Signal – an ethical replacement for WhatsApp
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It's ethical because it runs on donations and has a non-profit business model.
Meta likely spends at least $1 billion a year running WhatsApp.
Please donate to Signal if you use it.
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There are many such apps. The page links to EFF one which ranked some messaging apps and included stuff like Threema (though good luck getting anyone to use it because it's a paid version). Then, there is Briar, available on F Droid as well, which runs on a decentralised model but I don't think I know anyone IRL who has even heard of it.
Telegram, I think, Atleast in my country is the second most popular thing behind WhatsApp but in it's default state, it's less secure and one needs to enable e2e encryption(read : secret chats).
I am willing to move to almost any service ( I mean, I still use IRC, so..) but the main point is would anyone I know be on them? I once gave Signal a try but quickly wound uninstalling it because there was no one I knew there.
I dislike WhatsApp as well (it's desktop variant is so slow and takes such a long time to sync messages plus Telegram has better inline support for images for example compared to Meta's version). It doesn't help that it's status page also promotes useless channels and that it is a hub of misinformation.
Signal has been a good option because you can get "normal" people to use it, which hasn't been true for many of the alternatives (except Telegram, but that's a mess).
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There are many such apps. The page links to EFF one which ranked some messaging apps and included stuff like Threema (though good luck getting anyone to use it because it's a paid version). Then, there is Briar, available on F Droid as well, which runs on a decentralised model but I don't think I know anyone IRL who has even heard of it.
Telegram, I think, Atleast in my country is the second most popular thing behind WhatsApp but in it's default state, it's less secure and one needs to enable e2e encryption(read : secret chats).
I am willing to move to almost any service ( I mean, I still use IRC, so..) but the main point is would anyone I know be on them? I once gave Signal a try but quickly wound uninstalling it because there was no one I knew there.
I dislike WhatsApp as well (it's desktop variant is so slow and takes such a long time to sync messages plus Telegram has better inline support for images for example compared to Meta's version). It doesn't help that it's status page also promotes useless channels and that it is a hub of misinformation.
If you quickly uninstall it because you don’t know anyone using it it sounds like you’re part of the problem. If someone you know installs it to try it out that’s one less person they see as well. Personally I got the vast majority of my friend group to move to it years ago by just saying like “hey Facebook sucks we should move to signal”. If you don’t want to do that should at least leave it installed it’s not like it’s taking up much space
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There are many such apps. The page links to EFF one which ranked some messaging apps and included stuff like Threema (though good luck getting anyone to use it because it's a paid version). Then, there is Briar, available on F Droid as well, which runs on a decentralised model but I don't think I know anyone IRL who has even heard of it.
Telegram, I think, Atleast in my country is the second most popular thing behind WhatsApp but in it's default state, it's less secure and one needs to enable e2e encryption(read : secret chats).
I am willing to move to almost any service ( I mean, I still use IRC, so..) but the main point is would anyone I know be on them? I once gave Signal a try but quickly wound uninstalling it because there was no one I knew there.
I dislike WhatsApp as well (it's desktop variant is so slow and takes such a long time to sync messages plus Telegram has better inline support for images for example compared to Meta's version). It doesn't help that it's status page also promotes useless channels and that it is a hub of misinformation.
Signal used to be the best answer to this conundrum, since it would use its own internal protocols if it could or fall back to SMS if it couldn't, unfortunately they decided to drop SMS support a few years ago, citing users that sent sensitive information not realizing they were using SMS (that always felt kinda flimsy). I really disliked this change, because it raised the difficulty of adoption, from just getting people to replace their default app with Signal to making them manage multiple apps.
Now though, you basically need to advocate socially for the change you want to see in the world. Anecdotally, I started using Signal when they still supported SMS to talk with 1 friend group, and eventually convinced most of my closest family groups to also use it, many after SMS support was dropped. Apart from 1 tech illiterate elderly couple and 1 extended family member, I haven't received any personal (non-company related) text messages in like 5 months.
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Signal has been a good option because you can get "normal" people to use it, which hasn't been true for many of the alternatives (except Telegram, but that's a mess).
The problem is that it was easier to get people to move to Telegram since it had an abundance of features compared to WhatsApp which was compelling for the average person that doesn't care about encryption. Signal doesn't have any of these features that make it enticing for the person.
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After Trump was elected and inaugurated, Signal has finally been gaining some steam here in the Netherlands.
It's still an American company, so it's not ideal. But it's still significantly better better than letting a tech giant like Facebook have control over the most commonly used chat app.
WhatsApp needs to go and Signal is the most likely way in which we can achieve that. We can worry about the American elephant in the room later.
