Get to know the new competitor "Signal" application for the WhatsApp application

Lovata Andrean

Whatsapp's New Competitor Signal
Whatsapp's New Competitor Signal

Get to know the new competitor "Signal" application for the WhatsApp application – Changes to privacy regulations recently published by WhatsApp have made those who care about personal data begin to have the intention to leave the messaging application.

Among them is the richest person in the world, Elon Musk, owner of the electric car company Tesla and the SpaceX rocket. Elon Musk, recently recommended this program to his followers (followers) on Twitter.

Based on a report by The Verge, after being promoted by Elon Musk, Signal was flooded with new users to the point that their servers had difficulty sending clarification codes to new users.

Not only Elon Musk, in 2016, the phenomenal whistleblower, Edward Snowden "promoted" Signal.

So, what exactly is the Signal program? Signal is a messaging program like WhatsApp. This program can be downloaded on Android or iOS and there is also a desktop version.

Like WhatsApp, Signal can also be used for free and is encrypted. The interface of this program is almost the same as WhatsApp, including a number of features in it.

It's not strange, because the creator is the same person. Signal is enhanced by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC.

The Signal Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by WhatsApp founder Brian Acton in 2018, after he left Facebook Inc.

Unlike WhatsApp, Signal is enhanced with self-support mode. Users become donors to the Signal Foundation which says it wants to improve communication services that prioritize privacy.

  • Privacy

Collected from Cnet, it's quite difficult to beat Signal in terms of privacy. This program is said to not save user data at all. This was revealed by Forbes who explained the differences in metadata from various messaging programs, such as WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger and Signal.

On its privacy regulations site, Signal admits that it uses end-to-end encryption and modern security mechanisms. All user messages and calls will be completely encrypted.

"They (user data) are not shared or seen by anyone except you and those who receive the message," notes Signal's privacy regulations.

Not just messages, user information, including the number used to register, profile and profile photo will be encrypted. In 2018, Signal introduced Sealed Sender, a sophisticated privacy feature that hides who the sender of the message is and who the recipient is. This feature will further protect user metadata in the back-end mechanism.

  • Similar features to WhatsApp

As mentioned earlier, the features in Signal are exactly the same as those in WhatsApp, including basic features such as text messages, images, videos, sounds, GIFs and documents. Signal has a mute feature, personal and group video calls for up to 5 people.

There is also a disappearing messages feature or eliminating automatic messages which WhatsApp recently added. The difference is, in Signal users can manage the time when messages are automatically deleted, starting from 5 seconds to 7 days.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp only provides a standard for deleting messages after 7 days. Because of the similarity of these features, it is likely that WhatsApp users who move to Signal will not have difficulty adapting.

source: kompas.com

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Lovata Andrean

Hi, I'm Lovata, I'm not Ai but I am a content writer for SEO, Technology, Finance, Travel, Cooking Recipes and others. I hope this can be useful for all my friends. Thanks