this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2023
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Privacy
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I have to use WhatsApp for business because that is what my colleagues are wedded to. But I hate the fact that it is part of Meta, I cancelled by FB account 5 years ago and it bugs me that this last tie remains. I have however successfully migrated my whole family to SIGNAL which is vastly better than WhatsApp or Telegram, and certainly more transparent.
How did you get your family and friends to migrate to Signal
In my experience if you actually are decent friends with people sticking to your guns is enough.
Yes, you may feel like the dick if they ask you to "just use whatsapp, everyone does!", but in the end most people will install a free app to keep in contact with family and friends
About two years ago my gf and I just informed everyone that we would be switching in a week. We gave a few reasons why and linked to a local news article of a recent data breach. I recommend making the switch right after a big scandal because it makes it a lot easier to understand for people that don't follow FOSS or privacy news. We let them know how to contact us on Signal or through SMS. We were actually surprised by how many people installed Signal because of us, already had it installed or were actually already exclusively on Signal but we didn't have them as a contact yet. I think in the end I have about half of my contacts migrated but that also counts for 90% of the people I care about talking to regularly.
I did pretty much the same thing. I have been wanted to migrate away since Facebook acquired it, then I joined the small exodus after their privacy policy changes around 2y ago. Likewise, it's much easier to convince others to join Lemmy now, thanks to Reddit API controversy than it was at any other random time before.
Which is why I've lost online contact with a handful of my family. I don't get the mentality of only using one messenger. It's not like SMS, you can have 10 messengers installed.
“Im leaving whatsapp. either install / contact on signal or youll just have to use oldschool SMS”
Uninstall Whatsapp so they can't contact you. If you are important enough they will donwload an alternative lol
I converted around 10 people to Signal as well. Basically since I deleted my WhatsApp account, either they would create their Signal accts, or we wouldn't have an instant messaging channel. They still use mostly WhatsApp with others, but at least they run Signal alongside.
I wish Signal was more dependable and had better mainstream features so more people would switch and stick around. The fact the Desktop client doesn't sync message history, the app sometimes not notifying people, and unreliable voice or video calls were concerns that I heard or experienced so far.
What do you mean by
Signal still has a "practical" feature disparity compared to Telegram and WhatsApp. Personally I don't care about many of these newer features, but the mainstream public a lot of times does. Signal was the last one to implement stories and stickers for example, which might seem silly, but I know people who considered this lack as "cons" back then and that got in the way when convincing them to switch.
And for some features it does implement, one can make the argument they're objectively worse than its counterparts. Half the times I tried audio or video calls the lag made it impossible to continue and we had to switch to Google Meet. Likewise, the security feature of the desktop app not retrieving chat histories means that every few months I end up losing it on my desktop or laptop if I log back in after some tie. I put up with that, but because I really like Signal as a privacy-respecting project.
As for a Telegram comparison, their support and features for groups is really unmatched.
I say these things as a donor to Signal, so I really wish this will change, but I have to admit the features arrive late and are still not quite there yet.