In Spain, and in many other countries around the world, the price of text messages (SMS) at the beginning of the last decade popularized the use of WhatsApp, as it allowed us to contact our family and friends while avoiding this. cost (therefore such as calls, which at the time were all paid).
WhatsApp made it possible to contact users of different platforms, it was also on Nokia phones when the company was already dying.
So it was bought by Facebook, which, as we know, is funded by selling our information to third parties, advertising us ... Now Facebook wants to fully merge WhatsApp data with Facebook so that they have a lot more information about us, not just what they get directly from us, but what they get of us from the people we have contact with.
![Contact signal](/images/posts/8759974631af005d3c6a72b715164a46-0.jpg)
If you are concerned about privacy you can opt for Signal.
Here is a new player, Signal, which mainly boasts privacy and is available for various platforms (iOS, iPadOS, macOS and even Android, Linux and Windows), so it can be an interesting alternative to keep in touch with the rest of the world.
![Contact signal](/images/posts/8759974631af005d3c6a72b715164a46-1.jpg)
It is a free and open source application, with no payment by the user, non-profit and that accepts donations to finance itself.
It allows you to send encrypted messages, make encrypted voice calls over IP and video calls, as well as have groups.
As I said before, one of the advantages of Signal, over WhatsApp, is that you have an iPad application, so you can have a conversation with this device without having to do weird things. It is incomprehensible that WhatsApp does not allow this. It will simply ask you to open Signal on your iPhone and scan the QR code it shows you. From there you already have it.
The European Commission has recommended its members to use this tool to communicate.
You can check their website at https://signal.org.