[dotancohen]

  > But I wouldn't be able to actually move. It would just be yet another one.

Actually, you would. A few months ago WhatsApp had a huge downtime in my country, and lots of people move to Telegram. It turns out, just telling people that you're moving to Telegram, that's enough to get them to move with you. I was already on Telegram, but I saw it happen enough times to be surprised myself.

Just don't keep a backup WhatsApp account around, because then people will use it.

[wkat4242]

I don't think that will work with the massive whatsapp userbase we have here. Literally everyone I know is on whatsapp.

It's really not worth the hassle for me especially since signal is only marginally better.

[palata]

What is "the hassle"? Do you mean the few seconds required to install Signal on your phone? Or do you mean converting all your friends to Signal?

I understand the latter, but for the former... it's probably faster to install Signal than to answer to a message on HN.

If everybody just installed Signal (because it's better, even if marginally), then eventually everybody would be on Signal and it would be easy to switch.

[wkat4242]

I just don't believe in this signal evangelism. I'm not going to use it. Once something comes that's really open like Matrix I'll support it. RCS isn't it either as you need to be part of the mobile service provider in-crowd to run your own.

But the hassle is dealing with all these different apps and their separate notifications. I have real app fatigue lately and turn them off for mostly everything.

[palata]

> I just don't believe in this signal evangelism.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Signal fanatic. I'm just quick at moving to better alternatives. If a better alternative than Signal gets announced in 10min, I'll be on it in 11min and I'll be telling you to try it in 12min :-).

The fact is that Signal is probably the best messaging app we have right now. I get the app fatigue, I don't get why the result of it should be to fight precisely the better alternative. "I hate that we're locked in WhatsApp, but I am actively fighting for keeping us locked in".

[wkat4242]

It's more like passive resistance, not active. I just won't bother constantly moving to alternatives unless they are substantially better.

If everyone starts using signal I'll go along. But they won't so they're isn't any point. I'll still need WhatsApp so they'll keep tracking me. Signal also has poorer group chats (no subtopics for example) which I use a lot.

And if they get big quickly they'll run out of funds and will have to make similar decisions. They're not going to continue being funded by big tech bros like Brian Acton's 50M$ if their costs balloon. For me to actively promote it and use it without a big userbase, it will have to be so open that I can run my own server, like email. I do run matrix for that reason. I like ownership of my services and I'd rather contribute to the network than donating.

Ps: if he really wanted to help accessible safe communications he shouldn't have sold WhatsApp.

I see more in solutions to thwart their tracking. Such as using a matrix bridge, which I do. I do the same with search, I use a meta-search engine to remove tracking and ads. I can also customise it to my wishes that way.

[palata]

> I just won't bother constantly moving to alternatives

Well moving from WhatsApp to Signal was one move in the last 10 years. I wouldn't call that "constantly moving". We'd be lucky if there was an alternative worth moving every year, but that's by far not the case.

> I'll still need WhatsApp so they'll keep tracking me.

... you say you're in cybersec, so I would expect you to do better than that. What does WhatsApp track? Metadata. Who writes to whom, when. If you move half of your conversations away from WhatsApp, they lost the metadata from half those conversations. So they effectively track you less. It's not "all or nothing".

> They're not going to continue being funded by big tech bros like Brian Acton's 50M$

Are you sure they've been running on 50M in the last 10 years? They take donations, I would expect this helps quite a bit. 50M doesn't really sound like a lot of money when you have 70 millions active users.

> I do run matrix for that reason.

Matrix is inferior to Signal in many ways, though. And it's not like Matrix is super diverse: most people use Element, right? Federation sounds good, but power laws etc.

> Ps: if he really wanted to help accessible safe communications he shouldn't have sold WhatsApp.

Can you imagine anyone in the world who would not sell WhatsApp for 19 Billions? :-)

> Such as using a matrix bridge

How is that reducing the metadata?