Chennai: For ardent users of the popular messaging platform WhatsApp, the week gone by was a rather difficult one.

As, the app has come under severe criticism for its new privacy policy, which implicitly states how it processes user data; how businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chats; and how WhatsApp partners with Facebook to offer integrations across the company products.

Users will need to accept these updates to continue using WhatsApp, a statement from the platform said.

This announcement has left several users looking for alternative messaging apps, with the most popular ones currently being Signal, Telegram and Arattai.

Signal which was rather unknown until now, is now one of the top messaging apps on Google Play in India, thanks to Tesla chief Elon Musk who recommended the same.

A free, privacy-focused messaging and voice talk app, Signal needs just a phone number to join. One can text or make voice or video calls with friends, either one-on-one or in groups, and use emoji reactions or stickers just like in other apps.

As far as privacy is concerned, Signal enables complete encryption of data, making it highly secure.

Being a non-profit organisation, it does not collect any data from its users, and has no advertising, thereby no incentive to track users.

Another app which has been in use for quite sometime now is Telegram. However, this might not be a great alternative to Whatsapp as its private groups are unlimited in size.

Most of it is unmoderated and hence runs the risk of enabling toxic and illegal content. Its chats too are not end-to-end encrypted.

The latest kid on the block is India’s very own Arattai app, which is slowly creating a buzz in social media circles.

Developed by Chennai and US-based firm Zoho, this messaging app which translates to ‘chat’ in Tamil, is yet to be officially launched.

However, its beta version which has been released on Google and Apple play stores, has already seen thousands of downloads.

As per Arattai’s privacy policy, the app collects basic data of the user, but does not share it without user consent.