Messenger apps in India : Is it about time Indians change the way they communicate?
- Details
- Written by Super User
With the recent speculations of the governments snooping around our private messages, the discussion around the right for complete privacy and autonomy in personal correspondence has never been bigger! The giants in the online communication industry such as Google, Facebook, Apple and WhatsApp have constantly been in hot water for breaching the privacy of the users in many different ways. Although recently most of these messaging apps started promoting their new “end-to-end encryption” features, there are still loopholes which can be used to access the users’ private data by those companies. This is why the demand for an app that is focused on the best security is growing. The Signal messaging app is currently the top app that can provide thoughtful users with impenetrable privacy.
With a population of over 1.3 billion, India is the second most populated country in the world holding nearly 1/5 of world’s entire population. India also has the sixth largest economy by market exchange rates in the world and is currently one of the fastest growing economies. Even though there are inconsistencies across the country, India has a substantial penetration of the newest digital communication methods, with over 1 Billion mobile subscribers in the country according to the statistics gathered in August 2016.
How do Indians communicate?
From browsing the internet, using social networking sites, hailing cabs, ordering food to many other daily activates, mobile apps are used all around India by millions of people. With an estimated 300 million smartphone users in the country, messaging apps are widely used for regular communication.
Whatsapp is currently the most popular messenger app among Indians, closely followed by Viber. Both apps offer instant text messaging, video and audio calling and file sharing. Whatsapp is popular for its clean and simple User Interface and relatively faster performance along with lower data usage.
Hike is a more localized messenger app created by an Indian developer which has been growing rapidly since its inception in 2012. One of the most popular differentiations of this app is its ability to communicate offline, which is beneficial in the area which does not have consistently strong internet connections. Hike takes all the favorable features from both Whatsapp and Viber and makes them even more appealing to the Indian community in particular.
Millions of messages are communicated through these apps daily, including text, audio, video and document files. However, while there is an extremely small number of individuals who are consciously using options to ensure that their privacy is not compromised when using these apps, a large majority of the population is still uninformed about the security breaches that can happen when using messenger apps to communicate.
Privacy and Communication
All throughout the world, including large and active communities such as India you can see a significant lack of knowledge when it comes to privacy issues which can occur through the use of mobile. This is rather serious when considering sharing of information through messenger apps.
Currently, the secure messaging apps Telegram and Signal are used among the more IT savvy community of India, and they are gradually getting more popular as people get more knowledgeable about current privacy issues. Telegram offers a heavily encrypted secure messaging service which has the ability to self-destruct if needed.It also has no set limits to the media sizes shared within the platform, and the new “Supergroup” feature allows up to 1000 users a group which can very useful for a large community such as India.
However, Telegram has had its fair share of controversies on their own protocol MTProto which is known to have theoretical weaknesses. Signal, on the other hand, offers a stronger default end to end encryption system powered by its own widely trusted Signal Protocol. It is extremely user-friendly for the diverse community in India. Due to being a completely unaffiliated and non-profit organization which is run exclusivelyby grants and donations, Signal is unlikely to collect user metadata which is usually done by all the profit-making service providers in large communities with a high potential of revenue making.
Professional Communication in India
With the extremely fast-paced professional and business industry in India, it is natural that more and more professional conversations are gradually moving to messenger apps rather than traditional phone calls and emails. However, professional communication can sometimes be difficult within the extremely personalized messenger apps such as Whatsapp of Messenger, due to reasons such as inane profile pictures and status updates which those platforms are specially created for.
Therefore, it is only logical to use a more secure and professional messenger platform for business conversations and other communication needs which need a professional environment. Secure Messenger services such as Signal are more apt for these situations and are becoming increasingly popular in the professional and business world of India due to its credibility and the reputation to be used in professional settings all over the world.
As a technologically progressive country, India is not too far behind in ensuring the security of the tech users in the country. Expectantly, the future of communication in India will focus not only convenience and entertainment values, but sufficient levels of security as well.
Author: Marina Acton
Researcher / Investor
Security Advocate
How do Indians communicate?
From browsing the internet, using social networking sites, hailing cabs, ordering food to many other daily activates, mobile apps are used all around India by millions of people. With an estimated 300 million smartphone users in the country, messaging apps are widely used for regular communication.Whatsapp is currently the most popular messenger app among Indians, closely followed by Viber. Both apps offer instant text messaging, video and audio calling and file sharing. Whatsapp is popular for its clean and simple User Interface and relatively faster performance along with lower data usage.
Hike is a more localized messenger app created by an Indian developer which has been growing rapidly since its inception in 2012. One of the most popular differentiations of this app is its ability to communicate offline, which is beneficial in the area which does not have consistently strong internet connections. Hike takes all the favorable features from both Whatsapp and Viber and makes them even more appealing to the Indian community in particular.
Millions of messages are communicated through these apps daily, including text, audio, video and document files. However, while there is an extremely small number of individuals who are consciously using options to ensure that their privacy is not compromised when using these apps, a large majority of the population is still uninformed about the security breaches that can happen when using messenger apps to communicate.
Privacy and Communication
All throughout the world, including large and active communities such as India you can see a significant lack of knowledge when it comes to privacy issues which can occur through the use of mobile. This is rather serious when considering sharing of information through messenger apps.
Currently, the secure messaging apps Telegram and Signal are used among the more IT savvy community of India, and they are gradually getting more popular as people get more knowledgeable about current privacy issues. Telegram offers a heavily encrypted secure messaging service which has the ability to self-destruct if needed.It also has no set limits to the media sizes shared within the platform, and the new “Supergroup” feature allows up to 1000 users a group which can very useful for a large community such as India.
However, Telegram has had its fair share of controversies on their own protocol MTProto which is known to have theoretical weaknesses. Signal, on the other hand, offers a stronger default end to end encryption system powered by its own widely trusted Signal Protocol. It is extremely user-friendly for the diverse community in India. Due to being a completely unaffiliated and non-profit organization which is run exclusivelyby grants and donations, Signal is unlikely to collect user metadata which is usually done by all the profit-making service providers in large communities with a high potential of revenue making.
Professional Communication in India
With the extremely fast-paced professional and business industry in India, it is natural that more and more professional conversations are gradually moving to messenger apps rather than traditional phone calls and emails. However, professional communication can sometimes be difficult within the extremely personalized messenger apps such as Whatsapp of Messenger, due to reasons such as inane profile pictures and status updates which those platforms are specially created for.
Therefore, it is only logical to use a more secure and professional messenger platform for business conversations and other communication needs which need a professional environment. Secure Messenger services such as Signal are more apt for these situations and are becoming increasingly popular in the professional and business world of India due to its credibility and the reputation to be used in professional settings all over the world.
As a technologically progressive country, India is not too far behind in ensuring the security of the tech users in the country. Expectantly, the future of communication in India will focus not only convenience and entertainment values, but sufficient levels of security as well.
Author: Marina Acton
Researcher / Investor
Security Advocate
Download Signal for your iOS and Android phones here - http://signalprivatemessenger.in
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