As stated in the patch notes, Signal now supports animated stickers, chat wallpapers, and an About Us section if you’re using your account for commercial purposes. As wallpaper, you can set one of the backgrounds built into the application, or choose your own photo. Each chat can have its own background. According to Android Police, there are also 24 animated stickers in the application and there will be more of them in the future since any user can create their own set of stickers through the desktop client. In addition to cosmetic innovations, the developers also added a data saving mode to iOS, which can be enabled in the settings. In this mode, the application will consume less traffic during an audio call, as well as automatically pause the download of files in chats during calls and compress images better.

Previously, the application had stricter functionality that did not imply such customization capabilities. The reason why Signal added all this is because developers need to create an environment that will be familiar to users of other messengers, including those who switched from WhatsApp.

Most importantly, Signal still uses end-to-end encryption and is one of the best messengers in terms of security, sharing this pedestal with Telegram.