Wait until you hear how many people use facebook messenger.
💀
SMS is IE, Whatsapp is Chrome, and Signal is Firefox. Use Signal/Firefox.
I disagree. IE was incredibly proprietary, and SMS is at least an open standard.
IE is…idk Facebook messenger or Imessage or something.
signal and telegram are so much better, don’t know why we can’t get over that shit app
telegram is awesome but please don’t use it if you’re looking for total privacy, as (by default) chats are not e2e-encrypted (this is done to improve sync/seamless multi-device chat history).
also they introduced a discord nitro-like subscription like a year ago and started putting all new features behind it…Tbh, Signal is really lacking features at this point. That’s making it incredibly hard to convince others on using it.
In some countries like India, people just assume that everyone uses whatsapp. It’s gotten to the point where whatsapp has become the definition of messaging (for most people).
I don’t see how Whatsapp is outdated to the point where one would compare it to IE, but I’ll say whatsapp is more like Google Chrome than IE.
Fuck Steven Crowder and any meme based on his bullshit
I only use it because there’s no way I could convince my friends and family to move to anything else.
There’s no point in switching to another app if I then literally couldn’t communicate with the people I need to through it.
I’ve been using Beeper a month or two. They had a long waiting list, and initially it was subscription only, but they are working on smashing through the waiting list and have changed to a freemium model where you get it for free and (eventually) they will have extra features for subscribers.
Basically, it’s one chat app that connects to lots of different chat services.
If you’re technical, the app is a fork of Element, and the service uses matrix bridges to connect to different chat services, but it’s all presented in a (somewhat) polished way. The wait list is because they are still struggling with scaling and quirks but if you’re on Lemmy you’re probably already well familiar with putting up with this.
It covers heaps of chat networks. Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Signal, Telegram, and more. It also will let you SMS (unlike Signal 😬).
You can also connect to Matrix rooms but you don’t seem to be able to connect to an existing Matrix account (it uses a Beeper matrix account to connect).
It doesn’t do video/audio calls so they recommend you leave the original app installed and disable message notifications (but leave on call notifications) if you use this.
app is closed source :/
Looks cool though
Yep. But if you’re keen on this stuff, you can self host matrix and the bridges and do it yourself. Their bridges are open source, just not their apps whose features are their business model.
Signal is the best.
The thing it’s missing the most is better multi device support and an updated desktop client.
For me, I think Matrix is more complete (specially since it backs-up your chats and media encrypted). The only thing it’s lacking (at least Element specific) is encrypted chat search support on mobile.
There’s no way that we can have a mainstream alternative to imessage if we keep declaring a new app or protocol the new best one every two years.
All Google needs to do is make a public RCS API. Then we will have all the important features iMessage has on Android via regular texting. I have no fucking clue why they are making RCS exclusive to their messaging app.
I don’t think it’s really a chat app. Isn’t it just a text replacement? Or does it just use that number as your ID to use it? I have it, but only ever used it with one guy.
It has lots of nice features over SMS: read/typing notifications, image/video support, proper groups, message expiration. I think that makes it a chat app
I was implying mms as well. Didn’t know about the other additions. I only knew one person with it, and we haven’t spoken in years.
Eh, whatsapp isn’t ideal and its owner is one of the big devils of today, but it’s the only way to send and receive instant messages among billions of people. I despise it, but it’s the only way I can contact people. Needless to say, they don’t give a single flying fuck about privacy.
Whatsapp outages make people migrate to Telegram for 1-2 days at most, nobody ends up staying there. Signal? I’ve only ever met three other people in RL who have even heard of it, and I work in IT.
A more apt comparison would be to languages. Whatsapp is english: clunky, weird, full of nonsense, but it’s what “everyone talks”. Signal would probably be lojban or esperanto.
This is SMS in the US. No one uses WhatsApp, telegram or matrix. Every iphone user uses imessage and so we are stuck with SMS.
Chrome is the Internet Explorer of the browsers.
Look, I hate Facebook just as much as the next guy. But I live in The Netherlands and it’s the primary way I can contact literally everyone I know. So changing to another messaging app is hard here.
Here, use this:
I’ve somehow never used WhatsApp.
How though
No idea. It’s just not a platform anyone in my life has used in a manner that dragged me in.
Cool
Surely it can’t be so popular it’s inconceivable to you that someone hasn’t used it.
If you live in most of Europe or definitely Latin America, yeah, it is so popular it’s kind of inconceivable not to use it, or at least hard to imagine. I genuinely don’t understand how people in the US communicate.
It is. To stay in contact with anyone you need whatsapp.
Well I’m glad that isn’t happening here, because I would just have to miss everything.
