iOS users will need to tap their profile icon and then Settings to access the full menu.) (Note: Android users can access Signal’s Settings menu either by tapping their profile icon or selecting the menu under the three dots in the upper-right corner, then tapping Settings. The app does periodically send truncated, hashed phone numbers back to Signal’s servers, which is how it checks if any of your contacts are also using it, but the company also says it discards that information “ immediately.” That way, the app can alert you when one of your contacts signs up for Signal if you’d rather not get those updates, tap Settings, then Notifications, and toggle off Contact Joined Signal. You should feel comfortable letting Signal access your device’s contacts it stores that information on your phone, not in the cloud.

But Signal stands apart, both for its rich features and the fact that its code has been open source for years, meaning cryptographers have had plenty of opportunities to poke and prod it for flaws. Signal is not the only messaging app to offer end-to-end encryption iMessage has it, as do stand-alone apps like Telegram. All of those people can take advantage of end-to-end encryption, which means that no one-not the government, their phone company, or Signal itself-can read the contents of messages as they pass between devices. Apptopia now estimates Signal has more than 600 million active monthly users. It saw another surge in January 2021 after WhatsApp, which end-to-end encrypts personal chats using the Signal Protocol, botched the messaging around a privacy policy update. In May 2020, as police brutality protests swept US cities, daily Signal downloads nearly tripled from their average, according to analytics company Apptopia. Signal’s popularity often spikes in times of strife or when alternatives seem more precarious.

And thanks in part to a $50 million infusion in 2018 from Brian Acton, the former WhatsApp CEO and current interim Signal Foundation CEO, the once niche app is more accessible than ever. Wade, Signal represents most people’s best way to communicate safely. Whether it’s to protect sensitive conversations amid social unrest or to keep your communications private after the fall of Roe v. In times of uncertainty, people rightly often turn to the encrypted messaging app Signal.

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