It’s an era where communication reigns supreme. What was once a tedious task of calling or messaging someone is reduced to a few taps on your smartphone. With so many chat/call apps out there, it’s difficult to decide which app to use, or in this case, which is a better option: Signal vs WhatsApp.
A Deluge of Messaging Apps
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Signal, WeChat, Google Hangouts, Line, Kakao Talk. There’s a bunch of them and more waiting for you to download and start a conversation.
The task is overwhelming so it’s fairly common to hear people have two to three messaging apps. But the practice is hardly commendable. Having two or three messaging apps can drain the memory or battery out of your phone (notifications can be really annoying). It’s also redundant to have many apps for messaging, alone.
In that regard, you have to make up your mind for a single app that lets you do what you have to do and more. We’ll narrow down your options to Signal and WhatsApp.
The Battle: Signal vs WhatsApp
Both messaging apps are well-regarded among today’s generation of wired folks. More importantly, they value and vouch for something we need to protect – our privacy.
Signal does not carry advertising, affiliate marketing and creepy tracking per its website. The app’s strongest pitch is security in messaging. It uses an end-to-end encryption that keeps conversations or calls between and among individuals safe and private. Whatever that has been talked about is confined to only you and the person/group at the receiving end.
WhatsApp also offers this end-to-end encryption that extends to status updates, videos, documents, and photos. Just like with Signal, WhatsApp doesn’t know what is exchanged or the gist of those exchanges between groups or individuals.
Who Has the Advantage?
Security
While both apps are secure, one is more secure than the other. Signal has the upper hand because the information it collects is limited to you – the mobile number, profile and IP address when you send a message.
WhatsApp, on the other hand, collects more metadata. Aside from your contact information, the app also has info about your device and location if you share it. You can also back up your chat history.
Features
But what WhatsApp lacks in the privacy department, it makes up for in its features. WhatsApp has an array of functionalities in addition to its primary offering of messaging and calls. For one, you can share documents up to 100MB. This is pretty useful in the workplace setting.
You can also see when your friend is typing, block someone, mute conversations, and manage your group chat settings.
Our Takeaway
Essentially, if you are after of your chats not falling into the hands of wrong people, Signal is for you. It’s a straight-laced app meant to keep your privacy protected as it requires a phone number as verification (secondary phone number can be given for those iffy about their privacy).
If you are after of the ease of contacting and sharing content with loved ones, workmates, and friends, WhatsApp is definitely an option. In fact, over a billion people in 180 countries have been relying on WhatsApp for their messages and calls.
So, what’s your best messaging app story?
Signal also lets you send audio, video and documents up to 100mb in size. Signal is as easy to use as Whatsapp (I use both) and you can also see your friend typing; you can block someone (and they won’t know you have blocked them – you just won’t see there messages. The biggest upside to Signal is security. Signal does not release all the metadata that Whatsapp could provide the NSA or any government agency. And because governments are so sneaky, they could issue Whatsapp with a sealed warrant that requires them to hand over your data without revealing to you that it’s what they have done. For this reason alone, if you want to support an app that protects the right to privacy, Signal is the app to chose. If billions of people support companies to respect their privacy, governments will not have the avenues available to them to misuse public data – as Edward Snowden has confirmed happens to innocent people who have done nothing wrong.
Does Signal allow groups? I am a member of multiple WhatsApp groups. If Signal does allow groups, what are the rules, in re the size of the group, number of forwards allowed, and so on?