(Acton left Facebook in 2017 and has been publicly critical of the social network.)

Signal is run by the nonprofit Signal Technology Foundation, an organization from Open Whisper Systems founder Moxie Marlinspike and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton that looks for ways to develop open-source privacy software. WhatsApp topped 2 billion monthly active users in 2020, Statista says.įunction-wise, Signal is similar to WhatsApp, minus the complicating factor of being owned by Facebook. That has since exploded in the wake of a privacy policy snafu with rival app WhatsApp, though Signal declined to release exact numbers, according to Reuters (Opens in a new window).

Signal had approximately 20 million active users in December 2020, TechCrunch reports (Opens in a new window). But it's a double-edged sword, as this level of secrecy on Signal and similar apps can also give cover (Opens in a new window) to bad actors. This can be helpful for people who work with sensitive content, like journalists, organizers, or those living under repressive regimes.

'We’ve designed the Signal service to minimize the data we retain about Signal users, so the only information we can produce in response to a request.is the date and time a user registered with Signal and the last date of a user’s connectivity to the Signal service,' the app maker said (Opens in a new window) in 2016. If the cops want access to your chats, messages, or files, they'll need direct access (Opens in a new window) to your device because Signal has no record of them. Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, which is a complicated way of saying that only the device sending the message and the device receiving it can see the content of messages. A flood of sign-ups took it offline briefly this month, but it's back and ready to shield your chats from prying eyes. The messaging app achieved mainstream status after Black Lives Matter protests, a WhatsApp privacy mishap, and a boost from Elon Musk on Twitter. It's been a turbulent year, but Signal come through it on top.

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Download signal app for mac