interested in how other Makers think about this problem.

If you were choosing a private messaging app today, what would influence your decision the most?

Is it strong encryption, minimal data collection, not sharing your phone number, usability, or something else entirely?

Would love to hear how others here think about the trade-off between privacy and convenience.