Along with another encrypted app, Telegram, Signal has been
the main beneficiary of online outrage around the changes announced last week,
which require WhatsApp users to share their data with both Facebook and
Instagram.
Telegram said on Wednesday it had surpassed 500 million
active users globally.
Brian Acton, who co-founded WhatsApp before selling it to
Facebook and then co-founding the Signal Foundation, declined to give
equivalent data for Signal but said that the expansion in recent days had been
"vertical".
"We've seen unprecedented growth this past week,"
Acton said in an email to Reuters. "It's safe to say that because of this
record growth, we're even more interested in finding talented people."
He also said Signal was working to improve its video and
group chat functions, allowing it to compete better with WhatsApp, Microsoft
Teams, and other conferencing apps that have become vital to day-to-day life
over the past year.
Signal was downloaded by 17.8 million users over the past
seven days, a 62-fold rise from the prior week, according to data from Sensor
Tower. WhatsApp was downloaded by 10.6 million users during the same period, a
17% decline.
Privacy advocates have jumped on the WhatsApp changes,
pointing to what they say is Facebook's poor track record of supporting
consumers' interests when handling their data, with many suggesting users
migrate to other platforms.
The non-profit Signal Foundation based in Silicon Valley,
which currently oversees the app, was launched in February 2018 with Acton
providing initial funding of $50 million.
It has existed on donations since, with Tesla Inc Chief
Executive Officer Elon Musk among supporters, and Acton said there were no
plans to seek different sources of funding.
"Millions of people value privacy enough to sustain it,
and we're trying to demonstrate that there is an alternative to the ad-based
business models that exploit user privacy," Acton said, adding donations
were "pouring in". Reuters