(ANSA) - MILAN, 06 DEC - Signal, the alternative chat to Whatsapp also used by Edward Snowden and which has made privacy its strong point, is asking for financial help from users.
It does this by introducing a new feature that allows members to make donations to the platform.
The move, according to the developers, would serve to do without, for the moment, the funds deriving from the introduction of advertising or the consequent logic of premium paid services.
"We are building a different kind of technology, where your data remains in your hands, but this also involves a different kind of technological organization," reads an official blogpost. Users can donate a fixed monthly fee or one-off contributions, through the Google Pay and Apple Pay platforms, which refer to the two operating systems in use on smartphones, Android or iOS. The three donation levels, currently activated only for the US market, provide for cuts of 5, 10 or 20 dollars. The automatic renewal of the offer will be interrupted if, during the month, the user does not open Signal or uninstall it. The monthly donation can be resumed at the next cycle. The dichat app is supported by the Signal Foundation, a subject that does not receive money and funding from companies,advertisers or shareholders.
At the beginning of the year, Signal exceeded 50 million installations on Android also following the criticism leveled at WhatsApp on the introduction of new usage policies and the long blackout that affected the Meta platforms (Facebook, WhastApp, Instagram and Messenger) which took place last October.
(HANDLE).