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Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#572

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish the EU would force messaging systems to also support interactions with XMPP or other similar open standards. There's nothing in their way to expect such a thing, except the lobbyists.

Why would you want your government to mandate how technology works? Sounds like a recipe for disaster and the perfect way to stifle innovation

“One System — One Policy — Universal Service”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsbury_Commitment?wprov=sft...

"the promise of mail delivery [helped] grow the nation and economy instead of serving only existing communities."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Service_Act?wprov=sfti1

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a reminder, Telegram groups are not encrypted at all, and 1:1 chats are not encrypted by default, so while WhatsApp might see your contacts, Telegram can see most of your messages.

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.

>bad IM experience compared to WhatsApp

I'd say forcing me to type on a shitty tiny on-screen keyboard (or use a _browser_ while still keeping the network on my phone running) is such a terrible experience that literally everything else wins in comparison to this.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#575

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.

Why is this the top voted comment? Leaving WhatsApp is nothing at all like cutting off your internet connection. It is just one out of literally dozens of available text messaging apps, and it is owned by one of the least ethical companies that exists today.

Its like saying: "Why you still on internet, there are dozens of BBS available"

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#576

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, a…

> Element's client is not "nice": we can fix it.

We can, but part of the selling point of Matrix is choice and I've found that not only is Element not "nice", but it actually has different goals as a client (it seems more Slack-esque in focus, than WhatsApp-esque to me).

What we need if the aim is to advocate for an alternative to WhatsApp is to find something that solves the same problems. There's a few options on Matrix.org[0]: Nio[1] seems very nice but it's iOS only and still alpha, but I've been using FluffyChat[2] and I've found it good sofar. Much much nicer than Element at least.

[0] https://matrix.org/clients/

[1] https://nio.chat/

[2] https://fluffychat.im/

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish the EU would force messaging systems to also support interactions with XMPP or other similar open standards. There's nothing in their way to expect such a thing, except the lobbyists.

Why would you want your government to mandate how technology works? Sounds like a recipe for disaster and the perfect way to stifle innovation

Because innovative != ethical! Hopefully it would stifle innovation that depends on tracking users and platform lock-in. I think there would certainly be space for innovation beyond that, possibly with even better conditions for competition as it would be easier for users to move between platforms.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#579
Stopped using WhatsApp 2 years ago. I can contact most people in telegram but I’d like to uninstall soon. They make it hard, you need 1 month inactivity. This means 1 month of potentially lost messages you will never see.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is true. Sure, you can maybe get your close friends or close family to switch. But I don't think my landlord or my distant relatives will install Signal just because I don't want to use WhatsApp anymore.

What about SMS? It's free for most plans.

SMS/MMS don't work or are unreliable for international communication. SMS/MMS, historically, have been unreliable cross-carrier domestically in the US. Many cheaper Android phones, especially, seemed to be particularly poor players with SMS/MMS group chats. SMS/MMS doesn't guarantee message delivery order (which can lead to some comical exchanges when the first split of the message shows up a day after the last split, but also obnoxious). MMS, depending on phone, isn't particularly useful for a lot of multimedia or mixed content messages (not just text or simple and small images).

WhatsApp is free on carriers in many countries (including large portions of Asia and South America), contrasting with other messaging platforms which use a standard data plan. It delivers messages reliably, group messages just work, and it works properly for mixed content messages. And data is (relatively) cheap in most countries where WhatsApp isn't free.

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