I voted for Signal however i am wondering how signal is any different. My concern mainly rises from the "fact" that "If You're Not Paying For It, You Become The Product"
Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
821–830 of 972 posts
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#822My friends and family use Blackberry Messenger (BBM) Enterprise. Please see:
https://www.blackberry.com/us/en/products/bbm-enterprise-bbm...
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#823Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I don't know where parent is located, but here in Brazil they are pretty much right. Everybody has WhatsApp... it's assumed that if you have a phone you have WhatsApp. A lot of financial transactions are conducted by doing a bank transfer and then sending the receipt via WhatsApp. The schools send essential messages to parents via WhatsApp. During lockdowns, stores were taking delivery orders via WhatsApp. What…
Whole Central and South America is like this actually. I have travelled to many countries. Often this is the only way to get a hospital appointment, and I prioritize my health over privacy from Facebook.
this single post would be grounds for nationalization/breakup/conversion to utility status for me. i wouldn't believe this if there weren't so many of you saying the same thing here. it's unthinkable for me to send any kind of confidential information via whatsapp.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#824Earlier quoted context omitted.
Link.
Best I can find with keywords “telegram” and “backdoor” is this article: https://socialbarrel.com/telegram-founder-makes-shocking-bac... Which discusses how Telegram was banned in many countries for refusing cooperation while WhatsApp suspiciously was never banned, which could mean that WhatsApp gives governments everything they demand.
I suspect the Google/Facebook deal for "free backup of WhatsApp chats on your Google account" is exactly that.
WhatsApp had perfectly usable encrypted backup - which took up space on your Google backup. And then, all of a sudden, it wasn't encrypted and didn't take up space. But you don't have access to it yourself - only Google does (and WhatsApp if it is recovering). This is a perfect way to provide all the data to various governments for 99.9% of users, without killing the E2E encryption.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#825As much as I like Signal, my vote goes to Matrix because there is no dependency on a phone number and the network is built with federation in mind.
And there are several clients out there that are compatible, it doesn't lock you inside an "official" client.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#826Where 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.
Do people not realize they can run more than 1 messenger app at a time?
The mental overhead of switching between - and keeping track of - messaging apps shouldn't be ignored.
Speaking from experience, I have a hard time remembering which specific platform is preferred by specific contacts. It's a minor annoyance, but it's always present.
How many messenger apps do you run, and how many is too many?
For me, the limit is 2. Note that currently I am forced to keep 5 different apps to keep in touch with my contacts.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#827Earlier quoted context omitted.
WhatsApp allows Group Conversations and Sharing Media (Pictures, Videos, Files, Audio Files, GPS Location, Video Calls). SMS and MMS can not cope with that in large quantity like 100mbs of video files and hundred of pictures, because data is cheaper than MMS costs. This Privacy policy change whill allow Facebook, who bought WhatsApp, to extract all these data for their own purpose, before it was not the case.
Can't all this be done on facebook?
that's the point - it isn't facebook, except it is.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#828Earlier quoted context omitted.
Best I can find with keywords “telegram” and “backdoor” is this article: https://socialbarrel.com/telegram-founder-makes-shocking-bac... Which discusses how Telegram was banned in many countries for refusing cooperation while WhatsApp suspiciously was never banned, which could mean that WhatsApp gives governments everything they demand.
I suspect the Google/Facebook deal for "free backup of WhatsApp chats on your Google account" is exactly that. WhatsApp had perfectly usable encrypted backup - which took up space on your Google backup. And then, all of a sudden, it wasn't encrypted and didn't take up space. But you don't have access to it yourself - only Google does (and WhatsApp if it is recovering). This is a perfect way to provide all the data to…
Same situation with the iCloud backup on Apple iOS, AFAIK.
WhatsApp backup in iCloud is not encrypted.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#829The problem is not finding a nice alternative. The problem is that everybody's contacts are on Whatsapp. How do you make THEM switch?
I'm over here confused about how so many people are using Whatsapp. Is this is the United States or other countries? No one I know uses Whatsapp over here.
I did however do what others are suggesting. I installed Signal, and told my close family and friends to install it to communicate with me - and to not use standard SMS anymore.
While I did get a bit of grief over it initially, we are all happily using Signal now, and more people I know are moving to it all the time.
It's also a great middle ground for iPhone and Android users to communicate.
Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp
#830Where 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.
> Asking to leave WhatsApp is like cancelling your contract with your ISP and going offline just because you don't like the company. If I choose to stop using my ISP, I have no need to "go offline". I can simply switch ISPs and I still get the exact same internet. This is why we must not fall for this "critical social infrastructure" trap. No one company deserves our business. We can and should go elsewhere. Messagin…
> I can simply switch ISPs and I still get the exact same internet. This is why we must not fall for this "critical social infrastructure" trap. No one company deserves our business. We can and should go elsewhere.
I don't think you realize it's basically a privilege to be able to change your ISP. I have two options and have switched last month - it took three months of figuring out who should fix broken fiber (look at me, I have FTTH, another privilege).
so if you say you can 'simply switch' your ISP, you're in a lucky place.