Facebook And Whatsapp Blackouts Irritate A Lot Of People, But The Signal Can Actually Be A Blessing

Signal employees rejoiced, as there were many new signups on their platform when Facebook went down. (photo: twitter)

JAKARTA - In the chaos of the Facebook outage on Monday, October 4, it's easy to forget the reach of the company. Not being able to post new photos to Instagram is annoying, but it's not a disaster.

But for WhatsApp users, especially outside the US, losing the encrypted messaging service from this Facebook product is a lethal change. WA is one of the most favorite messaging services and is used by many people, even by its own competitors.

In February last year, WhatsApp announced that it had 2 billion users worldwide. Compare that with Facebook which has 2.5 billion users. This illustrates clearly and easily that many people are dependent on WhatsApp. The platform has even become the default method for contacting people in many countries, including about 400 million unique monthly users in India, writes Bloomberg.

It also goes beyond ordinary communication: WhatsApp is also focused on becoming an essential tool for businesses. The app already accepts in-app payments in Brazil and India. Moreover, WhatsApp claimed in October 2020 that 175 million people worldwide use its app to send messages to businesses every day.

Signups are way up on Signal (welcome everyone!) We also know what it's like to work through an outage, and wish the best for the engineers working on bringing back service on other platforms #mondays

— Signal (@signalapp) October 4, 2021

When WhatsApp is down, it means calls and messages to friends and family can go unanswered, customer service requests go unanswered, and important organizing information isn't shared. Secure messaging apps are often also one of the many tools organizers use to lead demonstrations and protests (unless they are blocked).

WhatsApp outages are a big deal for those who rely on it, but it's likely also a boon to competitors with encrypted messaging apps. Major players, Signal, Telegram, and at least in the US, iMessage, all benefited when Facebook and WhatsApp failed and went out. At least so far, only Signal has won the public.

The company couldn't reveal specific numbers to The Verge but said Signal reached a new sign-up level on their platform, "equivalent to January this year." That month, when WhatsApp unveiled its controversial new privacy policy for business messages and Facebook in general came under fire again for the launch it may have played into the January 6 riots in the Capitol, Signal actually benefited. Telegram and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Facebook has restored its services and needs more time before it can really figure out how many people were negatively affected by their platform outage. For now, it's safe to say that it's probably a lot more annoying than not being able to update your stories.