Hajra Naz
The internet hit a wall yesterday when Amazon’s AWS cloud service went down. Millions of people around the world suddenly realized how much we all rely on U.S. cloud companies to keep the web running.
One person who definitely noticed? Elon Musk. The Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter) boss used the moment to take a shot at Signal, the secure messaging app often seen as the top alternative to WhatsApp.
“I don’t trust Signal anymore,” Musk wrote to his 228 million followers on X. His post quickly got nearly 30 million views — almost a third of Signal’s total user base.
Signal confirmed the problem shortly after.
“We are aware that Signal is down for some people,” the company posted on X. “This appears to be related to a major AWS outage. Stand by.”
This isn’t the first time Musk and Signal have clashed. Once a big supporter of the app, Musk later started questioning how safe Signal really is. Signal’s leadership quickly pushed back, defending its longtime reputation for privacy.
“Signal is trusted by the security and hacker community — and hundreds of millions of others — because they can check how it works,” said company president Meredith Whittaker. “It’s been tested for more than a decade and has proven to be private and secure.”
But there’s more going on behind the scenes. Musk wasn’t just criticizing Signal—he was also promoting his own messaging feature, X Chat.
“Try X Chat,” he wrote. “Our new encrypted system for texts, file transfers, and calls. You can turn it on from the left menu.”
Throughout the day, Musk reposted several messages promoting X Chat, which is still in beta testing. It’s unclear how it stacks up against well-known private apps like Signal or even WhatsApp, which actually uses Signal’s encryption technology.
No messaging app is perfect. If you care about privacy, use one with end-to-end encryption. That means only you and the person you message can read what’s sent. The best options right now are Signal, WhatsApp, and iMessage for iPhone users. Google Messages also has encryption, but only between Android phones. You can try X Chat if you want, but it’s still new and not a top pick yet.
You can give X Chat a try if you’re curious, but it’s still too new to recommend as a top choice.
FAQs
1. What is AWS, and why did it go down?
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a cloud service that powers websites, apps, and online tools worldwide. When it went down, many apps that rely on it—including Signal — also stopped working.
2. Why is Elon Musk upset with Signal?
Musk used to promote Signal but has recently questioned its security. Some people believe he’s trying to push his own encrypted messaging service, X Chat.
3. What is X Chat?
X Chat is a new messaging feature on Elon Musk’s X platform. It offers encrypted text, file sharing, and voice or video calls, but it’s still being tested.
4. What’s the best private messaging app right now?
Signal and WhatsApp remain the most popular options for secure, end-to-end encrypted chats. iMessage is also a good choice for iPhone users.
