So You’re Thinking About Switching To Signal

Written by Karrie Lam

If you have been on Twitter lately, you’ve probably seen the tweet “Use Signal” from Elon Musk, a tweet that has garnered 357.1k retweets to date (13 Jan, 2021). This tweet follows the announcement of Whatsapp’s new privacy policy which has incited much public anxiety, prompting many Hong Kongers to make the switch from Whatsapp to Signal.

Signal saw 7.5million downloads in the second week of 2021, skyrocketing 4,200% compared to the first week. Up until recently, Signal was mainly used by journalists and human rights activists in search of a secure mode of communication.

Signal itself is a non-profit organization rather than a for-profit company. This means that they are mainly funded by grants and private investors who don’t place advertising, thus have little incentive to track users. One of them is Brian Acton who donated $50 million to create the Signal Foundation, which now runs Signal. Reportedly, Acton left Facebook amid clashes with Facebook over how it was eroding Whatsapp’s privacy policy.

How does Whatsapp compare to Signal in terms of data privacy? Both messenger services are end-to-end encrypted, meaning that third parties cannot read the messages nor will they store users’ delivered messages. Signal’s privacy goes beyond that as it only collects users’ phone numbers and is even working on decoupling that by making encrypted contact servers. Messages and photos can also be set to disappear after a customisable time frame.

Signal has seen problems with creation of groups on its services and delays in sending verification codes to users. Questions have been raised about whether smaller apps such as Signal and Telegram are equipped to scale and handle the surge in users.

Further Readings:

1. What is Signal? The basics of the most secure messaging app.

2. Signal messaging app sees meteoric rise in daily installs as people look for WhatsApp alternatives

3. Hong Kongers quit Whatsapp and flock to Signal as privacy watchdog seeks extra time for users to decide on new terms

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