Signal app downloads drop from January peak, WhatsApp holds steady
Downloads of the Signal app spiked to 9 million for 2 weeks straight in January, after Elon Musk “endorsed” the service on Twitter. But after WhatsApp delayed rollout of its new privateness coverage, which grants father or mother Facebook Inc. considerably extra entry to customers’ industrial chats, downloads of the messaging upstart fell to 2.5 million per week after which 750,000 and 450,000 within the following fortnight, information shared by app analytics agency Sensor Tower confirmed.
In distinction, WhatsApp downloads, which slipped whereas Signal surged, are again at 2.8 million per week in India. WhatsApp has over 400 million customers within the nation and has been downloaded 1.4 billion occasions in India since 1 January 2014.
“We’re most likely seeing that the initial surge in adoption has subsided among those who’d decided to seek an alternative to WhatsApp,” stated Randy Nelson, head of cellular insights at Sensor Tower. “Those who were concerned about the privacy policy change most likely made a decision early on to explore an alternative, which means those installs were occurring right away after the news broke.”
Signal’s head of development & communications Jun Harada stated the corporate would not disclose consumer numbers publicly and subsequently cannot share specifics. However, he added that third get together app information firms typically underreport obtain numbers.
Telegram, one other messaging app that’s in style for its giant group sizes and for permitting customers to share large recordsdata, has seen downloads maintain at about three million weekly in India. Telegram has had 168 million lifetime installs in India until date, whereas Signal has had about 23.5 million downloads to this point.
Telegram declined to remark for this story.
Brian Acton, the co-founder of each WhatsApp and Signal, offered WhatsApp to Facebook for $19 billion in 2014. He left the social media big in 2017 after a tussle with CEO Mark Zuckerberg on monetising WhatsApp.
Experts stated a big share of customers are actually multi-homing as a result of leaving WhatsApp is hard as their private {and professional} networks nonetheless use the app.
“Yes, the trend is that many people are using multiple messaging apps instead of a single app earlier. Other apps are complementing their digital lives. While users cannot sign off WhatsApp, they are trying new apps for some features and also because they perceive them to be more secure,” stated Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst at techARC, expertise analytics supplier.
Vivek Pathak, director at consulting agency RedSeer, stated the following six months might be essential to see how customers adapt these newer messaging platforms.
“While customers will proceed to make use of WhatsApp, they are going to begin exploring extra of Telegram and Signal to guage which one fits higher and if their family and friends are additionally utilizing it. They may even begin wanting into which platform makes it simpler to share video and audio recordsdata going ahead,” Pathak stated.
