Signal chats disappear on their own
The new feature saves storage space and limits conversation history, keeping the Signal app clean. You also run less risk if you lose your device. In a blog post, Signal explains that many confidential conversations you used to have in a park, cafe & eacute; or coffee shop, nowadays take place in chat apps. However, not every revelation and every emotional moment has to be saved, because you don't want to be reminded of it later. But often those conversations remain ‘eternal’ exist, in the conversation history of an app on someone else's device. Hence it is now possible to make messages disappear by default.
Disappearing messages keep your conversation history clean. If you enable it for a conversation, the message on the sender and recipient side will be erased after a self-selected time. Of course, it is still possible for someone to take a picture of the screen before the message disappears. It is therefore not so much intended to obscure evidence, but to ensure that you can vent without worry, because you know that the messages will disappear by themselves and because you trust the other person that not everything is recorded. If you lose your device or you have to unlock your device under pressure from the authorities, a stranger cannot see your previous conversations.
Adjustable timer for chats
In addition, there is now a self-selectable timer, so that you can You can specify the time after which the messages should disappear. That can be 60 seconds, but also 18 minutes or 4 weeks. You can also set it up for the Note To Self function, so that you have a kind of notepad on multiple devices. What you write in it will also disappear over time, if you wish.
Signal benefited greatly from the uproar around WhatsApp, after this messaging service announced that it would now start sharing data with Facebook outside the EU. This is evident from figures from Sensor Tower. Signal saw new user downloads grow 1,200 percent to 64.4 million in the first four months of 2021, while Telegram grew 98 percent to 161 million.
The numbers indicate that Signal has grown considerably, but that Telegram is a lot bigger. In January in particular, Signal saw significant growth, which was probably caused by recommendations from Elon Musk and Edward Snowden. After that, the enthusiasm for Signal subsided and the majority seemed to prefer Telegram.