2016
Happy #GlobalSwitchDay (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
489 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
A colorful image showing 8 global switch suggestions presented in three columns. Upper left is the fediverse logo with text Join the fediverse #globalswitchday. In total we see 16 platform logo's in their respected brand color and underneath each logo the name of the platform. All switch combinations have an arrow in the middle pointing to the right (from to). In the left column: X to Mastodon, Facebook to friendica. In the middle column WhatsApp to Signal, Instagram to Pixelfed and YouTube to PeerTube. In the right column: Reddit to Lemmy, Facebook Messenger to Signal and TikTok to loops.video.
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[–] 19 points 2 years ago (34 children)

Switching from WhatsApp to any other messaging service isn't a realistic option for quite many places. I'd be more than willing to switch but of all the people in my contacts (including my entire customer base) there's like 3 people using Signal but every single one of them has WhatsApp. Even the 60+ year olds.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

    This does not help.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    And yet it gets repeated (and upvoted) in every thread.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    Acts like a psyop to stop us finding solutions. Now, I will respond and you should too.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    That's Lemmy in a nutshell. Guillotine and Luigi memes are constantly repeated because they know that no one's actually going to act on that stuff, but any time anyone suggests a practical means to weaken the oligopoly people come out of the woodwork to shut it down.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You think? I consider these memes more like a reminder of our global to-do list. It doesn't mean we can't selfhost a matrix server at the same time.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Same (Brazil), Whatsapp is pretty much a requirement and I hate that I'm forced to give Meta my information by using their shitty app.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    I’ll link my previous comment and add that it’s easier for Brazil.

    Lembra de quando prenderam uns políticos pelos bate-papos do Telegram? É só lembrar a tua família que o WhatsApp tem a mesma fraqueza. Pergunta se eles confiam no Zuckerberg outra mandar os dados bancários que toda família manda de vez em quando. Documentos escaneados, dados pessoais…

    Não consegui convencer os meus amigos mas confesso que poderia ter sido um pouco mais insistente. Quando o pessoal manda screenshot de transação bancária pelo wpp pra acertar conta de bar, dá pra dar uma instigada de leve. “A AI do Zuckerberg adorou ver os teus dados.” E deixa assim, vez por outra um comentário curto pra elevar a consciência de privacidade das pessoas. Uma hora vem. Ou não, mas tás fazendo tua parte.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I would say it's a step by step work. I have moved my family from Whatsapp to Signal years ago and then to Matrix. I forced them in some way but I just said "sorry if you want to keep contact we will have to find another app, I don't accept Whatsapp ToS." It took some time but my close family and friends are there and I regularly get someone to join, friend or family. It's still close circle but it's also a good thing. Same went with work. Colleagues wanted to do a whatsapp group for a project and I basically said "No, best I can do is Signal." and they went with it.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Yeah I don't want to be that guy telling others to install an app to stay in contact with me. That would be extremely hypocritical on my part as I'm the one those people who refuses to install any apps people tells me to and it wouldn't solve the issue anyway as then I'd still be using WhatsApp as well but now I just have one more additional app to communicate with certain people.

    Nowdays doesn't seem to matter where ever you go there's always an app you need to install to do XY and Z. I don't even have a Lemmy app as I only use it via browser. Same applies to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pixelfed, Reddit and so on.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    You are wrong on that: It would be a start to solving the issue! Every little step forward counts.

    As for 1000 apps replacing website, I could not agree more... In addition you get much better control on a website like adblocks and javascript control.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    in these groups theres often someone that just cannot install a new app because their phones storage is full and they can't afford a better phone (or just don't want to spend money on it). i wouldn't insist with these people and just accept using whatsapp

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (14 children)

    There is always SMS for these.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Hey, wouldn't it be great if Signal still supported SMS?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    Personally I see no benefit in having them in the same application.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    There benefit would be exactly what this top comment is about. For all those people in your contacts who don't use signal, you could still use signal to message them, it would just be an SMS message. It would therefore also become more enticing for people to switch from their stock SMS app to signal, because it would make no difference in terms of who you can send SMS messages to. It would allow for the signal user base to grow, solving the issue of "no one uses signal"

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (10 children)

    At least WhatsApp is encrypted and let you have propre group chat

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (9 children)

    WhatsApp's a scam, anti-libre software.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    Yes but it is still better than SMS.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    Saying it's secure feeds their scam. At least we don't pay for it like SMS.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    You still pay for SMS? Wtf, what country do you live in? Most postpaid mobile plans these days only charge for data usage. In which case, your still paying to use WhatsApp.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Are you from the global south? Because it's still a common thing for SMS to be chargeable in many countries. And no one should be using SMS anyway. It's horribly insecure. At least use RCS.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I did not say it was secure, I actually spend a lot of time explaining to people that it is secure and they should switch to Signal. However, I will not tell them to go back to SMS for the reason aforementioned.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    My trouble as well, I'd love to switch from Whatsapp, but literally every person I talk to and most people in my city/estate/country uses It.

    There's a "vendor lock" term, maybe this would be a "social lock"?

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It has to start with someone. I made my entire family switch to signal by boycotting WhatsApp. I just said, of you want to contact me your can either SMS, email or install signal. It was surprisingly easy. For non family members, I tell people to switch all the time. Most of my contacts now use signal. It was worth the trouble.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago*

    Don't get me wrong, I tried the switch, multiple times.

    Where I live the vast majority uses pre-paid plans that give internet bandwidth, some calls but hardly no SMS, so that's not an alternative, unless in an emergency or you want to contact someone unilaterally.

    If I want someone to use it, they will have to convince their other circles to do the same, which statically decreases the chances of switching, and you get things like: "but we're already talking fine on Whats (whatsapp)", "it's too much trouble to have another app just for you", "I don't care who's behind the app, its works fine".

    To add salt to injury, many places (like stores, restaurants, salons, etc), have WhatsApp as the main communication method, some companies will even have the option to update you on things like delivery or banking solutions via WhatsApp.

    It's something so ingrained in our culture at this point that is super hard to change.

    I'm not looking for solutions here, just stating a sad state of affairs, I like privacy but it's not always an option living in society.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I got my family out after some high profile data breaches on WhatsApp. We feel a lot safer sharing personal info over Signal and the switchover was painless. Even the video calls are great on signal.

    There’s inertia, for sure, but once you highlight that some evil corp isn’t the one handling grandma’s inheritance data, it makes for a compelling case.

    We all still have WhatsApp because we need to talk to the others. But our family chat only exists on Signal now.

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