this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Eh, whatsapp isn't ideal and its owner is one of the big devils of today, but it's the only way to send and receive instant messages among billions of people. I despise it, but it's the only way I can contact people. Needless to say, they don't give a single flying fuck about privacy.
Whatsapp outages make people migrate to Telegram for 1-2 days at most, nobody ends up staying there. Signal? I've only ever met three other people in RL who have even heard of it, and I work in IT.
A more apt comparison would be to languages. Whatsapp is english: clunky, weird, full of nonsense, but it's what "everyone talks". Signal would probably be lojban or esperanto.
This is SMS in the US. No one uses WhatsApp, telegram or matrix. Every iphone user uses imessage and so we are stuck with SMS.
As a Signal user and an Esperantist I agree. They both require a somewhat curious mind for you to bump into them in the first place. Unless you have that friend/relative who always recommends weird stuff for you (to ignore).
Yeah, but I disagree. Signal doesn’t require that by design, it’s just as easy to use as WhatsApp (unlike something like Matrix or Lemmy). It’s just as easy to switch and has a better privacy. And while I even don’t use it much, I actually know quite some people on it (majority of which is non-techy).
Most (non-techy) people haven't heard from it and don't bother searching for alternatives since WA is ubiquitous.
Why would it even be weird or anything? I only use Signal and its pretty much the same as whatsapp on the outside...just in blue. The only reason people dont use it is because "eVerYonE hAs WhAtsApP" and they dont bother. 20 useless crap apps but 2 messengers is too much
as another signal user and esperantist, i unfortunately agree as well. but it doesnt have to be like this
Signal was fantastic until they stupidly killed SMS integration.
I'm not sure I have all of them, but I regularly use (privately)
I'm tired boss.
Look into Beeper! It just got RCS support in its last update. Not sure if they plan on supporting Teams though.
If you're tech savvy though, look into setting up your own Matrix server for a Teams bridge.
Beeper looks amazing but is waiting list only.
A very short one. It's technically open to everyone now!
Well that's great news! I joined the wait-list last week and got an email saying they'd get back to me when I could get access.
I have never used Whatsapp nor does anyone I know.
Murican, I suppose.
It's mostly not used in the US afaik. I've seen it in a lot of places in Europe and the middle east
According to Statista, 41% of 'muricans use it, which is a rather low number. Meanwhile, Brazil is the whatsapp country, in terms of percentage. In total numbers, that'd be India, as it's the most populous country in the world.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1311229/whatsapp-usage-messaging-app-users-by-country/