Oh and I’m setting up a Signal group for my work colleagues. Privacy for work conversations is important.
Anecdotally, I’m seeing a handful of my actual contacts appear on my Signal. Nothing like a mass exodus but still more than I expected.
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Well, I just started properly using Signal as a WhatsApp alternative and was really loving it… until its servers went down causing a global outage (still ongoing).
Status page: https://status.signal.org
Seems like it might be a victim of its own success!
Time for everyone to flee to WhatsApp 
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Do people read privacy policies?
Why can’t they make what they do share so easy to understand? 
But have they really switched? Signal might be getting x thousand sign ups but how many people are fully moving all their messaging somewhere else?
So far I’m regularly messaging zero new contacts on a different platform and none of my many WhatsApp groups has had any discussion about switching.
At best this is piquing people’s interest about alternatives. Which is a good thing but I don’t see the floodgates opening.
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More like tens of millions to be honest
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That’s probably 10s of millions who are probably wondering what the fuss is about this secure messaging app that can’t send messages!
I’m sure it’s frustrating many users - after all, it’s an inconvenience to all of us that now use the service to communicate with friends and family. However, I suppose I’m fortunate that the people I know that have recently adopted Signal over WhatsApp understand that when a previously rather obscure messaging service grows by many tens of millions of users in the space of a few days, there are bound to be some hiccups associated with the monumental increase in server demand. They and I are seeing it as a promising sign of just how many WhatsApp users actually care about their privacy and have taken the initiative to find a better alternative. And to be honest, if Signal can get things up and running again in the next few hours, that’s still pretty good going considering that it’s something like a 7 or 8x increase in users (guesstimate) they’ve seen in about a week. I’d like to see a tech giant that could cope with such an increase in demand in such a short space of time.
I just hope this temporary blip doesn’t deter too many people from a more privacy-respecting messaging solution.
Edit: my guesstimate for the increase in users since WhatsApp’s new privacy policy announcement was based off Google Play download data, adding on an estimate for iOS users. I’ve just read an article by the BBC that quotes a 36x increase in downloads of Signal for the week following WhatsApp’s announcement compared to the week prior! That’s absolutely insane!
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Really like the ide of swtiching to Signal, set it up and logged in but not a single contact already has it. Don’t fancy my chances of being able to encourage many off whatsapp to be honest!
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Every time I go onto signal a few more people trickle onto it. His went on now and there are another 3. Now my total is 8…
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How do you even tell that? I got a notification saying a friend had joined signal but I’m damned if I can find out who… invite friends just offers to send an email blast…
In your list of messages you should have an “X is on Signal!” message for each of your contacts that has joined.
You may need to have the relevant notification settings turned on.
Nope, no messages…
I got a notification ‘You have 1 friend on signal’ but no indication who it might be and there’s nothing in the app.
Telegram is easy, you go to its front page and they’re listed.
This might help you find an indication in the Signal app:
How do I know a contact is using Signal?
- On Android , when looking at your contact list within Signal, a blue letter in the outside column will indicate it is a Signal contact. If you have Signal set as your default SMS/MMS app, then you will also see non-Signal contacts listed.
- On iOS and Desktop , Signal contacts who are stored in your phone’s contact list will be shown as someone you can start a conversation with.
(source: https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007061452-Does-Signal-send-my-number-to-my-contacts- )
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That’s a swanky screenshot! How did you do that? Is it an app?
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Signal and Telegram are amazing for what they are plus its much better to have something outside of the Facebook Monopoly to be honest 
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