Niamh Sweeney, WhatsApp’s director of public policy for EMEA states that the exodus was believed to be related to the update to the company’s terms of service
After WhatsApp’s controversial new privacy policy spooked users, leading to the company delaying the roll-out due to heavy criticism, media reports now state that the platform has lost tens of millions of users.
According to the Guardian, Signal has gained 7.5 million users globally, according to figures shared by the UK parliament’s home affairs committee, and Telegram has gained 25 million over the first three weeks of January.
Data tracked by the analytics firm App Annie shows WhatsApp falling from the eighth most downloaded app in the UK at the beginning of the month to the 23rd by 12 January. By contrast, Signal wasn’t even in the top 1,000 apps in the UK on 6 January, yet by 9 January it was the most downloaded app in the country.
The controversial policy had many worried as to just how much data the messaging app will give to Facebook, with viral posts circulating on social platforms, including WhatsApp.
Niamh Sweeney, WhatsApp’s director of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, states that the exodus was believed to be related to the update to the company’s terms of service.
In a statement, WhatsApp states it has delayed the implementation due to mass “confusion” and “misinformation” about the update, and will allow users to “review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15”.
WhatsApp had begun notifying users of its updated terms of service and privacy policy, which people had to agree to or else lose their ability to use the app, however the app currently states that no accounts will be “suspended or deleted”.
According to a statement, the intent of the update was to communicate to users that new updates for business chat features would include messages between users and businesses on WhatsApp would be stored on Facebook services, which can be used
Since the announcement, sent to WhatsApp users early January, WhatsApp rivals such as Telegram and Signal have seen tremendous growth in downloads.
Ironically, some security experts note that WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption continues to be the stronger choice. Telegram, for instance, only uses end-to-end encryption for “secret chats” which must be turned on by users for each individual contact, unlike WhatsApp whose encryption is activated for each new chat.
In Egypt, Telegram has climbed to be the top of the Google Play Store Charts, however WhatsApp continues to rank as the third most used app under Facebook and Google. Telegram ranks ninth.
