Whatsapp stopped working for two hours on Tuesday. Many were left without an instant messaging application, which is why it’s worth having a backup option already on the phone.
Signal has quickly become a popular instant messaging app. PDO
The instant messaging application Signal became famous a year and a half ago when Facebook, or now Meta, changed its terms of use. Although the changes in conditions in Europe were not as dramatic as in the US, many ended up switching from Whatsapp to Signal.
Signal is almost identical to Whatsapp. The user can create chat groups, send pictures, videos and audio messages and share files. It is also possible to make voice and video calls with the application.
The best aspects of the application are its privacy protection. Signal is open source, unlike Whatsapp.
Signal does not store any information about the user and the messages sent within it are end-to-end encrypted. This means that the service itself does not have access to the messages sent within it. Messages can be set to disappear automatically, like Whatsapp.
Signal is logged in with a phone number, just like Whatsapp. The application is free to use.
Another significant difference to Whatsapp is that Signal is developed by the non-profit Signal Technology Foundation, and not by a billion-dollar company. For the time being, Signal is still running on donations.
One of Signal’s founding members was the one who founded the original Whatsapp Brian Actonwhich sold Whatsapp in 2014 to Facebook for $19 million.
Select both
Data security expert Petteri Järvinen commented on the Whatsapp outage to Iltalehti earlier. He highlighted the problematic situation where people only use one messaging app and only trust its operation.
That’s why it’s worth having an alternative contact method in case of unexpected situations. It might be a good idea to use both Whatsapp and Signal at the same time. The use of the services can be differentiated, for example, so that one is used for communication with friends and family and the other for work use, for example.
If one of the services stops working for some reason, you can switch to another service. An outage of a few hours does not necessarily have significant effects, but even in the longer term, the non-functioning of the service can cause problems.
Järvinen also pointed out that in families with children, children should be instructed in situations where, for example, the parents cannot be reached with Whatsapp. It’s a good idea to save speed dials on the phone so that the child can easily call loved ones.