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Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

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Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#843

Earlier 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.

Man, I’m getting old. Back in the day, we had Trillian and Pidgin for that, among others.

I think the newer services are less interested in integrating or have weird and unique features that are harder to implement.

I agree though, it would be nice to be able to have Matrix, Discord, Telegram, Signal all on one program and with all their established features.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#844
post #283

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.

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…

> when your data limits are reached you can still use WhatsApp for the rest of the month, but not i.e. Signal or Telegram. That makes is rather hard to convince people to switch.

Is it common for people to reach their limits? I understand it may happen by accident when you turn off wifi then forget to re-enable, but normally one takes care of their data quota or their plans and usage is such that they never or rarely use it completely, right?

I imagine one also has the option in both prepaid and postpaid plans to get more data for the rest of the month if it ever happens that they need more. It'd just be more expensive since it's out of package.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#845

Xmpp

Quoting from a previous comment[0]:

> I've had that response several times, but XMPP is not a messaging app. It's like asking for an email client and being told "Use the internet", or "Use TCP".

> Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the response, but it's not answering the question I'm asking.

> What app running on top of XMPP would you suggest?

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25676311

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#846
post #844
post #283

Earlier 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…

> when your data limits are reached you can still use WhatsApp for the rest of the month, but not i.e. Signal or Telegram. That makes is rather hard to convince people to switch. Is it common for people to reach their limits? I understand it may happen by accident when you turn off wifi then forget to re-enable, but normally one takes care of their data quota or their plans and usage is such that they never or rarely…

When I had limited plans I burned through it every month and had to live at the dialup level speeds the phone companies gave you once you used up all your LTE data. Usually it was because I had to do more driving that month than normal so I'd eat up more data streaming podcasts/music. Always kept an eye on how much data I had left, but used it all anyway.

At least now I have unlimited data via a prepaid plan so I can freely tether when cable internet goes down weekly.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#847

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Who do you think that allocates frequency spectrum? Imagine if every mobile phone company wanted to lock its users by operating on a specific frequency. Imagine if Hollywood or TV studios had any saying over Digital TV standards. Streaming would never exist and we would be used to a "pay-per-view" model forever, with mandatory and built-in DRM. This is not about enforcing how technology works. It just ensuring that n…

We would have been much worse off if governments, or governmental bodies like the UN, allocated IP addresses rather than a private anarcho-like entity.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#848

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again: bugs can be fixed. You are free to go open an issue and get developers to look at this. Element's short history has shown that they are aware of the issues and are reasonably responsive in fixing them. There is no place you can go to open an issue that says "Facebook is exploiting user data even on applications that are supposed (promised, even) to be private.". Even if it were, ALL of Facebook's history is fi…

Facebook’s mantra of “Move Fast and Break Things” had a clear meaning: it is far more important to ship products and innovate — at the risk of introducing bugs — than it is to keep the current version of the software in perfect working order. Especially so when you win only by our growing your competitors. “Bugs are tolerated as they are the price worth paying for a rapidly evolving code base, but you gotta fix ‘em”…

I know. My point is that this idea of innovation should not be extended to any realm outside of software. By pushing themselves to become the central way to connect people, they changed and broke society: civil discourse, increased tribalism and polarization. They broke a good part of this generation: people growing up with anxiety due to a sense of inadequacy caused by seeing only the facade of their peer group (the instagram profile) and not the true depth of their characters. Doom-scrolling. Slacktivism.

These the type of bugs that should never be accepted and are hard to repair. Element client failing to ring on a call is a nuisance. I can call the person back. My teenage cousins who are growing so socially inept I worry they won't survive for a day outside of their homes without a cellphone? The arguments I had with my wife over her Instagram habit and the fact that she does not see how that relates to her insecurities/anxieties? That will be a lot more work to fix.

Re: Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

#850
post #652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There used to be on Android, it's called Disa, but a lot of services actively combat third party clients. It was nice when I used it back in like 2014 because if WhatsApp went down I could just keep talking to the same person via Telegram (assuming they had both) and it'd all be in 1 joined conversation.

I remember using Disa as well. It's a long time since then.
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