The signal of the intimacy -centered messaging app has been flying up to Dutch app stores this month past, often sitting at the top as the most free downloaded app in iOS and Android in all categories, for data from numerous app tracking platforms, such as sensor Tower.
The app has experienced an increase in popularity over the years, often in response to policy changes to rivals such as WhatsApp or geopolitical events. This is because Signal has made a name for itself as a more friendly opportunity for intimacy-it is operated by a non-profit foundation (although the US-based) than a private business-focused business. Moreover, the signals trace minimal metadata.
In 2025, with a new US president empowered by the warm Big Tech hug, it is not surprising that digital tools of intimacy are going through a moment – especially in Europe, which has attracted President Trump’s anger.
But what is particularly attractive this time is the significance of the signal in a very specific local-Hollanda.
In an interview with the Dutch newspaper De Teleraaf last week, the President of the Mredith Whittaker noted that the number of “new records” in the Netherlands was higher this year with a factor of 25, although it is not clear what is the exact comparative period for these data.
When asked why the Netherlands saw such an increase, Whittaker showed a combination of factors: “Increasing awareness of intimacy, distrust of great technology and political reality in which people understand how vulnerable digital communication can be,” Whittaker said.
Data provided for Techcrunch by Appfigules Intelligence Firm Signal graphs in the Netherlands. According to his data, the signal was ranked 36th among the non-playing iPhone applications in the Netherlands on January 1 and did not appear on the highest list of app. Then, starting around January 5, it began to climb the ranking, reaching the high position until February 2.
The signal has plunged in and out of the lead in the weeks of intervention, passing about half February at the summit – including daily since February 22. The deepest excavation in data, estimates Appfigures that combined downloads throughout Apple and Google’s Google stores since December reached about 22,000 in December 2024. This was dropped to 99,000 in January and turned 233,000 to February – a 958% increase since December.
While some of this increase can be attributed to the signal that has lower saturation than in other markets, the sustainable position of the application at the top compared to the neighboring markets of similar size is noticeable.
“No other market approaches the Netherlands in terms of growth between December and February,” the Appfigures told Techcrunch.
By comparison, since December, Belgium has seen emissions grow by more than 250%, Sweden with 153%and Denmark with 95%.
Then why can it signal to signal what a redditor called a “massive adoption moment” in the Netherlands?
Signal
Rejo Zenger, a senior policy adviser at the Dutch Foundation’s digital rights Foundation, said that while it is difficult to determine a specific reason, he is not surprised.
Recent developments in the US have seen the big platform providers approximation with the new Trump administration, and this has prompted an important public and media debate. Europe’s support in technology from large private US companies has become a central point in that debate.
“The Dutch are, like many others, highly dependent on the infrastructure provided by extremely dominant technology enterprises, mainly from the US,” Zenger told Techcrunch. “What does this mean and the dangers that come from this have been beautifully demonstrated in recent weeks. As a result, public debate in the Netherlands has been relatively sharp. Where in the past this problem was discussed only at the level of ‘Which instant messenger should I use‘I feel now that we are having the debate even for higher levels:’We have to get rid of this dependency. ‘”
In that context, the public may be the predominance of abuse of data protection. With companies like Meta regularly being investigated and fined on data intimacy practices, the signal may seem the worst: it is based on the US, but it is operated by a non -profit that ensures the encryption of messaging content and the metadata around it.
Vincent Böhre, director of the Dutch intimacy organization Privacy First, also showed increased media coverage and a wider shift in public opinion.
“Since Trump was re-elected to the US a few months ago, there have been a lot of Trump’s” Bashing “and (Elon) Musk in the main Dutch-and European media, including the Bashing of major American technology companies, which now seem to be trump supporters,” Böhre told Techcrunch. “Items that criticize X (once Twitter) and Meta have appeared in the Dutch media everywhere, leading to a change in Dutch public opinion: even people who never knew or have not cared about intimacy and security on social media, are now interested in ‘privacy friendly’ alternatives in particular.”
Signal
While the Netherlands is only a market of 18 million people in a European population of more than 700 million, its increase in adoption can signal a wider tendency across the continent, especially when governments seek to reduce the barriers of intimacy.
For example, Apple recently withdrew encryption from bottom to bottom from iCloud to the UK to oppose government efforts to install a background.
Speaking at Rightcon 25 in Taiwan this week, Whittaker reaffirmed the steadfast stance of the signal for intimacy.
“The signal position for this is very clear — we will not walk, violate, or otherwise disturb the intimacy and strong security guarantees people depending on,” Whittaker said. “Whether this concern or background is called scanning by the client, or stripping the encryption defenses from one or another feature similar to what Apple was postponed to do in the UK”
Separately, in an interview with Swedish public broadcaster SVT, Whittaker said the signal would not respect a proposed Swedish law seeking messages of apps to maintain messages.
“In practice, it means to ask us to break the encryption that is the foundation of our entire business,” Whittaker said. “Asking us to preserve the data would hurt all our architecture and we would never do it. We prefer to leave the Swedish market completely. “
Techcrunch managed to signal for comment, but had not heard again at the time of publication.
