Signal app downloads drop from January peak, WhatsApp holds steady

Bengaluru: Downloads of Signal app in India have slipped from their January peak, even as WhatsApp’s remained steady after the world’s largest messaging app delayed implementation of its controversial privacy policy.

Downloads of the Signal app spiked to nine million for two weeks straight in January, after Elon Musk “endorsed” the service on Twitter. But after WhatsApp delayed rollout of its new privacy policy, which grants parent Facebook Inc. significantly more access to users’ commercial chats, downloads of the messaging upstart fell to 2.5 million per week and then 750,000 and 450,000 in the following fortnight, data shared by app analytics firm Sensor Tower showed.

In contrast, WhatsApp downloads, which slipped while Signal surged, are back at 2.8 million per week in India. WhatsApp has over 400 million users in the country and has been downloaded 1.4 billion times in India since 1 January 2014.