[techrat]

> "no one is there" will start becoming not true, even if not immediately.

Still waiting for that to be the case. After 6 years of using Signal, I have a whopping... two... people in my contacts who also use it.

The most common response is still "Why don't you just use Whatsapp?"

Pretty much the only way we're going to see critical mass with Signal is if someone like Google were to make it their default platform for messaging.

[alpaca128]

I got my parents to install Signal a while ago, now in the recent 2-3 months their Signal contact lists have at least doubled when Signal got an unexpected boost by WhatsApp's privacy PR nightmare. I don't expect things to change much, though.

Because in the end normal users think about the functionality and price first, everything else second. Privacy? Just a neat-sounding bonus you can feel good about if your favorite app includes it and don't care about if it doesn't.

[red_trumpet]

> Because in the end normal users think about the functionality and price first, everything else second.

I think the most important factor here is network effects.