This morning I woke up with 73 WhatsApp messages from seven different groups and five individual chats. At that point, it hit me What happened to ‘let’s not use WhatsApp anymore’ movement? It lasted less than Prithvi Shaw did on Australian wickets. Seems like life is back to normal or it probably never changed beyond social media posts and rants. Yes, it’s unfair to say that nothing has changed. There would be users who have moved on to other apps, but do they form a substantial market?
There is no way to find yet, but a look around is enough to show that WhatsApp’s position in the segment hasn’t changed much. Yes, there are more contenders fighting for glory but seems like they are far from challenging for the title.
Rise of Signal, Telegram
January was busy month for all instant messaging apps and users who are dependent on them for daily communication. World’s most popular instant messaging app WhatsApp dropped a bomb when it announced an updated privacy policy seeking certain data from app users. Of course, the move didn’t go well with the users who started migrating to other apps.
The biggest beneficiaries were Signal and Telegram. Both these apps came to prominence, claiming better security features and enhanced user privacy. The impact of new WhatsApp policy was visible in numbers as well.
Signal saw a massive surge in downloads between January 6 and January 10, 2021 days following WhatsApp’s policy announcement. The app was downloaded around 7.5 million times globally through the Apple App Store and Google Play store, according to Sensor Tower. This was 43 times the number from the previous week. It was also the highest week or even monthly install number for Signal in the app’s history.
Meanwhile Telegram saw 5.6 million downloads globally during the same period.
Yet, these numbers are nowhere close to active users on WhatsApp, leave aside downloads. According to Google Play Store, WhatsApp has been downloaded by over 5 billion times in India. Telegram has managed to cross the 500 million mark while Signal has just managed to crawl past 50 million downloads. The numbers are encouraging but look tiny from where WhatsApp sits.
The users’ plight
One of the reasons why most users are still stuck with WhatsApp is the ease of usage most of their contacts, groups, chats and media files are on the platform and most of them cannot be exported to other platforms. The decision came down to choosing between convenience and privacy the former won.
“Elon Musk's tweet made me download the Signal app but I couldn't switch to it despite knowing the issues with new WhatsApp policy. My entire work communication happens on WhatsApp, my family conversations happen on WhatsApp. I don't mind switching to Signal in future, but it is not feasible right now. I don't think many people really care about data theft. It's more about convenience and this switch is a major lifestyle change,” Amit, a 26-year-old client servicing professional from Delhi told India Today Tech.
The challenges are even more for businesses that have to connect with a wide range of users. Prakash, who runs an agriculture startup told India Today Tech that he has a network of over 10,000 farmers on WhatsApp and it is impossible to make all of them switch to another app. He continues to use WhatsApp despite installing both Telegram and Signal even before the new policy arrived.
“Before WhatsApp privacy issue came up, I was already on Telegram but never used it for communication. Similarly, I downloaded Signal few months back but was never active on it. Across the WhatsApp groups we have more than 10,000 farmers located in the far corners of India, who have just started their digital journey. Expecting all of them to shift to a new platform will not be feasible,” he said.
WhatsApp’s crisis management
There is no doubt that the new WhatsApp policy and the way it was rolled out -- both could have better. The updated terms and services could have been explained better to avoid confusion and users could have been given more options. However, the reaction to the anger was quick and clear. The Facebook-owned platform gave out multiple responses claiming that it will not be sharing data with the parent company and also highlighted that user chats and media files remain safe.
Now, while there were points of contention, it helped WhatsApp regain some confidence. And, the decision to postpone the new policy by three months further helped pacify the angry users. It is currently in the wait and watch mode, hoping that things settle during these 90 days. It’s worth mentioning here that nothing changes for the users though. The policy has only been delayed and there won’t be any amendments to it. At least for now.
Nevertheless, the users continue to use the platform like before. It is still the most effective and popular way of communication be it for casual conversations or work-related exchanges. In fact, WhatsApp’s Global Head Will Cathcart have mentioned in an interview that there has been no dip in user activity on the platform.
Even those who must have downloaded Signal or Telegram continue to use WhatsApp as most of their friends and family members are on the platform. This is unlikely to change until everyone collectively decides to move to one platform. This hasn’t happened so far and is unlikely to in near future.