As police-brutality protests continue throughout the United States, people have increasingly turned to the encrypted messaging app Signal, and for good reason. As law enforcement increasingly surveils crowds, Signal represents most people’s best way to communicate safely. And thanks in part to a $50 million infusion from former WhatsApp CEO Brian Acton over two years ago, the formerly niche app is more accessible than ever.
For the first few weeks of May, Signal saw between 9,000 and 10,000 downloads each day across iOS and Android, according to the analytics company Apptopia. On May 31 that number jumped to nearly 15,000. On Wednesday alone, around 32,000 people installed it. By doing so, they can now take advantage of Signal’s end-to-end encryption, which means that no one—not the government, your phone company, or Signal itself—can read the contents of messages as they pass between devices.
Signal is not the only end-to-end encrypted messaging app; iMessage has it, as do stand-alone apps like Telegram. But Signal stands apart, both for its rich features and the fact that its code has been open source for years, meaning cryptographers have had plenty of opportunities to poke and prod it for flaws.
WIRED has long encouraged readers to use Signal. Here, we’re offering tips on how to get the ..
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