[jotaf]

Not affiliated in any way, but you should give Signal a try.

The hardest part with any IM service is going to be convincing your friends to join though. I wish someone came up with a good way to overcome this "critical mass" problem.

[thanatropism]

Also not affiliated, just an user -- but Telegram has a lot of momentum going for it. It's possibly more of a substitute for Facebook than Whatsapp at this point, but in chat form, with a rich bot ecosystem and great UX.

[burntoutcase]

Telegram is spyware, just like WhatsApp.

[toper-centage]

No, it's not...

[Goronmon]

My wife and I tried Signal in the past and ran into situations where messages were lost or sometimes delayed by hours, some showing up well after other messages were, making conversations occasionally very frustrating.

Messaging apps are definitely one of those situations where I expect things to work all of the time, not just most of the time.

[lighthazard]

I've had no issues with Telegram, and I think, although less secure than Signal, it's a great option to replace Whatsapp.

[toper-centage]

Feature wise telegram is definitely the best challenger right now. Signal is good but not as good. I wish it was better because of privacy. I like telegram too much now.

[stringyham]

I had exactly those same problems.

I used it with a group of friends but one of them often didn't receive our replies.

[ionised]

Happens to me too.

[zuron7]

I'm really hoping that Chat over IMAP picks up. I use Delta Chat every now and then with some journalists who have it installed, and it just makes so much sense. We already have everyone's mail ID's anyway. Or at least I thought so. In countries like India, a large number of people have skipped email and gone to phone based services. So for Chat over IMAP to succeed over here it would need to have phone number based matching cos people do not use their mail ID's at all. Everything gets done over whatsapp.

[robjan]

Delta chat will never take off because every single mail provider throttles the number of emails going through its servers to prevent spam.

[isoprophlex]

Exactly, theres always the network effect that keeps you hostage.

For me personally, this will be the moment to draw a line and just tell people to text me instead, or use another service...

[mav3rick]

It's never gonna happen. Mainstream users and media don't care enough.

[hellcow]

I've told the important people in my life that if they want to message me, they will need do it through Signal. It takes 2 minutes to set up, I show them how, and tell them that I won't reply to any SMS.

Many switched, including the least technical people I know. A few did not. It's really not hard; you just have to draw a line in the sand.

As a result of everyone I know using Signal, it fundamentally doesn't matter to me if the "mainstream" switches. We're already all on board.

[eps]

And then you end up in that situation when they didn't actually switch, but rather made you a favor and caved in to your self-centric demands and stubborness. Like with a tantrum-prone child. They still use WhatsApp between themselves, because that's what their dentist, car mechanic and a favourite sushi takeout use. They will also more eagerly reply to IMs if they are not sent through your preferred chat system. So in the end you technically made them do your thing, but the victory is hollow.

Ask me how I know.

[hellcow]

Perhaps I wasn't clear, but I couldn't care less what they use to message their dentist. I care that they use Signal to message me.

[robjan]

The problem is when one friend demands Signal, another WhatsApp, another Matrix, another Telegram, another Threema. These are all closed platforms and having loads of different apps installed which perform similar functions，to satisfy various people's dogmatic views is annoying.

[vurpo]

Matrix is not a closed platform, and in fact the only one of the projects you mentioned that even makes an attempt to work together with other chat protocols and networks. It is explicitly open, not locked in to any single service provider, and making an explicit effort to not limit you to chat with only other Matrix users (despite how much Signal or WhatsApp works towards the opposite).

[mav3rick]

You just made them install one more app. And you lost friends because they didn't install an app. What a dumb way to spite Facebook.

[hellcow]

If a "friend" won't install an app (a 2 minute commitment?) to remain in contact, then I'm honestly fine without them contacting me. To each his own.

[pmlnr]

Email. Matrix. XMPP.

All of these have a very important aspect in common: you can choose your application you want to access the network with. I'm tired of needing to use The Official®©™ App, and Signal is no exception. It's also a single entity thus being a single point of failure.

If you really want to make a difference please try to make people to migrate to something open. Quicksy[^1], DeltaChat[^2], something. But not another, essentially closed platform.

[^1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=im.quicksy.cli...

[^2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=chat.delta

[hellcow]

I agree. However email metadata isn't secure, so that's a nonstarter. I'm rooting for Matrix but thusfar Riot's UX to get an encrypted conversation going leaves a lot to be desired. No way are the non-technical people I know going to be able to do that. Signal "just works" with secure defaults, so that's the best we've got for now.

[metildaa]

Use Pyre.chat or signal-weechat. There are other options beyond Signal to chat with contacts on Signal.

[JohnFen]

> I've told the important people in my life that if they want to message me, they will need do it through Signal. It takes 2 minutes to set up, I show them how, and tell them that I won't reply to any SMS.

I've done the opposite: there's no way I'm going to install a messaging app, and everyone I care to interact with knows they need to either use SMS or email to reach me. Everyone's been perfectly fine with that.

[Freak_NL]

> […] and tell them that I won't reply to any SMS.

How do you handle dumb/feature phone users?

[skohan]

WhatsApp itself started as an obscure chat application. They nailed the simple SMS-like experience without high SMS fees, and that was enough for mainstream users. No reason people won't jump ship when WhatsApp loses that core experience.

[mav3rick]

It's still going to remain the same. Whatsapp is too big to fail, perhaps people in the US just don't comprehend how big of a user base Whatsapp has around the world.

[skohan]

I don't live in the US and fully understand WhatsApp's ubiquity. As others have commented, AOL instant messenger once seemed "too big to fail".

There's not that much friction in changing to (or simply adopting a second) chat app - especially one which uses your phone number as an identifier.

[dingaling]

> WhatsApp itself started as an obscure chat application

It actually started as a one-line status app, a bit like finger for the mobile era. Hence the name.

It was only when they discovered that users were interactively chatting by changing their status lines in response to each other that WhatsApp pivoted to full chat.

A good example of adapting to improvised user behaviour.

[pmlnr]

AOL. ICQ. Google Talk. Skype.

People do migrate when the platform is FUBAR.