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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

#51

Post by phreack »

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.

I feel most startups sleep hard on the massive market they're missing by skipping on SA so much.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#52

Post by Daniel_sk »

yumraj wrote: post #15
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…

you always start somewhere. I’m personally involved in migration of 3 groups, two India-US, one US. Most had never installed Signal. It’ll happen, it’ll just take some time.

I have just migrated one non-IT group chat from FB. Everybody is happy so far. Actually all of them dispise Facebook and were more than happy to move to something else. Setup was easy.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#53

Post by 1241rtfasfasf »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #45
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…

I've seen chat networks come and go. Whatsapp is at it's peak; it can only decline at this point. Most users don't actually care about features, they care about reaching each other. Whatsapp provides that. You could argue that whatsapp was never about the features. It's always been a somewhat bland and bare bones UX. It's simple and easy to understand. That kind of is the whole point. But Whatsapp got where it is thr…

Why should it be at its peak? Look at WeChat. If WhatsApp successfully transitions to a platform with payments, business interactions, possibly in-app-ecosystem, then the network effects become even crazier.

Signal on the other hand doesn't even attempt any of that: it solves messaging with no perspective on third-party service integration.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#54

Post by djhworld »

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

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#55

Post by bavell »

1241rtfasfasf wrote: post #53
jillesvangurp wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen chat networks come and go. Whatsapp is at it's peak; it can only decline at this point. Most users don't actually care about features, they care about reaching each other. Whatsapp provides that. You could argue that whatsapp was never about the features. It's always been a somewhat bland and bare bones UX. It's simple and easy to understand. That kind of is the whole point. But Whatsapp got where it is thr…

Why should it be at its peak? Look at WeChat. If WhatsApp successfully transitions to a platform with payments, business interactions, possibly in-app-ecosystem, then the network effects become even crazier. Signal on the other hand doesn't even attempt any of that: it solves messaging with no perspective on third-party service integration.

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).

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#56

Post by 1241rtfasfasf »

bavell wrote: post #55
1241rtfasfasf wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should it be at its peak? Look at WeChat. If WhatsApp successfully transitions to a platform with payments, business interactions, possibly in-app-ecosystem, then the network effects become even crazier. Signal on the other hand doesn't even attempt any of that: it solves messaging with no perspective on third-party service integration.

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).

This is exactly the argument the GP made: your view is extremely niche.

Most people want features, convenience,… real stuff that feels like feature, instead of abstract concepts.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#57

Post by jeofken »

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…

You reject WhatsApp and tell your family that they can write you on Signal, because it’s important that your communications are only for you, not for Zuckerberg

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#58

Post by bavell »

Vinnl wrote: post #41
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…

It's only until the end of your post where you say "unless it builds some of those features into its app". That's kind of an important qualifier. Signal has been steadily growing for a while, and while doing so, implementing plenty of features from other competing apps: disappearing messages came, stickers came, group video calling came, etc. I'm not saying they're definitely going to overtake WhatsApp, but they've f…

Not a single one of my Signal contacts (almost exclusively non-tech) uses any of the features you mention. It's been awkward watching them blindly copy "popular" features from other messaging platforms. The reason I like and use Signal is precisely because of the minimal feature set - all I want to do is text people directly or in group chat. Some emoji and gif support is nice and that's about it.

I hope Signal stays true to its roots and doesn't give in to more bloated crap like the other messaging platforms but unfortunately I'm not optimistic in that front...

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#59

Post by bostik »

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 believe in this one you are mistaken.

Adblocking has gone from fringe to mainstream in just a few years. Tracker blocking and in general putting actual value on one's data is going through the same, only faster.

One piece of data: more than 80% of requests coming on our website disallow tracking. Respecting privacy as a concept has already gone mainstream, the only question is how far "normal" people are willing to take it and what tradeoffs they choose to make in the long run.

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