With news this week of the messaging app being used to discuss war plans, we get you up to speed on what Signal should be used for—and what it shouldn’t.

T he Trump administration is facing heavy blowback for using Signal, a messaging app, to discuss sensitive military plans. On March 24, officials’ usage of the app was revealed after The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg published a story titled "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans ,

Signal is a messaging app that uses end-to-end encryption to keep your messages private — not even the company that makes the app can see them.