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by apexalpha 1991 days ago
>Excluding company ownership, what is the crucial difference between all IM listed?

The crucial difference is that in my life everyone is on WhatsApp, and no one is on any of the other IMs. That is the difference.

And I don't use the word everyone here lightly, I mean it (99,9%) literally. My family, my parents, my friends, my colleagues, my 91 year old grandmother, my potential clients, my actual clients, the support line for the webshop I order from, the support line for my supermarket, etc... Everyone.

I can't speak for other countries, but in the Netherlands WhatsApp is undeniably a part of your social infrastructure.

It doesn't matter if any of those other IMs have feature parity, better security or stricter privacy. There's just no one to message.

2 comments

This.

There is no way to socially untangle yourself from Whatsapp in the Netherlands, unless one wishes to live as the modern version of a hermit.

> I can't speak for other countries, but in the Netherlands WhatsApp is undeniably a part of your social infrastructure.

It is in Brazil too, without a shadow of a doubt.