With Whatsapp announcing its new policy, Signal, a protected and encrypted messaging app, is experiencing a surge in downloads. You can think of it as an alternative option to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, iMessage, and SMS. Here is why we believe you ought to seriously think about switching to Signal messenger.
What is Signal Messenger and why is it special?
The signal app is readily available for Android smartphones, iPhones and iPad. Just like this, there is a Signal desktop for users of Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you want to sign up, all that you require is your phone number.
The client experience of the platform is similar to WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, and other popular chatting apps. It is a messaging app with lots of features like a one-to-one messaging system, group chat, sticker labels, images, file transfers, voice calls, and even video calling. You can also have group talks with as much up to 1000 individuals and group calls with up to about eight people.
The signal is not owned by a huge tech business. Instead, the platform is established by a non-profit structure and is moneyed by donations from people. Unlike Facebook Inc, the app’s owners aren’t even attempting to earn a profit. Signal messenger does not attempt to collect a lot of data of yours or reveal the ads.
While this messaging app has a user-friendly interface, it is extremely various under the hood. Your chats and media on the app are end-to-end encrypted, which suggests that not even the owners of the platform can monitor them. Only individuals who are involved in chats can see them.
How does the Signal messenger work?
As we mentioned, Signal app is available for devices like Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad) as well as desktop PCs, Macs computers and Linux-powered machines.
If we talk about design and functionality, this app is very much similar to WhatsApp and other messengers, so if you are worried about switching to a new IM because you do not want to learn a new system, you need not fret because the app’s interface and functions are more or less the same as WhatsApp. There is no need for learning its features.
With the help of this app, you can transfer IMs, do group calls with up to eight people, send media (including photos and videos), add stickers and gifs to your chats, transfer files, and even make voice and video calls– both on the phone app as well as the desktop one.
Why is Signal suddenly so popular?
End-to-end encryption feature of the signal is its big feature. That is why so many people are using the app because they are concerned about their privacy. At the start of the year 2021, the app was endorsed by everyone from Elon Musk to Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey and has shot to the top-rated apps of Apple and Google’s app store charts.
But Signal messenger did not come from anywhere—instead, it was founded in the year 2013. It is a widely respected piece of software that is long been used by the people who are privacy advocates and other activists. This app was endorsed by Edward Snowden back in 2015.
At the beginning of 2021, the messaging platform has reached even greater mainstream acceptance. With the WhatsApp revamping its privacy policy to share even more information with Facebook, and many users want to bring their conversations out of Mark Zuckerberg’s sight and maintain privacy.
Signal has more updated security features
More often, the new security highlights come to Signal messenger’s platform first. For example, the app has had to disappear messages – which are automatically removed or erased after a predefined timeframe – since 2016 however this function is as yet being tried with little quantities of WhatsApp clients.
Signal identifies you by your phone number
While your chats and information on it are private, you are not anonymous. If you want to sign up for Signal messaging app, you require a phone number. If you wish to talk to someone on it, your phone number is going to be your identifier.
That happens because of its design—it is designed to be a drop-in replacement for the SMS system. When you sign up for the app and install the same, it will ask you for access to the contacts on your phone. The messenger securely scans all of your contacts to see which of them are also using the app—it just examines the contacts and checks whether those phone numbers are also registered on the app.
So, if you and your friend communicate via SMS, you both can go and install the app and easily switch. If you install Signal messenger, you can check which of your contacts you can message via Signal instead of other insecure messaging platforms. You do not have to ask them what their platform’s handle is—you just need their phone number. (However, you can choose to verify the safety numbers associated with a person to ensure you are talking directly with the person you think you are. That is yet another useful security feature in the Signal app.)
If you are concerned about other people you talk to on the platform having your phone number, you can try to sign up with a secondary phone number. But, on a serious note, if you are looking for a chat solution that is not dependent on phone numbers then this platform is not what you are looking for.
How do we get started with Signal?
To begin with, this platform is pretty easy. You need to simply download the official Signal application from either Apple’s App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android smartphones. Just go through the setup process to give the app a particular phone number and access to your contacts. (It depends on you to give the Contact access yet this app is designed to work best with it.)
You would then be able to begin chatting with your friends and family from inside the application.
Do you need to begin conversing with somebody on the messenger rather than an alternate chat application? Simply ask the person to download it and sign up for the app. You will even receive a notification when somebody you know signs up for Signal.
Likewise, you can also download the Signal desktop application for Windows computer, Mac, or Linux from the Signal Foundation’s site. This will sync messages and data from the application on your phone to your computer.
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