Signal messaging app has gone through a transformative week following the change in WhatsApp’s new privacy policy. After the latest update on 12th January, signal app downloads shot from 10 to 50 million within few days.
Minimal features and trusted end-to-end encryption (E2EE) has led the users to shift from their favorite green app to Signal. The growing messaging service has been endorsed by the likes of Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, Former CIA Resource, Edward Snowden, and the world’s richest Person Elon Musk. They have been using it atop any other messaging app because of its sincerity with privacy.
WhatsApp tried to announce that there has been a wide misconception about their new policy. It clarified that it does not share user data with its parent company, Facebook. It further claimed that all conversations, calls, or contact list of users were secure. However, it did not stop Signal’s users from growing in numbers.
While Signal remains one of the best alternatives of WhatsApp, it still lacks some of the big features that most users have grown accustomed to.
Cannot Update Status In Signal Messaging App
First of all, smartphone users must note that there is currently no “Status” feature in Signal messaging app. Status Update is a notable feature in WhatsApp, Facebook, and other popular messengers. Some people love to show off their on-going activity, or a gorgeous location they’re at. Status updates can be in a form of a text, image, or video. It is fun for users to go through their friends’ statuses and see what they were up to.
Track of Online/Last Seen
One distinctive feature that made Whatsapp famous was the ability to see the online status of a person. Like WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook messengers also had it. The feature allows users to be visible to other people whenever they open the messaging application. By doing so, they also reveal how long ago they were online on the app. Of course, users can simply turn this feature off if they do not need it. For those who do use it, Signal messenger is not offering this ability right now.
Chat Wallpapers
This is one function that users might not have to wait much in order to get, in their new substitute of WhatsApp. Right now, they won’t be able to change the wallpapers inside the chat. But, the developer has confirmed that this feature is coming soon with impending updates.
No Chat Backups To Third Party Could Service
Users that have recently adopted Signal might have also noticed that it does not backup chat history. Some users have loads of data in chat history which they might need in future after deleting the app, or changing the phone. WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, allowed user to back up their chats to a third-party cloud service like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive. Telegram is another competitor of WhatsApp and Signal which is offering in-built cloud backup system. Some users have requested the developer to add some kind of online drive to backup chats in a secure way.
While this feature might be useful for some, it may compromise privacy which was the main problem of WhatsApp. By backing up chats on a cloud server, the messaging system becomes centralized and removes E2EE from backups. Until there is a safe cloud to create chat backups, the developer of Signal messaging app is providing the option to enable backup in local storage.
Unable To Send/Receive Payment With Contacts
WhatsApp Pay is a fast growing payment system like PayPal and Paytm. India was the leading country with most active WhatsApp users who were used to this payment method. Facebook just launched this UPI-based payment feature in the final quarter of 2020. It subsequently released the carts as well for businesses on WhatsApp. Users will not be able to do that on Signal as there is currently no option to switch between personal or business mode in the app.
The signal messaging app solely seems like to be in the favor of an average user, who just wants to use this platform for what it is with absolute privacy. Facebook family apps have all these additional features but there is one useful features that the big tech does not have. This features is called “note to self” which people can use to send text messages to themselves directly instead creating a separate group, like in WhatsApp.
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