Signal went back online over the weekend after a flood of new users signed up for the service and overwhelmed the app's servers, causing an outage.
Messaging app Signal is back online after experiencing an outage for more than 24 hours. During the outage, users reported seeing errors in their chats with some completely unable to access the service. Rumors also swirled as to the cause of the outage, though company officials dismissed them saying that the root of the technical issue is most likely the flood of new users trooping to sign up for the service. Signal went back up online over the weekend after resolving the technical issue.
Disillusioned WhatsUp Users May Be A Factor
The messaging app is similar to WhatsApp, though many users prefer Signal because of its strong encryption. Industry observers say that one of the factors that may have caused Signal to go offline is when Parler, another messaging platform, went down. This caused a flood of new users to troop to Signal and sign up for the service, which eventually overwhelmed its servers. The messaging app went back online after a more than 24-hour outage.
Signal app recovers from outage caused by new user flood https://t.co/mOjRu8pD59 pic.twitter.com/2PEtGmHswU — Global Systems Mko (@Gsystemsmko) January 17, 2021
According to Signal officials, its app experienced a rise in downloads with more than one million users signing up for the service. The company's technical support team resolved the issue after more than 24 hours, allowing Signal to be back online again over the weekend. While some say that the outage is due in part the rising popularity of the service, Signal officials attribute it to thousands of users leaving WhatsApp and signing up for Signal. They say that the controversial change in WhatsApp's privacy terms could be a huge factor as to why thousands of users left it and signed up for Signal.
Users Of Downed Parler Might Have Signed Up For Signal
Another factor that may have contributed to millions of users to download the Signal app and sign up for the service is Parler going offline. Instead of signing up for big tech-owned messaging services, a flood of Parler users opted for Signal, which overwhelmed the latter's servers, causing an outage. Signal's support team managed to resolve the issue after 24 hours, allowing the service to be back online over the weekend.
Signal informed its users that the service is back online after the 24-hour outage through a tweet. It also explained that the most likely cause of the outage is the flood of users that eventually overwhelmed its servers. "Thanks to the millions of new Signal users around the world for your patience. Your capacity for understanding inspired us while we expanded capacity," the tweet stated.
