Signal tops free app chart as WhatsApp turns data hungry
18 Jan 2021
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Signal has climbed to the top spot in the free apps category in India, followed by WhatsApp and YouTube, after WhatsApp’s new privacy policy forced many users to migrate to safer messaging platforms.
Signal also claims to be the top downloaded app in Germany, France, Austria, Finland, Hong Kong, and Switzerland as well.
Reports say WhatsApp's new privacy policy asking its users to either accept the changes in its terms of service and privacy policy by 8 February or let go their accounts.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has unveiled a new privacy policy, which demands that users share more data with WhatsApp. This forced many users to shift to other messaging apps.
More than 100,000 users are reported to have installed Signal while Telegram picked up nearly 2.2 million downloads, according to data analytics firm Sensor Tower.
Advantage Signal
- Signal is touted to be the world's most secure app and there is no fear of user data being shared;
- Signal does not ask for users' personal data like WhatsApp in the name of privacy;
- It also does not send unsecured backups of users to the cloud and it keeps the encrypted database secure in your phone;
- Signal App has a 'Data Linked to You' feature, which means no one can take the screenshot of that chat messages;
- Signal App has an additional feature that makes your old messages automatically disappear.
While the popularity of the Signal app shot up further after Tela CEO Elon Musk endorsed the app. Musk, currently the world's richest man, issued a call to 'Use Signal' to his millions of Twitter followers. Musk tweeted that he uses Signal App and not WhatsApp for messaging. After Elon Musk's tweet there have benn a continuous downloading of the Signal App, so much do that the app currently tops charts.
The Signal app has been developed by a non-profit company, the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC. It is a messaging app and works on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Mac and Linux.
The messaging app with a focus on privacy, has been around since 2014. Signal’s tagline is 'Say Hello to Privacy' and the service is end-to-end encrypted. In fact, WhatsApp uses the Signal protocol for its end-to-end encryption feature.
