Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

Post by graeme » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:39 PM UTC

1_player wrote: post #67

phreack wrote: post #51

In South America practically no one has even heard of Signal. The only known alternative to Whatsapp, which dominates society at all levels, is Telegram. I'm seeing a very minor move to it and it's based on the assumption that it's more secure than Whatsapp. Just did an experiment and downloaded Signal, and while I expected a low list of adopters, out of my 1k+ contact list, literally only one person was on the app.…

No one has ever heard of Signal anywhere, that's the point. It's not like it's very common elsewhere either. No one had ever heard of WhatsApp once. But now billions of people use it, why? I mentioned the new WhatsApp TOS to my tech and non-tech friends and I've managed to move all of those I've talked about it, or at least have them install it and get it set up. I still have to find a convincing argument for the lea…

Post by mikro2nd » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 1:57 PM UTC

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…

Post by mmsimanga » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 3:16 PM UTC

drno123 wrote: post #50

mmsimanga wrote: post #23

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.

What incentive do network providers have to do that?

Post by acct776 » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 3:36 PM UTC

sdepablos wrote: post #22

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…

Sometimes I think HN people were born out of thin air and don't have families. That or mine is special, because if I said to them to change from WhatsApp to whatever in the basis of privacy concerns they'd say that: 1. FB already knows everything about them (btw, a social network the still use) 2. They'd lost contact with a lot of people And all this without taking into account features that can make the product even…

Post by bavell » Sat, Jan 09, 2021, 3:45 PM UTC

itsarnavb wrote: post #77

bavell wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest reasons I use and like Signal is because it doesn't have a bunch of extra stupid crap like payments, in-app ecosystem, business interactions and all the other junk pushed by corporations in a quest to "expand the userbase". I just want a solid texting platform, that's it. So far I've been happy, even with a few unnecessary updates like stickers (?!) and disappearing messages (ugh).

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.