If you use WhatsApp, you have a new feature. They’ve partnered with Open Whisper Systems to bring encrypted end-to-end chats by default:
The most recent WhatsApp Android client release includes support for the TextSecure encryption protocol, and billions of encrypted messages are being exchanged daily. The WhatsApp Android client does not yet support encrypted messaging for group chat or media messages, but we’ll be rolling out support for those next, in addition to support for more client platforms. We’ll also be surfacing options for key verification in clients as the protocol integrations are completed.
WhatsApp runs on an incredible number of mobile platforms, so full deployment will be an incremental process as we add TextSecure protocol support into each WhatsApp client platform. We have a ways to go until all mobile platforms are fully supported, but we are moving quickly towards a world where all WhatsApp users will get end-to-end encryption by default.
Now this is good. But Apple’s iMessage has done this from day one. Thus WhatsApp is playing catch up in a way. But data is still backed up to the company’s servers, so that differs from WhatsApp in that regard. Still, it’s hard to complain about getting more security by default.