A part of my communications will be switched to signal. Some will still be in whatsapp for now
Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
341–350 of 972 posts
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not just see messages, but show you ads as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25520200 Telegram's a down-right bad IM experience compared to WhatsApp despite Facebook's forced integration: You see ads and the chats aren't encrypted.
Not true at all - you have no ads looking at your screen, neither chatting privately. Group/channel owners may choose to add ads, but you can always run your own client made to ignore them - telegram is open source.
Not showing you ads in 1:1 chat or in groups the maintainer has chose not to enable them in is different from, "I have your data ready to go for targeted advertisement".
This is essentially the Google model. Your search queries and browsing history (and Android and Chrome) are essential to targeted ads shown on every website "the webmasters choose to enable them on".
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#343I think Telegram is the superior IM currently being developed but if you want to switch due to privacy reasons than you can just stay on whatsapp, it will not really improve anything.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#344Offtopic: Since when does HN have polls?
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also missing a "I'm not switching because I've never needed to use WhatsApp" option. My social circle has been on Signal for years and WhatsApp never caught on.
Nobody cares that you and your crew are using a WhatsApp alternative, which is why there's no option for you to signal that you're using an alternative. This is for people who want to switch and are looking for suggestions, not for people who are trying to show off that they don't need to switch.
I find it interesting to that people don't use WhatsApp at all. Many posts here are claiming not using WhatsApp is impossible. Grandparent's experience demonstrate that it is.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#346Why not Tox? That is the only one I know which is really decentralized
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
I quit WhatsApp, Facebook et al and went with Signal. Initially it was hard converting people to a privacy oriented service, but today I have an endless list of open chats in Signal.
Consider Jami - https://jami.net/ - instead of Signal.
Jami seems like a very neat idea, but I've encountered numerous crashes and issues with it.
It was also pretty easy to get my family using Signal because it uses your existing address book. The need to send a Jami address is a huge hurdle for the non-technical.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#348NOTE: I don't know what Zom is so ignoring it in the below. Viber, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Threema and Discord are all built on the same paradigm: accounts tied to a single service and thus the inertia of network effect makes vendor lock-in a real problem when acquisitions happen or Terms of Service change. Signal is in theory the "best" of these 5 options in the short-term, but it being open source is utterly ir…
That may be true, but I can’t encourage my social circle to move to an alternative that isn’t polished and has a great user experience for non-technical users. It’s a non starter. Even if I did, the moment they start using it and a) it’s confusing b) most of their circle is using something else, they’ll a) drop it b) ignore my future suggestions :).
Take Matrix for example. I had heard of it but hadn’t really looked into it until now. There’s no official client, so you have to find your own. That’s already a barrier of entry for someone like my mom. Then I look led through their list of client apps, and it’s the usual issues with free client apps. They don’t look great, and the reviews claim they’re rough around the edges. Even my eyes glaze over at the thought of having to try out 3-4 different clients to find the one I like.
I’d the goal is to move our communication infrastructure to use more open standards we have be realistic. And right now from what I can see, Matrix is still a solution for and by technical people. Asking my parents to move to it isn’t realistic at the moment.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#349Where 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.
How is it possible for this answer to be first... Really HN? WhatsApp is critical infrastructure?? Excluding company ownership, what is the crucial difference between all IM listed? There's LITTLE DIFFERENCE, they all serve the same purpose, feature parity is pretty much there. When you add company ownership to the mix, WhatsApp is owned by fucking Facebook. Let that sear in your mind.
I've seem this kind of reaction coming from my friends and colleagues here in US, because they are still using SMS (or Apple's Messages when they have an iPhone) for messaging. And there is rarely a thing like "I'll text that store to place an order for delivery" or many of the other uses WhatsApp get in other countries.
I wouldn't say this is on purpose but they are unaware of how WhatsApp is used everywhere else.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
if with Telegram "the privacy, security, and governance story is not great though", why would you migrate from WhatsApp to Telegram in first place? I personally have all 3 (Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram) and use all three with different groups and scenarios. For example: - With my mom and grandmom: WhatsApp - Group of friends from jiu-jitsu: WhatsApp - Work Colleagues and friends working with Network Security: Signal…
It's about time someone made a unified messenger client that combines all these conversations and hides the detail of which service you are using to talk to friends.
Trillian?