Mike Waltz seen using less-secure version of Signal during White House meeting

New photos taken during a cabinet meeting led by US President Donald Trump show that top US officials are using a different version of the Signal messaging app. The images, captured by Reuters on Wednesday, show the phone screen of Mike Waltz, who was recently removed from his position as national security adviser.

Waltz's phone shows what looks like a chat on an app named TM SGNL, which is a custom version of the popular Signal messaging app. The version is believed to be created by a company named TeleMessage, which clones popular messaging apps but includes the feature to save and archive conversations.

According to a report from 404 Media, this extra feature may remove end-to-end encryption, which makes Signal trusted for secure communications. If messages can be saved and stored elsewhere, they may not be fully private.

"TM SGNL appears to allow archiving, which may mean that private conversations are no longer fully secure," the outlet reported.

HIGH-LEVEL OFFICIALS PART OF THE CONVERSATION

Waltz's phone screen showed that he was talking to a number of senior White House officials. Among them were Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.

These officials are part of top-level security talks, including those surrounding the war against Ukraine and US activities in the Middle East.

This is not the first time that Waltz's handling of sensitive information has come under the light. Earlier in March, he added a journalist in a group chat where US officials were discussing military plans to bomb targets in Yemen, plans that were subsequently implemented.

In one of the latest photos, a message from Rubio could be seen reading, "There is time," while JD Vance appeared to write, "I have confirmation from my counterpart it’s turned off. He is going to be here in..." The context of these messages is unclear.

WALTZ REMOVED, SIGNAL APP STILL APPROVED

Earlier on Thursday, Trump removed Waltz from his position as national security adviser. He has now been appointed as the US ambassador to the United Nations. Marco Rubio, who was already serving as Secretary of State, will temporarily take over Waltz’s former role.

In response to the viral photos, a White House spokesperson responded to questions by telling The Washington Post, "As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones."

However, it's not yet certain if the TM SGNL version used by Waltz is officially approved or safe enough for high-level communication.

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