▶ What happened to Signal? The failure of this secure alternative to WhatsApp

The mistrust of WhatsApp's security, especially since it was bought by Meta (formerly Facebook) has often led to talk of alternatives. And Signal was one of the apps that was best positioned to achieve it.

This tool offered very similar services, but focused especially on privacy.

This made it catch the attention of many users. Its downloads increased at a dizzying speed, and the specialized media did not stop talking about it.However, the furore was short-lived Now, a few months later, very few are still using this tool on a regular basis. And in this article we are going to try to decipher the causes for which it has happened.

The force of the contum

The main reason why we haven't embraced Signal as much as it might seem is very simple.

And it's simply that we are more used to using WhatsApp. This app is so integrated into our lives today that changing and stopping using it is almost unthinkable.

In addition, an effect is produced that is like whiting biting its own tail. If our contacts do not use Signal, we will have no choice but to continue communicating with them by WhatsApp Then we will be another of those users who do not use Signal and no one will be able to communicate either with us by this means.This is a problem that virtually all messaging apps have faced.

It already happened years ago with apps like Line or Telegram. Unseating WhatsApp implies that users change deeply rooted habits, something that is not easy.

Are we really that concerned about privacy?

Signal came to our smartphones promising us a better management of privacy and security than we can find in WhatsApp. But the reality is that this is something that most people don't seem to care too much about.

While obviously keeping our data secure would be ideal, the reality is that we live in a connected world where we share everything we do without seeming to care muchWe have no problem, for example, in showing on Instagram that we are on vacation leaving the house empty.

And as we have mentioned before, avoiding the inertia of "sending a WhatsApp" is not always easy. Then we see how we would have to modify that habit to gain a security to which we pay practically no attention in other social networks. Which most users don't do. So Signal's privacy enhancements aren't particularly appealing to the general public.

Signal's future

After failing to unseat WhatsApp, the future of Signal looks quite uncertain. For now, as the app itself has announced on its blog, has withdrawn support for SMS, in what seems to be the company's first small step back.

Signal has sold this change as a way to stop making efforts to offer new services to focus on providing more privacy options.At the moment, users who have this tool as their default app to receive text messages on Android will have to look for an alternative.

Whether this small change is just a step back to gain momentum or is the beginning of the end for the application is something we will have to wait a little longer to find out.

It is possible that it disappears like so many others or that lives with WhatsApp in the same way that Telegram does. What seems unlikely is that it will become a true competition for the Meta tool as it was originally aspired to.