WhatsApp head Will Cathcart says the chat app could introduce ads in Status

Messaging apps are useless if the people you want to message don’t have the same one.

There are many countries where WhatsApp has become the defacto messaging standard. It's really hard and isolating to refuse to use it there.

Its the default in most of the world, there is no moving anyone to Signal since WA is just enough for most of the population and basically have the exact same features. Telegram has a bit of an audience but its only because its more like a social media/chat app hybrid.

A good chunk of the world also runs on low end phones and having an extra chat app to chat with maybe 1 person at best is a waste of space to most.

The people closest to me in my life I have converted to using Signal, but I have family and friends who use WhatsApp, who also have in turn their own family and friends who use it, and so-on down the line.

Ditching WhatsApp myself would mean not being part of those groups, and I can't convince thirty people at once to all ditch a platform they are perfectly happy with (even if I don't think they should be happy with it) and has huge lock-in because everyone else in their lives also uses it.

I honestly hope that Meta cram it to the brim with ads, because if it gets shitty enough then maybe the alternatives will look more appetising.

Critical mass. When it has been the default way to message anyone and everyone for over a decade, it's pretty difficult to start converting everyone and their literal grandmother to start adopting something else. I understand it doesn't enjoy quite the same status in the US though.

Honestly, I couldn't get my dad to use signal. And personally I think that signal is lacking in a lot of features like a smartwatch app, ability to send messages through a voice assistant, among other things because of the fact it prioritizes security and privacy over everything else.

WhatsApp just recently got an app for Wear OS

Telegram is less private then whatsapp, unless you use the private chats it's not even encrypted.

It's not so much laziness as the reason you've given - everyone else is on WhatsApp. Why would I move to a new messaging app when I literally can't message the people I want to message on it cause they don't have it.

I believe them when they say that one reason to drop SMS was that some vulnerable users were mistakenly sending SMS when they thought they were safe by using Signal. That's a serious problem where a person having Signal on their phone could cause them to expose themselves to attacks. That person's life is more important than my momentary inconvenience when my mom is using SMS and my friend is using Signal.

I really wish that there were better options; some sort of incrementally-built web-of-trust like the old PGP model. But right now, Signal is still in a sweet spot for me: yes, it's centralized, but it gets certain specific benefits of centralization while also credibly assuring that the server owners can't do evil with it even if they want to ... and they credibly don't. I can get my family and my housemates to use it, instead of something from Zuckerberg.

You can use Molly (a Signal fork) and have 2 accounts on same device, you need a second phone number though

Because the pricing is fucking ridiculous for the ad free version of things. And even then, ad-free usually means ad-free for a limited time until the profit line starts to slow down.

The app market was different back then. No real alternatives, not meta owned, I think I paid 1€. Nowadays I wouldn't pay for any app other than a good Lemmy reader, I also use my phone for not much else anymore.