Facebook WhatsApp changes its privacy policy on February 8, when it starts sharing some information about users with Facebook, including location, phone numbers, profile names and pictures, when you last logged in online, and more. People are now turning to an alternative text messaging app called Signal, which is not collecting your data.
According to Reuters, daily downloads have increased 18 times since WhatsApp changed its privacy policy, exceeding over 800,000 daily downloads. This was probably partly stimulated by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who wrote on Twitter “use Signal” earlier this month.
Signal, like WhatsApp, is a chat application that lets you send messages and call friends and family using end-to-end encryption, which means that your messages are more secure and can’t be easily read by to anyone, including Signal itself. Support group messaging and other fun features you might already use in chat applications, such as GIFs, videos, and pictures. It even has encrypted group video calls, although support is limited to five people right now. It’s completely free and you can use it on iPhone, Android phones, Macs, Windows and Linux PCs.
Signal is not a massive technology company that makes money from your information either. It is a registered non-profit organization and relies on donations to operate. The free app does not collect your private information and does not contain ads.
Here’s how to use it.
How to use Signal
Signal Messenger is displayed on a smartphone in Hong Kong, China.
Roy Liu | Bloomberg | Getty Images
- Download Signal for iPhone or Android.
- Enter your phone number. This allows Signal to send you a text message and verify that you are using the application.
- Enter the code you received via text message.
- Touch “Register without transfer”. If you’ve used Signal before, you can choose “Transfer from iOS device” to download old conversations, but for the sake of this guide, we assume you haven’t used Signal yet.
- You are now at the Signal home screen.
- Touch the pencil icon in the upper right to create a message.
- You can start sending messages to people who are already using Signal. But you may need to tap “Invite friends to report” if your contact doesn’t have the app yet. This will allow you to create an email or text message for friends and family with a link to download the app.
- Once they have joined, you can start chats using the same pencil icon or you can create groups, just like in WhatsApp. You’ll even see reading receipts, links to send audio messages, stickers, photos and more.
That’s it! You are now running on Signal. If you want to use it instead of WhatsApp, you can delete WhatsApp chats by tapping “edit” at the top left of the chat page. Select the messages and then tap “delete”. A copy of your messages may remain for the other users in your chats until you delete the chats.