I have been cleaning my phone - removing Google Services, Google Account and replacing it with alternatives. Strangely, I do still have many very different messaging app. If I count correctly, there is Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Signal, Viber and also two local apps TakeUp and Mastadon. I am more and more returning back to SMS messages and normal encrypted e-mails.
What do you use most and is it normal, to have so many messaging apps and using them all for different people groups?
I tried to get everyone on Signal, and I personally donate £5 monthly to Signal, but everybody left. I’m forced to be 100% WhatsApp, because that’s what society uses.
I’m somewhat annoyed that the EU offered Signal the chance of becoming relevant on a silver platter, by forcing WhatsApp to open itself up and offer interoperability with other chat apps, while still maintaining proper E2EE using the Signal protocol, and Signal said nah.
E: oh, and I don’t manage to play much on my PC these days (my gaming time these days is more “oh, I have 20 minutes free, I’ll play on my steam deck while chilling on the couch for a bit!”), but on the once in a blue moon occasion I do, I’ll open up Discord, because good look trying to get people to use anything else.
I stopped using Signal when they dropped SMS support.
It’s a great project but with very bad leadership and strategy.
They definitely had the best shot to secure communications and wasted it.