[Freak_NL]

How? If you are stuck in one of the countries where more than 90% of citizens use WhatsApp, your choices are not to use WhatsApp, or to get an Android or IOS smartphone.

Individuals might be willing to contact you via other channels, but group chats won't move to another platform unless you are dealing with people who actually care about their privacy.

I don't use WhatsApp (can't use it due to not having an approved smartphone, and not wishing to accept Facebook's terms of use), and I miss things. Not a lot, and nothing critical, but my partner and I do miss out on some social things.

[wolfgke]

> How? If you are stuck in one of the countries where more than 90% of citizens use WhatsApp, your choices are not to use WhatsApp, or to get an Android or IOS smartphone.

So you decide for the former.

[Freak_NL]

That is fine, but it doesn't answer the question how Librem is purportedly solving that problem.

[wolfgke]

> That is fine, but it doesn't answer the question how Librem is purportedly solving that problem.

By not supporting WhatsApp, it forces the user to solve the problem that he/she makes a very bad decision with respect to his/her privacy.

[Freak_NL]

I fully support that approach, but this effectively means accepting that the majority uses a tool you cannot or will not use. Librem is never going to be in a position with sufficient market share to counter the network effect of WhatsApp in countries that are hooked on it.

Hence my question in response to gregknicholson's statement:

>> This is one of the problems the Librem 5 is designed to solve.

> How?

[gregknicholson]

By providing a coherent set of easy-to-use, privacy-respecting alternatives.

It makes it easier for those who _want_ to switch, but don't have the confidence/skill/energy to figure everything out on their own.

Similarly, Disroot made it easy to switch away from Google, by providing a complete (for my purposes) drop-in replacement; Ubuntu made it easy to switch from Windows.