Poll: Switching from WhatsApp • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#221

Post by HourglassFR » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

apexalpha wrote: post #155

Where is the "Don't switch" option? Because as much as I hate that Facebook bought them, they're part of what I would call "critical social infrastructure." Asking to leave WhatsApp is like cancelling your contract with your ISP and going offline just because you don't like the company.

I agree, all my friends and familly are on WhatsApp and they will definitely not switch. So from my point of view, I have to balance the cost between sharing data to Facebook and severely hampering communications with my love ones.

I guess what I'm saying is that the network effect is just too damn strong (for me at least).

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#222

Post by gbrown_ » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

Fnoord wrote: post #171

gbrown_ wrote: post #24

Sadly the inertia of WhatsApp is something hard to escape. I would/do choose Signal with a few of my tech savvy friends. But the majority of people I know use WhatsApp, and consequently so do I.

I know various people who are not tech savvy, and use Signal. It doesn't require a lot of skill to use Signal; on the contrary. IMO, if you can use WhatsApp, you can use Signal. Some features like Axolotl and 2FA even overlap. That's why I decided to switch away from WhatsApp to Signal. Whoever doesn't follow can send me SMS or e-mail.

I don't mean to say you have to be tech savvy to use Signal but it's mostly tech savvy people that want to use it.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#223

Post by tkgally » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

What are people’s thoughts on Line? It’s very widely used here in Japan, especially among younger people. I have used it only a little myself and don’t have much of an opinion one way or another.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#224

Post by sgt » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

paride5745 wrote: post #182

S53Vflnr4n wrote: post #167

Have to keep in mind that WhatsApp's customer base is not the western world, but mainly growing economies like India and African countries. WhatsApp recently rolled out Payments feature in India. In fact WhatsApp for Business is pretty good for SME to conduct business in India. Some of the shops that I went to India has paperless receipts and digital payments thru WhatsApp and UPI. They ask your WhatsApp number by de…

WhatsApp is basically a given in Europe, they want to become like WeChat in China but for outside the Chinese firewall.

I know for example that in Norway you will encounter tons of people who have never even heard of WhatsApp. They just use iMessage as most people there have iPhones and I bet some people just think of it as an SMS (just happens to work much better).

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#225

Post by sbilstein » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

apexalpha wrote: post #155

Where is the "Don't switch" option? Because as much as I hate that Facebook bought them, they're part of what I would call "critical social infrastructure." Asking to leave WhatsApp is like cancelling your contract with your ISP and going offline just because you don't like the company.

At this point the game has changed with social apps; I’m including messaging as “social.” It is easier than ever to rebuild the important parts of your social graph on Signal, Clubhouse, Snap, IG, whatever platform you need. I talk to the same friends via Twitter DM, WhatsApp, IG, signal, hangouts and iMessage. Open access to contact books and APIs have made this so easy. I can leave WhatsApp and my network will find me elsewhere.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#226

Post by newscracker » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

nono-no-no wrote: post #169

But why is Signal not as polished and more importantly, can we do something about it? Would it help if we fund it? https://www.signal.org/donate/

The Signal Foundation was formed a couple of years ago with a $50 million chunk from the founder of WhatsApp. That should’ve helped a lot, though I don’t know how much.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#227

Post by toper-centage » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:47 PM UTC

studiecomput wrote: post #179

0x_rs wrote: post #43

Been using Telegram for a long time. I don't trust it any more than I do with WhatsApp (therefore, Facebook), however it is well done and thought out, has a real desktop client with a real desktop UI toolkit and enough of my contacts are on it already, therefore it's the best compromise to me. I greatly dislike Signal's UI when I tried it out and I've read about some weird decisions lately (that "using a PIN? uploadi…

I'm facing the same problems. All the people in my (real life) social circle are using WhatsApp. All of my friends are calling me crazy that I don't have Instagram, so talking about alternative messaging apps is probably not going to work. I think this is true for most people in the western culture. I value my privacy, but the struggle is to big for me. Maybe an open-source protocol, like how e-mail works, could be a…

I'm really shocked that people these days don't even ask for phone numbers. They ask for Instagram. I don't have it and do feel like I'm "missing out" on updates from friends. But then it reminds me how much I hated Facebook before I quit. These days my WhatsApp bio says "text me on Telegram" and usually my WhatsApp is not running on the background.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#228

Post by rglullis » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:49 PM UTC

From the listed alternatives, only Matrix is the one that actually solves the issue of not having to trust our communications to any single monopolistic entity.

You could add XMPP there as well, but it really doesn't matter. What does matter is for us to start pushing for openness and start evangelizing/helping others to adopt anything that puts us back in control of our communication.

This is the one thing to fix, and the one opportunity that we are getting now to do this right.

- Element's client is not "nice": we can fix it. We can not fix closedness.

- Not everyone is using it: we can fix it. We can not fix privacy abuse from Facebook.

- It's work to run/manage a server: find a hosting provider (cough https://communick.com cough).

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#229

Post by saargrin » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:49 PM UTC

csmattryder wrote: post #159

gyosko wrote: post #88

The problem is not finding a nice alternative. The problem is that everybody's contacts are on Whatsapp. How do you make THEM switch?

Make it easier to switch, is the answer. That was my thought process evaluating alternatives this morning. Signal is apparently lauded by the privacy crowd, but I took one look at it and said "no way is Mum going to use this". I went with Telegram because the usability was good, WhatsApp-like functionality, and I saw a few people I know already on it - non-techies in particular, which is vital if we're going to disru…

lots of my friends have both whatsapp and telegram

and now some of them are almost exclusively on telegram and some on whatsapp

and whats worse is,now there are some half-and-half conversations in both

and on top of that whatsapp rolled out business accounts and every mom and pop store has whatsapp and thats the only way you can communicate with them in real time

i dont think im gonna be switching out

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#230

Post by mkmk2 » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 1:49 PM UTC

nindalf wrote: post #218

fsflover wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is "To which app are you going to switch?", not "What are you using?" It may take a long time and huge effort to switch, but people are starting to do it.

> The question is "To which app are you going to switch?" And a reasonable answer is "your assumption is wrong, I don't plan to switch at all". I have no doubt that some people will switch, what I'd like to know if that movement is niche or mainstream.

And an answer to that is maybe youre not the intended target of this poll. If the op is looking for alternatives, that's not a very useful option