Signal registrations increased as WhatsApp stops working

By
Web Desk
|
The Signal messaging app logo is seen on a smartphone, in front of the same displayed the same logo, in this illustration taken, January 13, 2021. — Reuters/File.

After Facebook-owned apps WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, and Instagram experienced outages on Friday evening across the globe, many users — who couldn't seem to wait to re-establish a connection with their friends and loved ones — rushed to register on Signal.

Taking to Twitter, messaging app Signal welcomed all new users and announced that registration on the app "went through the roof" because of WhatsApp's outage.

"Solidarity to the folks working on the WhatsApp outage. People outside of the tech industry will never understand how weird it sounds when someone says that they are 'looking forward to some weekend downtime'."

According to Down Detector, a website that monitors app crashes in real-time from around the world, "user reports indicate[d] Whatsapp was having problems since 1:34 PM EDT," it wrote on Twitter Friday.

Instagram outage reports, however, shot up from 34 at 10:12pm to a whopping 106,729, as of 10:42pm, as per Down Detector.

The real-time monitoring service indicated that while 788 WhatsApp users had sent crash reports, as of 10:15pm, the number had crossed 24,100 in 15 minutes.

Similarly, reports about Facebook's Messenger rose from 818, as of 10:17pm, to more than 5,600 in less than 15 minutes.