Texting has revolutionized the way we communicate. SMS, or the standard text messaging service usable by most mobile phones, has more than 4 billion users. That’s two-thirds of the world’s population.

But of course, just when the world (and my mom) comes to understand the 21-year-old technology, new texting-like services are gaining popularity to meet the increased demand for more efficient international communication.

Instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, iMessage and WeChat offer all the familiarities of texting style, while being internet-based and thereby skirting those hefty international fees.

WhatsApp currently has over 200 million active monthly users — more than Twitter — and handles 18 billion messages a day, more than Facebook. It’s a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging service that allows users to send messages (text, photo, audio, video) over WiFi. Like email, cost does not increase with physical distance travelled. iMessage is similar, but only for iOS users, and WeChat is popular in Asia.

I’ve probably travelled internationally more than the average American. For starters, my father lives in Mexico, and I’m from Seattle, two hours south of Canada. I like to keep in contact with my international friends — I think staying socially connected outside of my own country helps broaden my perspective of the world. When I was younger, international texting rates were unrealistically expensive for staying in touch. The fact that I can text an international friend as easily as my next-door neighbor, using the same service, is just another way our new global community is emerging.

WhatsApp charges a nominal 99 cents per year for the service, with iOS users previously only having to make a one-time payment. This cost is to eliminate the necessity of ads, and further streamline the technology “to become the communications service of the 21st century,” according to the WhatsApp blog. “You don’t want to be interrupted by ads when you’re chatting with your loved ones,” WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said in an interview with The Verge.

So these technologies are out there, and are affordable if not free. But are they secure? That is the question on everyone’s minds in the wake of information released that the NSA is spying on millions of people.

Peter Sunde, best known for co-founding the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, is designing a messaging service that is supposed to be spy-proof.

In response to the NSA’s controversial PRISM project, Sunde announced plans for a “totally secure” rival to WhatsApp and iMessage. The app will be called Hemlis or “secret” in Swedish. The project received over 100 percent of its crowdfunding goal of $100,000 in just 36 hours, and is now in development. Though technical details of the app are scarce, the idea is that all messages will be end-to-end encrypted, beyond even Sunde’s reach. ”No-one can spy on you. Not even us,” Sunde told BBC. A banner on the heml.is website playfully says, “Secrets are only secret if they’re secret.” Hemlis will also be cross-platform, avaiable in the iOS and Android stores to start, for free with optional in-app purchases.

If you’re travelling internationally soon, I’d recommend using WhatsApp for communicating with new friends and those back home. And I can’t wait to try out Hemlis; it looks beautiful, and I appreciate Sunde’s statement about the right to privacy. If there’s anyone I would trust to build a secure messaging service against the American government’s wishes, it is the co-founder of The Pirate Bay. Sunde already has plenty of experience dealing with haters.