12, compared to just hundreds of thousands the prior week, according to apps-analytics firm Sensor Tower. Signal was downloaded 17.8 million times in the Google Play and Apple App stores from Jan.

The issues emerged days after Signal reported a sudden uptick in new users following the storming of the Capitol earlier this month. Signal did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the technical difficulties and their origin. “We are working hard to restore service as quickly as possible,” Signal said in a tweet.

Signal acknowledged in a statement the application is having “technical difficulties”, but did not offer an explanation. Some users told CyberScoop they were having issues as early as Thursday. Some users, including the author of this article, found messages took much longer to send than normal, or received a notice that the service was “unavailable” when trying to send messages. Signal users around the world began reporting issues sending messages in the mobile application Friday morning. 2021 has so far been a chaotic year, and now Signal is bearing the brunt of it.

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