Privateness-focused messaging app Sign has been flying excessive within the Dutch app shops this previous month, usually sitting on the prime as essentially the most downloaded free app on iOS and Android throughout all classes, per knowledge from a number of app-tracking platforms akin to Sensor Tower.
The app has skilled surges in reputation through the years, usually in response to coverage adjustments at rivals like WhatsApp or geopolitical occasions. That’s as a result of Sign has made a reputation for itself as a extra privacy-friendly possibility — it’s operated by a not-for-profit basis (albeit one primarily based within the U.S.) quite than a personal enterprise centered on monetizing knowledge. Furthermore, Sign tracks minimal metadata.
In 2025, with a brand new U.S. president empowered by Large Tech’s heat embrace, it’s not stunning that digital privateness instruments are having a second — significantly in Europe, which has attracted President Trump’s ire.
However what’s particularly eye-catching this time round is Sign’s prominence in a single very particular locale — the Netherlands.
In an interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf final week, Sign President Meredith Whittaker famous that the variety of “new registrations” within the Netherlands was greater this yr by an element of 25, although it’s not clear what the precise comparative time period is for this knowledge.
When requested why the Netherlands has seen such progress, Whittaker pointed to a mixture of things: “Rising consciousness of privateness, mistrust of massive tech, and the political actuality wherein folks notice how susceptible digital communication could be,” Whittaker stated.
Knowledge offered to TechCrunch from app intelligence agency AppFigures charts Sign’s rise within the Netherlands. Per its knowledge, Sign ranked 365th amongst non-game iPhone apps within the Netherlands on January 1 and didn’t seem within the prime total apps checklist. Then, beginning round January 5, it started to climb the rankings, reaching the highest place by February 2.
Sign has dipped out and in of the lead within the intervening weeks, spending round half of February on the summit — together with every day since February 22. Digging deeper into the information, AppFigures estimates that mixed downloads throughout Apple and Google’s app shops totaled round 22,000 in December 2024. This jumped to 99,000 in January and soared to 233,000 by February — a 958% rise since December.
Whereas a few of this progress could also be attributed to Sign having decrease saturation than in different markets, the app’s sustained place on the prime in comparison with similar-sized neighboring markets is notable.
“No different markets come near the Netherlands when it comes to progress between December and February,” AppFigures informed TechCrunch.
For comparability, since December, Belgium has seen downloads develop by greater than 250%, Sweden by 153%, and Denmark by 95%.
So why would possibly Sign be experiencing what one Redditor referred to as a “mass adoption second” within the Netherlands?
Clear sign
Rejo Zenger, senior coverage advisor at Dutch digital rights basis Bits of Freedom, stated that whereas it’s troublesome to pinpoint one particular purpose, he’s not stunned.
Current developments within the U.S. have seen the large platform suppliers align with the brand new Trump administration, and this has stoked vital public and media debate. Europe’s reliance on expertise from big personal U.S. firms has grow to be a focus in that debate.
“The Dutch are, similar to many others, extremely depending on the infrastructure offered by extraordinarily dominant tech firms, largely from the U.S.,” Zenger informed TechCrunch. “What this implies, and the dangers that come from this, have been properly demonstrated prior to now few weeks. In consequence, the general public debate within the Netherlands has been comparatively sharp. The place prior to now this downside was solely mentioned on the extent of ‘which on the spot messenger ought to I exploit,’ I really feel now we’re having the controversy on greater ranges as properly: ‘we must always eliminate this dependency.’”
In that context, the general public could possibly be conflating dominance with knowledge safety abuse. With firms like Meta recurrently being investigated and fined over knowledge privateness practices, Sign would possibly seem the lesser evil: it’s primarily based within the U.S., however operated by a non-profit that ensures encryption of each message content material and the metadata round it.
Vincent Böhre, director at Dutch privateness group Privateness First, additionally pointed to elevated media protection and a broader shift in public opinion.
“Ever since Trump was re-elected within the U.S. a number of months in the past, there was numerous ‘bashing’ of Trump and [Elon] Musk in Dutch — and European — mainstream media, together with bashing of American Large Tech firms, which now appear to be supportive of Trump,” Böhre informed TechCrunch. “Articles criticizing X [formerly Twitter] and Meta have been popping up in Dutch media in all places, resulting in a shift in Dutch public opinion: even individuals who by no means actually knew or cared about privateness and safety in social media, have now out of the blue grow to be excited by ‘privacy-friendly’ alternate options, Sign particularly.”
Sign of intent
Whereas the Netherlands is only one market of 18 million folks in a European inhabitants of greater than 700 million, its surge in adoption might sign a broader pattern throughout the continent, particularly as governments search to convey down privateness obstacles.
Apple, for instance, just lately pulled end-to-end encryption from iCloud within the U.Ok. to counter authorities efforts to put in a backdoor.
Talking at RightsCon 25 in Taiwan this week, Whittaker reaffirmed Sign’s unwavering stance on privateness.
“Sign’s place on that is very clear –- we won’t walk-back, adulterate, or in any other case perturb the strong privateness and safety ensures that folks rely on,” Whittaker stated. “Whether or not that perturbation or backdoor is named client-side scanning, or the stripping of the encryption protections from one or one other options just like what Apple was pushed into doing within the U.Ok.”
Individually, in an interview with Swedish public broadcaster SVT, Whittaker stated Sign wouldn’t adjust to a proposed Swedish legislation requiring messaging app-makers to retailer messages.
“In follow, this implies asking us to interrupt the encryption that’s the basis of our complete enterprise,” Whittaker stated. “Asking us to retailer knowledge would undermine our complete structure and we’d by no means do this. We’d quite go away the Swedish market utterly.”
TechCrunch reached out to Sign for remark, however hadn’t heard again on the time of publishing.
