Message platforms Signal and Telegram have both seen a gigantic surge in downloads around the world over after a questionable update to WhatsApp's terms and conditions.
As per information from analytics firm Sensor Tower, Signal was downloaded all around the world multiple times the week before WhatsApp declared the change on 4 January and 8.8 million times the week after. This included big surges in India, where downloads went from 12,000 to 2.7 million, the UK from 7,400 to 191,000, and the US from 63,000 to 1.1 million. In a progression of tweets, Signal said a few people were detailing issues with creating groups and postponements to verification codes showing up in light of the fast development but that it was addressing the issues.
Telegram has proved to be even more popular, with downloads booming all around the world from 6.5 million for the week starting 28 December to 11 million over the next week. In the UK, downloads went from 47,000 to 101,000. Furthermore, in the US they went from 272,000 to 671,000. During the same period, WhatsApp's worldwide downloads shrank from 11.3 million to 9.2 million.
One industry watcher said he didn't think this fundamentally spoke to a major issue for WhatsApp, which has been downloaded 5.6 billion times since its launch in 2014.
"It will be hard for opponents to break user habits, and WhatsApp will keep on being one of the world's most popular and broadly utilized messaging platforms," said Craig Chapple, mobile insights strategist at Sensor Tower.
WhatsApp reassured its clients that it doesn't keep logs of every individual who is messaging, it can't see your shared location, it doesn't share your contacts to Facebook, and that groups can stay private. It likewise exhorts clients that they actually have the choice to set messages to disappear and that they can't download their information. WhatsApp's clarification may figure out how to reassure a few clients that the privacy changes aren't as troubling as first dreaded, yet for other people, it might have come past the point of no return.
