SignalGate, because it’s come to be referred to as, would be the largest scandal to hit the Trump administration in its first months in energy. However it’s been nice for Sign.
Because the information broke on Monday that senior Trump administration cupboard members by chance included the editor in chief of The Atlantic in a bunch chat on the Sign encrypted messaging platform the place the officers have been making secret plans to bomb Yemen, the following information cycle and the fixed mentions of Sign have led to the encrypted messaging platform doubling its typical price of recent downloads, the nonprofit group that runs Sign tells WIRED. On condition that 2025 has already been a “banner 12 months” for Sign’s development, based on Sign’s management, that makes this week the only largest bump in US adoption of the app in Sign’s practically 11 years of existence.
“In Sign’s historical past, that is the biggest US-growth second by an enormous margin,” says Jun Harada, Sign’s head of development and partnerships. “It’s mind-blowing, even on our aspect.”
Harada declined to provide absolute numbers for Sign’s person development past saying that its complete downloads are within the “a whole bunch of thousands and thousands,” which has been the case for a number of years. However he stated that the week’s price of adoption has been twice that of a typical week for 2025, which in flip was twice that of a typical week the identical time final 12 months. “It occurred instantly” after The Atlantic broke the story of Sign’s use within the Yemeni bombing, Harada says. “And it’s been sustained. We’ve been sustaining that price every single day.”
In Sign’s historical past, the one comparable spike in adoption occurred when WhatsApp modified its privateness coverage in 2021, Harada says, resulting in thousands and thousands of customers abandoning that communications app. However that incident principally introduced non-People to Sign, not like the present, US-focused SignalGate bump.
Numbers from the market intelligence agency Sensor Tower largely align with Sign’s personal evaluation of that development: The corporate says that Sign downloads within the US elevated 105 % in comparison with the prior week—and 150 % in comparison with a median week in 2024. Outdoors of the US, Sensor Tower noticed solely a 21 % enhance in Sign downloads in comparison with the prior week.
The Atlantic’s revelation on Monday that secretary of protection Pete Hegseth, director of nationwide intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, nationwide safety adviser Michael Waltz, vice chairman JD Vance, and different Trump administration officers used a Sign group chat to plan an air strike in opposition to Houthi rebels in Yemen—and that Waltz by chance added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to that group in a surprising breach of confidentiality—has raised severe questions concerning the safety practices of the Trump administration which are nonetheless resonating days later.
The scandal has referred to as into query whether or not the chief department officers have been planning the air strike utilizing susceptible non-approved and even private gadgets moderately than the safe machines meant for categorized conversations. Screenshots of the group chat revealed by The Atlantic on Wednesday point out that the officers have been utilizing Sign’s disappearing messages characteristic to delete their communications, doubtlessly in violation of US document retention legal guidelines.
