This week, the encrypted messaging app Signal has been thrust into the spotlight due to unforeseen circumstances.

Senior officials in the Trump administration, including Vice President J. D. Vance and Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, exchanged plans for a military operation against the Yemeni Houthis through a potentially unauthorized group chat on Signal. However, in a surprising turn of events, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to the group chat, gaining access to highly classified discussions, which he later made public.

The Signal app functioned as intended and did not experience any technical issues. Instead, the mistake lay with the user who accidentally added a journalist to a sensitive conversation about U.S. military plans – a mistake that should have been preventable if government security protocols were properly followed.

Following the Atlantic’s report on Monday, global downloads of Signal on iOS and Google Play saw a 28% increase from the daily average over the past 30 days, according to app intelligence firm Appfigures. In the U.S., downloads surged by 45% on Monday, while in Yemen, they rose by 42%. Prior to the incident, Signal ranked 50th among social media apps in Yemen but jumped to 9th place on Monday.

Signal has not responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment on the matter.

All communications on Signal are encrypted, ensuring that only participants in a chat can view the messages – even Signal’s own staff cannot access the content of user conversations. However, Signal is designed as a secure messaging platform for consumer use, not as a secure repository for sensitive government information.

Despite Hegseth’s claim that “no war plans” were discussed in the Signal chat, the Atlantic published messages revealing details about the timing of attacks, as well as the weapons and aircraft involved.

As of Thursday, the government is still investigating this significant security breach.