So are there WhatsApp users who now also would want to migrate after the new terms & conditions to something like Signal, but know that nobody in their contacts will probably migrate as well?
I hate it that you're basically forced to stay on WhatsApp because everybody (at least for me) is using it and 90% of the users probably don't care.
Im gonna try and see whether or not I can 50/50 them, but I'm scared that WhatsApp is simply too big to have people transition... Using it as a safer sms app is quite useless because well, it's basic sms and nobody in my direct contact circles uses texts (neither do I want to do that tbh).

Same reason I’m still using WhatsApp instead of telegram for more than 4 years now.

@bagfox yeah I also tried that. Only used it for a international game that I was active on for 3 months. I fear nobody can break free from these platforms once everyone they know uses it

I had the same problem with Facebook. I hate it, but I can't leave it because some people are basically unreachable by any other means.

Mentioning @Linuxxx

Also: be the change! Force them to either install it or stop talking to you. Some will ask why, some will be stubborn idiots and refuse, and some will happily comply because they’re not self-important douches.

@Root yeah I'm probably gonna try with my close friends. But this means that they have to try ot with theirs etcetc. Let's hope more people are getting sick of the Facebook empire

I'm sure they're only using pur personal data now thag they've put it in the terms and conditions...

@TheBeardedOne haha yeah of course. It's more that I hope this might be incentive to some people to actually make the switch..

It's a chicken and egg issue

People don't wanna use alternative services because barely anyone they know use them, so they don't use them either.

Is there some info on what will actually change?

@electrineer I think the main thing is that they give you an ultimatum: share everything they want from you with Facebook and other Facebook services or stop using whatsapp.
I can't imagine this not already happening behind the scenes tho lol... I heard this update was probably done because ios now requires apps to specify what they collect etc or something like that

@Root Sounds like you're putting yourself quite high on everybody's demand list.

I can understand for a few close people but tbh most of my professional network also lives on WhatsApp. Can't ask everybody to migrate to the platform.

Rather the smart move is to monitor your conversations on whatsapp. Close friends of mine are already on discord and telegram so I just have to use WhatsApp as a LinkedIn/Facebook messenger extension.

It's like they're killing a platform for the sole reason of killing it. The newer crowd and millennial network will shift to newer alternatives anyway. The oldies will linger just like how they did on Facebook. It's sad to see such a great service die out.

@3rdWorldPoison There’s nothing great about Facebook nor WhatsApp.

And no, using a service that is designed to spy on you and analyze your behavior is not the smart move.

@Root Maybe your and mine definitions of great were misplaced. It was a "great" platform only because they had the market under their belt.

Coming to it being a smart move. Solo boycott sounds like an anime arc to me. Correct me but I don't think this is how the real world works. Good on you for having that sentiment. Fuck I have that sentiment. But walking away from exploding cars looks good in blockbuster fantasies.

@Root I understand if you can actually execute it being at an influencing position but for the common and below common folk this is the quickest, dirtiest and most accessible alternative

@3rdWorldPoison yes I agree with this: can't really force people into transferring to a new platform where they have 0 contacts just because you want to use that platform. But asking them to at least use it side by side so you can contact them through it should be plausible imo.
But I think the most important thing that @Root pointed out is that we probably have to do the hardest part ourselves: getting people on a smaller, uncommon platform.
I have that problem currently as well: I tried getting people on it, but almost nobody cares because it's simply a desert in my country. Everyone uses whatsapp and a small portion has a different app like Signal as secondary for the off chance that someone in their contact list has it as well. That's at least my own experience.
"why change if it works and we already use it? All our contacts use it".
And let's be fair, it's not that anything actually changed for whatsapp. The only difference is that they gave us an ultimatum as far as I'm aware.

The sad truth is that it's gonna be a harsh and very slow transition for me to use Signal simply because nobody in my circles has a big incentive to transfer.

Right now I use it as my SMS service. Great, I can send a text to someone using a sleek ui but without any of the encryption I wanted to use the app for lol

@Root I assume you already use an alternative to whatsapp? What is the standard platform in your country and how do you manage this yourself? Do you simply not contact people you know who do not use your platform? I'm genuinely interested because as you can read, I'm struggling with that problem right now :)

@NEMESISprj apparently the new privacy policies don't have changes for whatsapp users in EU. Only WhatsApp for business users are affected. I didn't read the differences myself.

@electrineer oh interesting! Still would love to just transition to a platform that cares a bit more about its users tho :)