After WhatsApp announced a more Facebook-friendly privacy policy, tech billionaire Elon Musk nonchalantly suggested using a more secure, encrypted messaging service. As the Apple App Store and Google Play rankings show, people followed Musk’s advice.
Musk’s tweet came in early last Thursday with just two words: “Use signal.” It ignited a download storm for the WhatsApp option. As many years of users noticed, more and more alerts appeared that new users were joining the messaging app. With so many new downloads, there was even a wait.
Data from the app analysis company Apptopia shows that there were only 63,345 downloads of Signal apps worldwide on Thursday, after the tweet. The day before, there were 45,086 downloads. It is on both iOS and Android devices.
But it took a whole day for Musk̵
Over the weekend, Signal hit the first app in the entire App Store for iOS devices. It’s still on top track Monday afternoon. It has never been at the top before. For Android users, it ranked number seven overall, also the highest it has ever been for the Google Play Store.
