Signal increases Category Rankings by 750 after WhatsApp Privacy Policy change

Since WhatsApp’s controversial update on January 4, Signal and Telegram started increasing their category rankings drastically, according to MobileAction’s data. In their comparison post, the app store performance of these three big messenger apps are investigated. 

The estimated trend of downloads for WhatsApp seems to be relatively stable in the last few weeks. On the other hand, soon after the update, a huge spike can be seen in the estimated trend of downloads both for Telegram and Signal. 

When we take a look at the visibility map, we can see that the competition is fierce. While WhatsApp seems to be in the lead in most countries, both Telegram and Signal are starting to gain some territory. If the backlash on WhatsApp continues, it is likely for this map to change even more. 

It can be seen that all three of these apps have great visibility scores in the U.S. WhatsApp seems to have the edge over its competitors with a Visibility Score of 96 while Telegram and Signal are at 87 and 89 respectively. 

There is also some difference in the number of keywords each app is ranking for. Telegram seems to be the weakest out of the three, ranking for 1779 keywords. Following closely, WhatsApp is ranking for 2106 keywords. Signal seems to be the clear leader on keyword rankings, with 2704 keywords that they appear for.

With the latest update that modified the privacy policy, WhatsApp has been one of the most controversial topics in social media. Having users all over the world, a global backlash caused users to start switching from WhatsApp to other alternatives such as Telegram or Signal. Time will show whether or not this escape from WhatsApp will continue.