AWS to Focus on Business Versions of Wickr, Shutter Consumer Version

Amazon Web Services says it will be shutting down the consumer version of encrypted communications service Wickr and will instead focus on the business and enterprise products, AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise.

AWS acquired Wickr, an end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice and video communication service in June 2021. The consumer product, Wickr Me, will no longer accept user registrations after the end of the year and the product will be discontinued entirely at the end of 2023, the company says.

“After careful consideration, we will be concentrating Wickr’s focus on securing our business and public sector customers’ data and communications with AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise, and have decided to discontinue our consumer product, Wickr Me,” the firm says in an update.

The company says it is working closely with customers to meet their secure communication needs with Wick by combining security and administrative features designed to safeguard communications, enforce information governance policies and retain data.

My TechDecisions Podcast Episode 79: Wickr and Encrypted Communication Platforms

Since some business and public sector customers use the tool to communicate with individual users outside of their network, AWS will be enabling that feature in AWS Wickr, the company says.

Steven Schmidt, the vice president and CISO for AWS, said at the time that Wickr had a broad rage of uses.

“Today, public sector customers use Wickr for a diverse range of missions, from securely communicating with office-based employees to providing service members at the tactical edge with encrypted communications,” Schmidt said at the time of the acquisition. “Enterprise customers use Wickr to keep communications between employees and business partners private, while remaining compliant with regulatory requirements.”

While AWS made no mention of the allegations, NBC News in June reported that Wickr Me, the free consumer version of the tool, had become a “go-to destination” for child sex abuse.

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