Signal downloads surge following SignalGate
The Secure messaging app Signal experienced a significant download increase following last week’s SignalGate event, News.Az reports citing Investing.
The app was mentioned after The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he had accidentally been added to a group chat involving government and military leaders, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, about a strike in Yemen.
The news was made public last Monday, and since then, Signal’s downloads have been on the rise. On an average day, the app garners around 95,000 downloads, according to data from Appfigures Intelligence. However, on the evening of the 24th, when the news broke, downloads increased by 26%. By Tuesday, downloads surged to 193,000, and on Wednesday, they reached an almost all-time high of 195,000.
Further analysis of the data revealed an interesting trend in Yemen, the country at the center of the disclosed chat. Downloads from Yemen increased nearly five times, although the overall numbers remain relatively small. The peak in Yemen was around 1,000 downloads on Wednesday, but the numbers have been decreasing since.
Despite the unusual circumstances, Signal’s involvement was purely incidental. The journalist did not hack the app to gain access to the group chat, nor was the app’s encryption compromised. The service was operating as intended, and the incident had no direct relevance to the app’s functionality.
Regardless, the news resulted in Signal gaining approximately 350,000 more downloads than usual. This incident serves as a reminder to developers to be prepared for an increase in demand when their app is mentioned in the news. As the saying goes, "no publicity is bad publicity."
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