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Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

economictimes.indiatimes.com

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Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#31

Post by dasyatidprime »

codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

Something I've been trying to polish which seems worth saying in this context: Physical property is like control over address space. Copyright is like control over strings. Patents are like control over algorithms. But fixed-endpoint SaaSS… is like control over types.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#32

Post by jamil7 »

oska wrote: post #16
codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

> Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. I really do not agree with this often-made assertion. The main difference between the HN crowd and the general public is that we are more likely to understand how, and how extensively, our privacy is being compromised. We are used to considering computer logs and monitoring as very real (because we work with them / create them); the general public n…

Agreed, I see the topic come up more and more among friend groups with many of them not working tech. I’m starting to see topics on privacy pop up in mainstream media more too.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#33

Post by j45 »

codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

Whatsapp wasn’t always all those things on this first release.

It was the first Universal messaging app across multiple platforms. It worked on a lot of obscure mobile OS’ and devices that didn’t have something like BBM. The ability to connect was novel.

Today’s world is different, it might not be easy to build the next WhatsApp, but technologies are being adopted quicker than WhatsApp was.

If people can learn WhatsApp, and the first app they used a lot was WhatsApp, they will learn other things.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#34

Post by eecc »

codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

These features came over time, and there was a time when people lived without.

The real deal is the network effect, and managing to mobilize enough friend networks.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#35

Post by ignoramous »

codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

Due to the recent app bans and internet censorship measures, the knowledge of / willingness to use security and privacy apps among Indians went up. Similar to what happened in Venezuela with BTC.

Plus, covid forced everyone digital and I had many ask if Zoom was safe to install on their phones along with banking apps because China.

And a privacy service and app I built has highest number of users from India followed by Iran. In my interacting with them, it is clear government bans and privacy concerns due to BigTech were major drivers for them to seek such tools. These people are barely tech savvy right now, but that is going to change.

The thing is, as mobile phones and connectivity become more ubiquitous, people are only getting more familiar with tools they can use to make those devices / internet work for them. This trend, though small in absolute numbers, is only growing.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#36

Post by _trampeltier »

j45 wrote: post #33
codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

Whatsapp wasn’t always all those things on this first release. It was the first Universal messaging app across multiple platforms. It worked on a lot of obscure mobile OS’ and devices that didn’t have something like BBM. The ability to connect was novel. Today’s world is different, it might not be easy to build the next WhatsApp, but technologies are being adopted quicker than WhatsApp was. If people can learn WhatsA…

In the beginning I had no idea, why people used WhatsApp. Line hat so much more features in the early messenger days. To use Line for phone or video chat was years before WhatsApp possible. But Line was mostly just in asia a thing.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#37

Post by kelnos »

Datagenerator wrote: post #29
fakeyguy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just got 3 of my groups migrated to Signal. I expect many more to be migrated by the end of the month. While many may still remain lots of people will be off WA by 8th Feb.

Suggested to move and within one hour my group of peers all moved. Didn't expect it be to smooth but they are happy to add emoticons to each message and won't go back. The feature of automatic message expiration and deletion gives more options for conversations which are more sensitive and requiring higher levels of privacy. The next hurdle is to realize your keyboard application can log all you have written, so no S…

I feel like worrying about GBoard reading your keystrokes is a little unnecessaru. If Google wanted to spy on your private conversations, they can find a way, even if you use a different keyboard. They... built the OS itself. Whether they can keep their meddling secret is another matter.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#38

Post by Method-X »

throwthrowcatch wrote: post #30
codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

Signal will be become popular -- if it does -- just like how every other network based app became popular eg. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat. Examples from work... Zoom, Slack etc. First it's used among a small group of people, has a "cool"ness factor and a USP. Then slowly spreads as other people want to be seen as ahead of the curve and want to be part of an exclusive group. So the Hacker…

> What will make WhatsApp lose?

It would have to be something fundamental. Any new feature that gains significant popularity can easily be added to WhatsApp (e.g. stories); in addition to having network effects working in their favour.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#39

Post by richardw »

codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

Change happens on the margin. If success is defined by everyone moving on the same day, we’d still be using ICQ. This issue is an opportunity to make some people aware and maybe move a few networks to better solutions. So make a few changes, nudge a few groups, make people aware of the implications of their implicit decisions.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#40

Post by selestify »

Method-X wrote: post #38
throwthrowcatch wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal will be become popular -- if it does -- just like how every other network based app became popular eg. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat. Examples from work... Zoom, Slack etc. First it's used among a small group of people, has a "cool"ness factor and a USP. Then slowly spreads as other people want to be seen as ahead of the curve and want to be part of an exclusive group. So the Hacker…

> What will make WhatsApp lose? It would have to be something fundamental. Any new feature that gains significant popularity can easily be added to WhatsApp (e.g. stories); in addition to having network effects working in their favour.

The only feature I don’t see WhatsApp adopting is Signal’s strong privacy focus. I guess we’ll see how important privacy alone is as a feature.
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