There are countless reasons why you can hate Facebook. The world’s most popular social network might be too intrusive, too restrictive, it has a lot of annoying users and useless posts, and so on. Furthermore, the latest privacy policy updates regarding WhatsApp managed to piss off a lot of people.
WhatsApp users from all across the world received a notification on their screens that urges them to give approval for their data to be collected by Facebook. If they don’t agree, they’ll lose their WhatsApp accounts. Social networks and forums had been flooded with reactions on the topic, and many had been thinking of alternatives.
Try out Signal
Elon Musk, that billionaire whom a lot of people were once thinking that he’s speaking nonsense about space exploration and colonizing Mars, recommends the Signal app as an alternative. He wrote it very briefly:
Use Signal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021
The first and foremost thing we all should know about Signal is that it also uses encryption to keep the users’ messages private. Elon Musk’s tweet had a tremendous impact on Signal’s fanbase. Although the app had only about 20 million users at the end of December 2020, it’s now enjoying the popularity of 525 million users.
Signal’s description from Google Play is conclusive enough:
Millions of people use Signal every day for free and instantaneous communication anywhere in the world. Send and receive high-fidelity messages, participate in HD voice/video calls, and explore a growing set of new features that help you stay connected. Signal’s advanced privacy-preserving technology is always enabled, so you can focus on sharing the moments that matter with the people who matter to you.
Another strong resemblance that Signal shares with WhatsApp is that both apps work on the Android and iOS platforms, but you can also install them on your desktop computer.
