Facebook’s WhatsApp is changing its privacy policy on February 8, when it will start sharing some user information with Facebook, including location, phone numbers, profile names and photos, when you last connected online and much more. People are now switching to an alternative text messaging app called Signal, which does not collect their data.
According to Reuters, daily downloads have increased 18-fold since WhatsApp changed its privacy policy, reaching more than 800,000 daily downloads. This was probably partially driven by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted ‘use Signal’ earlier this month.
Signal, like WhatsApp, is a chat app that lets you send messages and call friends and family using end-to-end encryption, which means your messages are better protected and cannot be read easily by anyone, including Signal itself. It supports group messaging and other fun features that you can already use in chat apps, such as GIFs, videos and photos. It still has encrypted group video calls, although support is currently limited to five people. It is completely free and you can use it on iPhones, Android phones, Macs, Windows and Linux PCs.
Signal is also not a big technology company that wants to make money from its information. It is a registered non-profit organization and depends on donations to operate. The free app does not collect your private information and does not contain advertisements.
Here’s how to use it.
How to use the signal
The Signal Messenger app 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 is so that Signal can send a text message and check if you are using the application.
- Enter the code you received by text message.
- Touch “Register without transfer”. If you’ve used Signal before, you can choose “Download from iOS device” to download your old conversations, but for the purpose of this guide, we assume that you haven’t used Signal yet.
- You are now at the Signal home screen.
- Touch the pencil icon in the upper right corner to create a message.
- You can start sending messages to people who are already using Signal. But you may also need to tap “Invite friends to flag” if your contact doesn’t already have the app. This will allow you to create an email message or text message to friends and family with a link to download the application.
- After they sign in, you can start chats using the same pencil icon or create groups, just as you would on WhatsApp. You’ll even see read receipts, links to send audio messages, stickers, photos and more.
That’s it! You are now up and running on Signal. If you want to use it instead of WhatsApp, you can delete your WhatsApp chats by tapping “edit” in the upper left corner of the chat page. Select your messages and tap “delete”. A copy of your messages may remain for other users in the chats you have participated in until they also delete them.