![]() I got myself a computer and watched several YouTube videos to learn more about the software. "I had learnt the basics of coding in school, but when I found myself with so much free time in the lockdown, I decided to explore my interest in coding apps. "It's just a low-cost (for them) way for deliver ads/trackers/etc in the form of an 'app.'"ĭheeraj, in this case, just wanted to make an app during a COVID-related lockdown. "Signal is OSS, so people will take the app, change the name and make the fonts Papyrus or something, put ads in it, then submit it to the Play Store," he added. But Moxie Marlinspike, Signal's CEO and co-founder, said in a tweet that these sorts of clones "happen a lot unfortunately." Signal did not respond to a request for comment. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on, or email. "I didn't know I was creating a clone of Signal, in fact I didn't even know such an app existed," Dheeraj, the boy who made the clone, told Motherboard in a phone call.ĭo you know any other apps violating the Apple App Store or Google Play Store policies? We'd love to hear from you. The app may have been harmless in this instance, but its existence and thousands of downloads shows how it can be relatively easy for someone to take the open source code of Signal and repurpose it for their own means, potentially misleading users about what they're actually downloading in the process. It turned out, Calls Chat is actually a clone of Signal and lets users communicate with people on the legitimate Signal app. The friend had downloaded a different app called "Calls Chat," according to a tweet from Dev. Sharma messaged their friend, but the friend had never even heard of Signal, despite apparently using the app. Since messaging a business account within WhatsApp is completely optional, WhatsApp states that users won’t see any impact from the new privacy policy unless they start a chat with a company.These are all plausible explanations, but at least 10,000 Signal users can be attributed to a 12-year-old kid in India who created a somewhat popular clone of the encrypted chat app.ĭev Sharma, a Signal user from Melbourne, Australia, found the Signal clone when he encountered an unusual thing: Signal displayed a pop-up showing that their friend had just joined the app. It also has more functionality built-in, including the ability to send photos, videos, documents and more. The chat app has long tried to monetise its business by pushing companies to communicate to customers using WhatsApp as it’s more familiar than online chat windows with customer service representatives. Instead, the changes to the privacy policy, which will impact more than two billion users worldwide, will allow more data to be shared with Facebook when users message a business or enterprise account within WhatsApp. This recent surge in popularity for rival messengers has arguably been driven – in part – by reports that WhatsApp’s new privacy policy means users’ text messages and photos will be visible to Facebook, something the firm has vehemently denied. If the reports are accurate and millions of users are fleeing WhatsApp (privacy-focused messaging app Telegram has claimed that it added 25 million new users to its ranks in three days this month), it’s not difficult to understand why parent company Facebook is concerned. However, by the end of the week, WhatsApp has pushed this deadline back by three months to try to quell fears that users were being pushed into agreeing to the small-print. The Facebook-owned firm had told users they’d no longer be able to use the chat app from next month if they failed to agree to the new terms. The influx in new users seems to have been caused by WhatsApp pushing an in-app notification to users to prompt them to sign-up to its new privacy policy. In recent days, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has implored his millions of followers to download Signal – a message that was also echoed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Signal only needs a few more days like that and it could quickly double the 20 million active users it counted as of December 2020.Īnd the outage over the weekend seems to prove that Signal’s popularity hasn’t faded quite yet. Speaking to the New York Times, monitoring firm AppTopia claimed that Signal added 1.3 million new users on January 11 alone. Unfortunately, the secure platform hasn’t revealed exactly how many new users have joined the service in recent days, however, the messaging service has rocketed up the most-downloaded charts on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
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