Signal witnesses significant surge in new downloads, tops App Store charts

Messaging app Signal has gained significant popularity, witnessing a surge in new downloads this week.

Signal on Saturday morning tweeted that the app has topped the list of free apps on Apple’s App Store charts in India, Austria, France, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, and Switzerland. The messaging app saw a massive surge in new downloads earlier this week following endorsement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Musk,following WhatsApp’s new privacy policy update took a jibe at the Facebook owned platform and tweeted, “Use Signal.”

Also read: WhatsApp to update terms of service, privacy policy from February 8

Signal saw a significant jump in new sign-ups after Musk’s tweet, among other popular endorsements and amid concerns regarding WhatsApp’s new privacy policy where it mentioned that it would share user data with Facebook.

“Verification codes are currently delayed across several providers because so many new people are trying to join Signal right now (we can barely register our excitement). We are working with carriers to resolve this as quickly as possible. Hang in there,” Signal had tweeted.

Downloads of the app from India have increased by 79 per cent from January 1 to 6 compared to December 26 to 31 as per data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower, Times of India reported.The app is a a non profit-run encrypted messaging app. It is managed by Signal Messenger, LLC, an organisation co-founded by Brian Acton, who is also the co-founder of WhatsApp.

Also read: Telegram makes major updates for its app: Here’s all you need to know

WhatsApp earlier this week announced that it has updated its terms of service and privacy policies which will take effect on February 8. The Facebook-owned messaging platform has started to notify users regarding the change. Users are required to accept the new terms in order to continue using the app.

A Facebook spokesperson in a statement to The Verge said that the update to its terms is meant to address data sharing between Facebook and WhatsApp with regard to messaging with businesses. The new terms will not effectively change anything with regard to consumer chats, the spokesperson said as per the report.