US Signal downloads are on track for a record this year
It looks like Pete Hegseth — the defense secretary who mistakenly included a reporter in his war group chat — and government workers fearful of reprisal from the Trump administration are onto something: Signal.
This year the encrypted messaging app is on track to be downloaded a record number of times in the US. Not even three months into 2025, Signal has been downloaded 3 million times, according to data provided to Sherwood News by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. If that pattern holds, downloads could reach a record 12 million by year-end.
Already this year it’s been downloaded more than in any of the first three years of President Trump’s first administration, when the app, a favorite in Silicon Valley and among activists but not really normies, began taking off. Since then, it’s seen a surge in downloads any time there’s political uncertainty — e.g., now.
It’s currently the sixth-most-downloaded social networking app on the App Store, where it shares space with Meta’s perennially popular Threads and WhatsApp.
