WhatsApp is losing millions of users to these rival messaging apps

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Smith
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Chris Smith

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  • Millions of WhatsApp users are flocking to competing chat services like Signal and Telegram after the company announced changes to the privacy policy.
  • The privacy changes will allow WhatsApp to share more user data with Facebook to enable e-commerce features like instant messaging to businesses. WhatsApp will not lose end-to-end encryption, which is turned on by default for all chats and calls on the app.
  • A new report indicates that tens of millions of people have downloaded Signal and Telegram in the first three weeks of the year, in response to WhatsApp’s planned privacy changes.

WhatsApp unpleasantly surprised fans a few weeks ago with a prompt informing them that the app will only work if they agree to a new privacy policy. Come early February, WhatsApp would share more user data with Facebook, and the only option for users was to agree to the change. The only way to opt out of the functionality was to stop using the service. WhatsApp is the world’s most popular chat app, offering iMessage-like features on both iPhone and Android. It’s Facebook’s only chat app that supports end-to-end encryption, and that won’t change even after the privacy policy goes live.

The response to those prompts was immediate. Many people downloaded competing apps Signal and Telegram in response, forcing Facebook to react. The company released more information telling users that its core features, end-to-end encrypted calls, and texts aren’t going anywhere. Instead, Facebook wants to snag user data that can be used for WhatsApp e-commerce purposes. Facebook also delayed the privacy policy change by three months to give people more time to understand what’s changing, without really explaining why it’s not offering its customers the choice to opt out from data sharing. Facebook acknowledged that not all WhatsApp users are also engaged in e-commerce on the platform, which implies Facebook could make the data sharing feature voluntary rather than mandatory. A few weeks later, the tally is coming in, and it turns out Facebook might have lost millions of people to Signal and Telegram.

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WhatsApp is losing millions of users to these rival messaging apps originally appeared on BGR.com on Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 06:50:58 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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