Which hype? Matrix as a protocol is used for a decade now, especially by various big governments (French, Luxembourg and German governmental messenger, various German states, German and Polish armed forces, German healthcare messenger, various smaller projects in Latin America), is bridgeable (I currently have it bridged to Whatsapp and Signal amongst others) but I really don't see a hype - on the contrary I only see people predicting me the immediate apocalypse of Matrix for 5 years now, currently due to matrix.org (one of a hundred instances) introducing a premium account model for the most cost intensive (heavily media sharing)users.
(See below for that).

I like Signal. I even got all my close friends and family on it, specifically to message me because I won't use whatsapp. The PIN reminders are annoying it enough to be legitimately holding it back from mass appeal imho

Proprietary servers is still proprietary software

Don't let perfection stand in the way of good enough
It may not be the holy grail, but moving away from Meta-owned Whatsapp is already a pretty significant improvement

Fair. There is Molly on fdroid if you like.

That's pretty much the only advantage of getting old.

Turn them off

I don't use Signal because they don't release the app in F-Droid. Signal devs refuse to release the app outside of Google Play Store, which is very evil.

The sad truth is that the majority of people are treating WhatsApp exactly as a social network. It is there to send memes and stickers. See what others are up to without having to interact. Then mindlessly scroll through reels. Ocassionally purchase something via chat with a corporate bot.

The fact that it's opt-out is already a reason to push people away from the app

I think it was meant as a security feature in case someone picked up your unlocked phone. It perhaps someone cracked your front screen passcode.
I know if you forget your password and have to reset it you lose all previous conversations. It’s very secure this way. Bit of a pain.. but secure.

Wasn't WhatsApp essentially built from Signal's base protocol anyway? Why use the meta clone when the original is right there?

You can download the APK once from the website, after that it updates automatically.
https://signal.org/android/apk/

That’s not even what it is lol.

And as the other commenter alluded to, defaults matter. You’re not replacing the thing everyone is already using by pitching “here’s an alternative that is better in ways which don’t affect your usage at all, and also you have to dig into the settings to turn off the optional daily popups”

I use obtainium to install it and it works flawlessly. The reason they don't publish it elsewhere is due to licences and push notifications iirc

A truly ethical replacement would not need a phone number

Be careful with that ol' Chestnut. Circumstances may dictate perfection, where less than such may be catastrophic.

No. WhatsApp came first, but later adopted Signal's key exchange and encryption. WhatsApp was an independent company for years and had rejected several acquisition offers, but $19 billion is a big number.

One of WhatsApp's founders is now chairman of the Signal Foundation and a major financial backer of the project.

Molly is great.

That's a risk, and a reason I'd like to see something federated succeed in this space. Unfortunately neither Matrix nor XMPP has managed to achieve quite the level of UX necessary for mainstream adoption, nor have the average person's tech skills and comfort level improved.

Signal's status as a well-funded nonprofit gives me hope that the current situation is reasonably stable.