This Friday, March 10, 2017, file photo shows the WhatsApp communications app on a smartphone in New York City. Encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram are seeing huge increases in downloads from Apple and Google’s app stores in early January 2021, while WhatsApp’s growth is down following a privacy fiasco in which the company was forced to clarify a message it sent to users. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File)
Encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram are seeing huge increases in downloads from Apple and Google’s app stores. Facebook-owned WhatsApp, on the other hand, is seeing its growth decline following a fiasco that forced the company to clarify a privacy update it sent to users.
Mobile app analytics firm Sensor
Tower said Wednesday that Signal saw 17.8 million app downloads from Apple and Google during the week of Jan. 5 through Jan. 12. That’s a 61-fold increase from just 285,000 the week Nepal WhatsApp Number List before. Telegram, a messaging app already popular with global internet users, saw 15.7 million downloads between Jan. 5 and Jan. 12, roughly double the 7.6 million downloads it saw the week before.
WhatsApp, meanwhile, saw its downloads drop to 10.6 million, down from 12.7 million the previous week.
Experts say the shift may reflect a rush of conservative social media users looking for alternatives to platforms like Facebook, Twitter and the now-shuttered right-wing site Parler. The mainstream sites suspended President Donald Trump last week and have stepped up enforcement of violent incitement and hate speech.
Parler, meanwhile, was unceremoniously booted from the internet after Apple and Google banned it from their app stores for failing to moderate incitement. Amazon later cut Parler off from its cloud hosting service. Experts worry that these moves could lead to further ideological splintering and further hide extremism in the dark corners of the internet, making it harder to track and combat.
WhatsApp’s growth slows as rivals Signal and Telegram surge
This Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, file photo shows the encrypted WhatsApp Number Database messaging app Signal being loaded on a smartphone in Paris. In early January 2021, encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram are seeing huge increases in downloads from Apple and Google’s app stores, while WhatsApp’s growth is down following a privacy fiasco in which the company was force to clarify a message it sent to users. (AP Photo/Raphael Satter, File)
WhatsApp didn’t do itself any favors when it recently Bulk Database told users that if they don’t agree to a new privacy policy by February 8, they’ll be cut off. The notice was in reference to WhatsApp sharing data with Facebook, which. While not entirely new, may have hit some users this way.
Confusion over the notice, compound by Facebook’s history of privacy incidents. Force WhatsApp to clarify its update to users this week. The company said its update “does not in any way affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family,” adding that the policy changes were necessary to allow users to message businesses on WhatsApp.
