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Honestly would love to use signal to chat with my whatsapp contacts. Signal could just throw in privacy notice when messaging with someone whatsapp or facebook messenger.
Currently I have signal installed and used to use it to message with my so but we have both moved to discord and use whatsapp to communicate with those that do not use discord. Still holding on to signal if and when some oddball from my contacts decides to use it instead.
Then too bad.... Dont talk to them. If people want to talk to me they have to install signal.
This is the way!
This is the only path forward.
If.
moving from signal to discord is not going to be exactly helpful for your privacy, discord is completely unencrypted
I am aware of that but when all our friends or communities either use whatsapp or discord then it's just more convenient. Honestly messaging these days is a mess
I really miss that fleeting moment when all messaging apps were using either open protocols or at least they weren’t hostile against alternative clients. It was really nice to be able to use one client to log in to gtalk, msn etc. at the same time.
I understand her point and imho that's what makes signal a superior option to the others but because of these extreme choices I've seen the usage of signal gradually go down (might be wrong for the total number of users) around me. Now I don't anyone who uses signal anymore.
it's a real shame it's ridiculous to be using whatsapp but I have whatsapp installed on my phone not signal because that's what everyone uses.
Signal were fools to remove the SMS support from their app. That was a good way to get people in to use the system - they could have insecure SMS chats with those not on signal, and secure signal chats with those on it. The app would warn you when someone didn't have signal and the chat was insecure.
It was a really good "trojan horse" route into people's lives. I was using signal every day and it was easier encouraging others to make the switch because it was a convenient app.
Then the devs removed that and dumped all their users back onto other SMS apps.
Now I have 3 apps - an SMS app, Signal and WhatsApp. I barely ever use Signal now. I want to use it more but so few people I know use it, and it's not the first place people message me from.
Removing SMS support was a huge strategic misstep. They should have been the bridge for people to move from SMS to secure chat.
While I do think you are correct, you have to remember a few things:
Idk about other countries. But in India, SMS is pretty big for businesses to send updates to the customers. Like 2FA for bank transactions, delivery tracking, govt alerts etc. Customer to customer is almost nil except on rare occasions when maybe the internet is down and you need to send an urgent text.
And I should mention that domestic SMS is free (included with any active cellular plan)
Very good point. I did forget about that. That's pretty much the only time most of my family will look at actual SMS messages.
A bit offtopic, but, are SMS free on the US?
Indeed, in my country SMS are not used at all. Too expensive compared to alternatives.
Most plans include unlimited text messaging.
Here I pay 1 euro per month extra for unlimited calls+SMS. Still no one uses it.
So then it seems completely absurd signal is "not interested" in allowing any integration. They could just notify their users communications with WhatsApp users are unsecure.
I got my whole family on it, and generally all my closest friends have it as at least a backup. As the other chat apps falter it's been easier to convert people.
I tried switching to Signal a couple years ago but I had to return to WhatsApp since literally no one of my friends and acquaintances did the jump. It wasn't even considered an option by many. So it was either returning to Whatsapp or being cut off from everyone.
If people were a bit more open-minded Signal could be a good alternative. But alas...
can't have 2 apps installed?
It's still installed but it's kind of difficult to use if no one I know is even willing to try.