Sadly many still don't want to switch. My most active chats are in signal now but the large majority of chats are still on whatsapp
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For now anyways lol
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If you quickly uninstall it because you don’t know anyone using it it sounds like you’re part of the problem. If someone you know installs it to try it out that’s one less person they see as well. Personally I got the vast majority of my friend group to move to it years ago by just saying like “hey Facebook sucks we should move to signal”. If you don’t want to do that should at least leave it installed it’s not like it’s taking up much space
Quickly as in I had it for multiple months. Just like I did with Threema and Briar and XMPP apps and what not. Nobody ever showed up. There was a time when I was carrying more chat apps than folks I used to chat with
There is technically one phonebook contact of mine on Signal but he primarily uses Telegram as primary chat thingy.
It then occurred to me that IRL most folks don't care about chat apps. They care about chatting. The most I have seen folks are on Whatsapp, Telegram and Snapchat (last of which is really bad).
Edit: there was/is Session as well. It started as a fork of Signal before moving to its own standard. It doesn't require even a phone number for verification. I think I once installed it for talking to a random stranger on the internet.
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After Trump was elected and inaugurated, Signal has finally been gaining some steam here in the Netherlands.
It's still an American company, so it's not ideal. But it's still significantly better better than letting a tech giant like Facebook have control over the most commonly used chat app.
WhatsApp needs to go and Signal is the most likely way in which we can achieve that. We can worry about the American elephant in the room later.
There is threema, a Swiss messenger that gained some popularity earlier since they had end to end encryption before whatsapp.
Unfortunately the source code is not open (even though they do get annual audits with public reports), and the client costs 3 EUR or something (once).
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There is threema, a Swiss messenger that gained some popularity earlier since they had end to end encryption before whatsapp.
Unfortunately the source code is not open (even though they do get annual audits with public reports), and the client costs 3 EUR or something (once).
They also offer Threema Libre on F-Droid for all us folks who degoogled their phone
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How about matrix?
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There is threema, a Swiss messenger that gained some popularity earlier since they had end to end encryption before whatsapp.
Unfortunately the source code is not open (even though they do get annual audits with public reports), and the client costs 3 EUR or something (once).
Yeah, but Threema has basically no momentum behind it at all at this point.
I'm putting my social capital behind the option that currently stands the most chance of beating out Whatsapp -
For now anyways lol
What does this mean
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How about matrix?
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Yeah, but Threema has basically no momentum behind it at all at this point.
I'm putting my social capital behind the option that currently stands the most chance of beating out WhatsappThreema has a pretty big momentum in some countries.
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There are many such apps. The page links to EFF one which ranked some messaging apps and included stuff like Threema (though good luck getting anyone to use it because it's a paid version). Then, there is Briar, available on F Droid as well, which runs on a decentralised model but I don't think I know anyone IRL who has even heard of it.
Telegram, I think, Atleast in my country is the second most popular thing behind WhatsApp but in it's default state, it's less secure and one needs to enable e2e encryption(read : secret chats).
I am willing to move to almost any service ( I mean, I still use IRC, so..) but the main point is would anyone I know be on them? I once gave Signal a try but quickly wound uninstalling it because there was no one I knew there.
I dislike WhatsApp as well (it's desktop variant is so slow and takes such a long time to sync messages plus Telegram has better inline support for images for example compared to Meta's version). It doesn't help that it's status page also promotes useless channels and that it is a hub of misinformation.
A few friends of mine use Threema, because they care about privacy and are more than happy to pay to have it. Signal comes third, behind Telegram, even.
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There is threema, a Swiss messenger that gained some popularity earlier since they had end to end encryption before whatsapp.
Unfortunately the source code is not open (even though they do get annual audits with public reports), and the client costs 3 EUR or something (once).
And Switzerlands records in terms of privacy sadly is far worse than most people think - even with the last attack being repelled.
Matrix (preferably on a non-matrix.org instance) currently is the preferable non US and privacy friendly way.
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And Switzerlands records in terms of privacy sadly is far worse than most people think - even with the last attack being repelled.
Matrix (preferably on a non-matrix.org instance) currently is the preferable non US and privacy friendly way.
I don’t know - this hype about Matrix reminds me of XMPP which was similarly popular a decade ago. Today, nobody even remembers it anymore.
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Threema has a pretty big momentum in some countries.
Then by all means keep that momentum going.
I'm just looking at this from a Dutch perspective, where Signal is seeing by far the most growth. -
What does this mean
When you've been around a while, you begin to notice certain trends.
This particular trend being the one where the young, bright, ethical start-up turns into the sort of monster they originally rallied against, ensh*ttifying their product and spouting all the same reasons for it.
Signal is relatively young, bright and ethical. The cynic says "for now".
