A single tweet by the world’s newly-minted richest individual, Elon Musk, gave global attention to this lesser-known cross-platform encrypted messaging app. The Signal service, along with Telegram, is seeing a huge migration of Whatsapp users to these two platforms, according to numerous media sources.
WhatsApp’s updated Privacy Policies and Terms of Use have raised consumer privacy issues, and it is now apparent that user data is being shared with Facebook and other Facebook applications and services.
Signal was launched back in 2014 by the non-profit Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC as a counterpart to RedPhone and TextSecure. Signal increased in the number of users only in 2019 and 2020, however.
State-of-the-art end-to-end encryption (powered by the open-source Signal Protocol) keeps your communications secure, says Signal’s website. We can’t read your email or listen to your phone calls, and neither can anyone else. Privacy is not an optional mode, it’s just the way Signal runs. Every post, every call, every moment.” In addition, “In Signal, there are no commercials, no affiliate advertisers, and no weird monitoring. So work on sharing with the ones that matter to you, the things that matter.
Signal tweeted about the tremendous rise in traffic they are having and the delay in users signing up. Signal also thanked the carrier after coordinating with the carriers to get the certification process synchronized and told them of the registration process being up to date without any delay.
“It stated, “We have opened an AMA over on r/technology @reddit to help welcome anyone coming to Signal. To continue to develop the app and answer any questions about who we are, we want to hear from as many of you (old and new) as possible! ”
Overtaking Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, and others, Signal topped the charts among free apps. “Look at what you did,” Signal tweeted, highlighting how the software has evolved in India.
Will it also imply the rise of new entrants with the start of a new year to threaten the current monopolistic players? Will the likes of Whatsapp be dethroned by Signal and Telegram? Would they be able to keep up with the huge demands of consumers? This is an intriguing wait and see.
