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Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

economictimes.indiatimes.com

81–90 of 113 posts

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#81
post #74
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless it builds some of those features Here's a thing I don't understand - why is everyone obsessed with copycatting? By aiming for feature parity you, as a business or service, are letting a competitor dictate your roadmap. And what's worse, with features they have already shipped.

As a general case, I think you make a good point. But in this particular case, WhatsApp really is pretty perfect as far as messaging goes - the only issue is the terms of service, so it makes sense for Signal to have the same features, but without horrible ToS.

That's a scary thought. You're effectively saying that small-screen, asynchronous, human-to-human text based communications have been solved, with no further improvement possible.

Isn't that a rather depressing vision?

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#82

In the part of Africa I am from, the challenge is cellular network providers sell data bundles specifically for WhatsApp. It is so much cheaper to buy a social media data bundle than generic data to use for browsing the web. As a result Telegram and Signal cannot compete. WhatsApp is literally the internet.

Net neutrality is a very needed thing there it seems, as everywhere.

You mean competition.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#83

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 won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire.

Doesn't matter much to me. Getting my immediate family to switch and then having them encourage their contacts to adopt Signal (even if only as a secondary app) is a small victory in my mind.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#84
post #7

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…

Who would ever use dropbox if you can use FTP on Linux? It's obvious that Signal is going to release stories. It will just be in a privacy protecting manner when they're ready.

I really hope they don’t

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#85

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.

That's just not true. It was my non-tech friends who suggested we move off WhatsApp. And zero objections from anyone in my WhatsApp groups.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#86
WhatsApp won't easily be dethroned. Personally, I've sandboxed it by buying an el-cheapo Android and exclusively running it on that phone (using it mostly through WhatsApp web).

It's too late for the world now, though, 99.99% of people will give in to the FB threat, FB will be free to use that data - which takes 3-5 years to become stale. So as far as FB is concerned, they have received everything they need, and have that many years to manage the next fight for dominance.

But perhaps if Apple somehow introduces a "contacts" sandbox (e.g., have a contact chooser like the file chooser) and google is forced to follow suite, there won't be another one like it.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#87

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…

going to go ahead and bookmark this for future reference

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#88

Some of my friend groups have moved to Signal, it's ok in a "good enough" sort of way but it's not a perfect replacement. I'll have a hard time persuading family groups to move though, WhatsApp and Facebook are cultural touchstones for them they won't see any point in moving

You only need to persuade one popular person in the group and have them suggest it and everyone will follow. Although I don't know of a viable alternative to Facebook, going from WhatsApp to Telegram or Signal, like you said, is "good enough".

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sense for WhatsApp's dominance is peripheral contacts. I can convince close friends and family to move to Signal, but not distant friends, especially the large groups I'm in. I'm pretty bearish on Signal for this reason. (even though I use it personally) The playbook for unlocking adoption would be via a 'minority rule' where Signal users refuse to talk to people on WA, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I actually did just that. Changed my status to “only reachable by signal app” also same message on my profile pic. Just got around 5 people who talk to me on whatsapp already writing me on signal without problem. And funny thing 3/5 have also done same to their whatsapp now

Let's assume somebody said that for some other platform: "only reachable through Telegram" or Facebook Messenger.

What would you think?

That somebody certainly values the choice of platform higher than your convenience to chat with him or her.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#90
post #25

I have started pushing my friends towards Signal. Let's hope the Indian govt. does not create legal hindrances to Signal, as it is wont to do. Authoritarian tendencies are pretty damn strong out here.

I think they are gonna do that, our government is tending to become authoritarian, it's too early to tell if that's good or bad overall. The reason they have not hindered whatsapp is that unsubstantiated whatsapp forwards actually helped them politically. I see India becoming more and more similar to Russia, especially since Adityanath is likely next PM candidate, and since opposition is not strong enough, being stuc…

Forget "tending to become authoritarian". It has always been authoritarian. Every aspect of the government, not just one political party here or there. That includes the police and the judiciary. Every aspect of the Indian govt. abuses power.

Rajkot's police chief said the kids were not studying for the upcoming exam, and they were playing PUBG. (Edit) So he banned the game for the entire city and arrested people for playing it. Another ex-politician was dragged through a court case for making fun of a judge in a photo. Every now and then, the entire internet is cut off in many parts of India for some silly excuse or another.

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