On January 12th, Signal tweeted and confirmed its latest development in the app with some new exciting features resembling its arch-rival, WhatsApp. For the past couple of months, this commotion has but only increased post the new privacy policy of WhatsApp. You can read more about that here.
Now with this strategic move, Signal has made it easier for many reluctant WhatsApp users to shift as the new features will make them feel at home. Signal has seen a sudden surge of demand with about 2 million added users every day after the fallout of Facebook-owned WhatsApp and its delayed implementation for the same.
The updated version 5.3 for iPhone users brings in a lot of colorful features with it! Such as
1. Chat Wallpapers
Users can now choose unique wallpapers for individual chats or just set one default wallpaper as per your liking.
2. Animated Stickers
Conversations have now become more fun with this feature in place. You can create and share animated stickers with individual and multiple chats.
3. About You
You can make your Signal profile interesting by optionally sharing something “About” yourself in the About field, just like on WhatsApp.
4. Lower Usage Data
Users can choose “Low data mode” during Signal calls. This will help while you are on low network range or on poor working WiFi.
5. Group Call
More the merrier. You can now add up to 8 participants in your group call as opposed to just 5.
Apart from these, some other features are media auto-download settings, which means you can pause and resume when downloading a large attachment or automated while a call is in progress, group link share for others to join, image quality and compression so that image quality will not be lost when shared, etc. Other cool updates are zooming in profile pictures of your friends to get a better full-screen view and display of Signal chats for iPhones when sharing from other apps (this is optional, it can be disabled any time).
As you can see, these features mimic most of WhatsApp’s. Along with its strict data privacy, the updated version of Signal is now expanding to please its ever-growing popularity and usability globally. Signal continues to be the most trending app on Google store and App store, followed by Telegram in the past couple of months.
The numbers have seen consistent growth, especially among Indian users, even after the government has asked WhatsApp to scrape its new policy. With this new update, Signal brings more to the table in terms of utility hence, making it the preferred and obvious choice for the switch.