After WhatsApp updated and changed its privacy policy, there has been much talk amongst users to change over to the new messaging platform, Signal. Signal is now being recommended by the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. If you are thinking of making the shift to Signal then here’s what you need to know about this app. ‘
The Signal messaging application is compatible with Android, Apple, Linux, and Max devices, which makes it more than popular amongst users. It prides itself on being able to provide privacy and according to their privacy policy, they do not have access to messages being sent and received. Signal only saves messages which are being sent to recipients who are ‘offline’, till the time the messages are received- this is owing to their end-to-end encryption feature. The message history is also, only saved on accessing devices.
Users can add up to 150 contacts on groups, at a time, and have the other features of messaging, and voice and video calling. At this point people who want to join the app will require an ‘invite’ from current Signal users. It also offers the option to ‘disappear’ a chosen chat for anywhere between 5 seconds to a week.
Signal is currently the most downloaded app on Apple App Store. More so because it has proven to save much less private data, as compared to WhatsApp. In an added effort to secure user data, it has the ‘sealed sender’ feature that disallows anyone to understand the sender and receiver identity.
With these features that respect privacy in a world of surveillance, Signal is taking on its major competitor WhatsApp in a big way, and might just win this round.