Because everyone else is on WhatsApp. I moved most of my friends to Signal but I’m in some clubs that use WhatsApp groups to communicate. Yes, I could leave but then I wouldn’t know about many activities.
Comment on WhatsApp rolls out AI-generated summaries for private messages
mienshao@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
I will never understand anyone who uses Meta products. How much shit does that company need to do before yalls gtfo? Like fr, why are you using WhatsApp when Signal or a million other messaging systems are available?
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 3 weeks ago
Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
I’ve tried moving to signal but at most I have about 3 friends that use it with me, it simply not possible to dump it completely and remain in contact with all my friends and family members.
Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
I told my people it’s Signal or you’re simply not hearing from me.
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
It just means you’re excluded from a lot of stuff or just aren’t messaged to. Which is a choice but big groups especially are just going to use what most use, they aren’t moving to Signal because someone refuses to use something else.
Would be cool if they were meaningfully interoperable, private and secure. That’s the dream
WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I don’t know, matrix bridges exist, and while stability is a problem, a bigger one is that I don’t want my messages to be sent to facebook services at all.
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Momentum of where friends and family are.
It’s nice to be able to say “well they’re not worth talking to then”, but at some point I need to be able to reach my parents so they can babysit my daughter. Or be able to know that family will be in town and expecting me to be available. Or be able to have any way of knowing what life events are happening to my loved ones without having to wait for it to be brought up in casual conversation months later as if I should already know.
My extended family and friends do a poor job communicating on a good day. If I try to add another hurdle, I’m not the one who wins that fight.
Shizu@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Now that RCS between ios and android is a thing there really is no excuse to use Whatsapp any longer. RCS might still be a bit janky but it does its base job fine to the point that I can really reach anyone I need either thru signal, RCS or as a fallback SMS.
Metz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Isn’t RCS for the most part using Google services and servers? I don’t know if that really is that much better.
To my knowledge, the original idea to have RCS be operated by the mobile providers is pretty much dead.
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Yes, you’re correct.
But that rollout doesn’t make headlines like all the ones from the US government telling people to use encrypted messaging like WhatsApp or Signal. That’s what got them to WhatsApp to begin with. FBI tells everyone very loudly to get off standard texting. They jump as a collective to where half of them already are.
As I’ve already alluded to: this has precisely zero to do with the technical aspects of security. Ease of use does matter (why pushing to Signal didn’t work at the time the FBI spooked everyone), but only a little bit, and is overshadowed by momentum of where people already are.
I might be able to get my family off WhatsApp with the recent article about it being banned from (I think it was) Congress’s phones.
But again, this isn’t a technical problem where you can just point at what’s obviously the better choice. There are complications of personal relationships, individual resistance to change, whether or not you’re willing to train your family members, etc.
My grandmother is in her late 80s and it is astonishing that she can even manage WhatsApp to pariticipate in the family group chat. I’m not upending that and causing her the added stress, work, isolation if it fractures the family groip chat, and signing myself up for all that extra work… just so I can be comfortably principled, using the best option, and trying to prevent Meta from getting info about me for a few more years that they likely are getting through other means.
I’ll revisit as the elders age off.
I care about my privacy, but I’ve thought long and hard about my specific threat model and what is and isn’t important enough for me to make a big deal out of. For me, this is an acceptable sacrifice.
Doesn’t have to be that way for anyone else. Just has to work for me and my life. And it does.
Ultimately I’m just trying to give you reasons why people are still on these platforms. I took your statement that you didn’t understand at face value. I’m not really looking to debate here, and my opinions don’t invalidate yours.
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
i do music and comedy, a bunch of venues, groups, bands, jams, open mics operate through whatsapp. “privacy” doesn’t really blip most of their radars tbh and I want the gigs