How do you deal with WhatsApp monopoly?
from justanotheruser4@lemmy.world to degoogle@lemmy.ml on 31 Jul 14:09
https://lemmy.world/post/50127297
from justanotheruser4@lemmy.world to degoogle@lemmy.ml on 31 Jul 14:09
https://lemmy.world/post/50127297
Email, docs, music, maps etc have reasonable alternatives and you don’t depend on others to switch (a gmail user will receive my email from tuta). But with WhatsApp either you conceal and use it or you just don’t talk to people (tried convincing them to switch to signal and it simply doesn’t happen)
How do you deal with it?
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It’s a series of fallbacks. Eventually you’re calling each other on the POTS like a couple of cave-people.
I don’t, I deleted it. But to be fair I didn’t use it that much in the first place. These days I mostly call friends or send them quick SMS, ask them if they wanna hang out tomorrow etc. Family and my best friend is on signal and I also have telegram if someone asks how they can reach me. Deleting WhatsApp wasn’t that difficult for me but depending where you live it can be a struggle. Even schools, sportclubs and so on use WhatsApp exclusively which sucks.
I’d just delete it and see how things go. Reinstalling is easy if you feel you miss out too much.
All my friends went cold turkey when I canceled all Facebook products two years ago. I switched to signal; some were using it already, some followed me, some use both. Screw the rest; they can use SMS, or snail mail, it turns out they were unreflective jerks to begin with. Culling is always refreshing. Admittedly, with signal being USA based, I will probably switch to a EU service soon, so the fun starts all over 🤪
Delta Chat
You can choose the relays yourself as its decentralised:
chatmail.at/relays
Im hearing more and more about Deltachat. Where is it based?
eh, it runs on e-mail infrastructure; also, it does a little bit more than messaging.
You can use your usual e-mail ID, and message anybody else’s e-mail ID, but securely only if they also use Delta Chat. To work around the big servers seeing your social graph, they recommend using randomly-generated IDs on always-encrypted tuned e-mail servers that they call “chat mail” servers.
Either way, you also get user-to-user web apps called WebXDC. This is something even some XMPP clients have added nowadays.
This sounds pretty clever. Why create new infrastructure when uts already there …
Concur, delta chat is the GOAT
I make like-minded friends. They don’t use WhatsApp either.
I managed to do a surprisingly good job convincing a decent chunk of my friends to move over to signal several years back and they’ve mostly stayed. I still have WhatsApp but it’s a much more secondary chat app for me now days.
Its easy. I have never used WhatsApp. I refuse to install or use any meta apps.
Everyone I talk to regularily has Signal or Discord (yes i know I would prefer Matrix or something), basically the only reason I have WhatsApp is one or two group chats I don’t read.
If Discord, why not WhatsApp?
I am aware, I’d like to not have to use either. I’m trying to convince my friends to try out Matrix, but I haven’t been successful yet.
So you would use WhatsApp if they were?
I’ve only met one person who actually uses Whatsapp before and asked me to download it. My mom just asked me if I knew what it was 2 months ago because I guess it’s popular on cruises. It certainly doesn’t seem popular enough to have to deal with here at least
You’re in a lucky part of the world. In my area, Whatsapp is used a lot for sharing attachments mainly, e.g sending a photo of a receipt for claiming warranty, contacting government officials, etc. People here do understand that if I say I don’t use it, and even though they agree to use SMS and email, it still slightly annoys them as it is out of their norm. I am living by till now without Whatsapp, but it’s really difficult.
i patiently explain why i refuse to use it and then speak about the preferable alternatives
Don’t use it. Refuse to talk with anyone that says they want me to use it. It’s been working great.
Had to install and use an anonymous number that no one has for like 2 things that I was really in need to for interacting with some businesses though and for when many people were laid off in the company and that’s where I needed to find some info.
Either I use Signal only or SMS which has worked great for many years. Now with RCS it’s the same as any other internet based chat even with video calls.
I’m confused. If you want security, why do you prefer SMS to whatapp?
Either all or nothing. But for certain not contributing to the destruction of humanity by using Meta products.
I have a non gms ROM (e/os) I have shelter (work profile jail), and WhatsApp is living in the jail and doesn’t see any contacts or rest of the phone… I split my comms to (beeper for all texts that I don’t care about for privacy that I can not get away from e…g LinkedIn/WhatsApp/g messenger but I have signal/briar that actually runs on the phone (non shelter). And I refuse to add them to beeper.
It takes time. I’ve been “indoctinating” my family fo years. And that really just means reinforcing things we all, “regular” people included, know about big tech. Part of that meant straight up telling them I wouldn’t use anything other than Signal. That worked, and a few years later I now have my mom on Linux. Sometimes doing the right thing means being stubborn and putting your foot down
Edit: my parents have both become open source evangelists, and my mom has asked me more than once the difference between Free Software and oss. My parents are also both pretty conservative so it wasn’t easy to turn them. But like I said. Put your foot down. Tell them you are doing the right thing, and if it comes to it, withold tech support 😂
!demeta crosspost candidate =)
I have tried not using it and it is not worth it for me. The problem was not close friends. But everyone else including all other than my direct family if i don’t have WhatsApp my family just send sms and at that point I thing WhatsApp is better at least its end to end encrypted. You also exclude your self form groups that get created at clubs/association(i don’t know the English word).
I decide some time ago that my person life is more important that privacy because my mental health suffered because of stressing about privacy and cutting my self socially off to some extend by not using WhatsApp.
If you use android you can install it in a privet space or a second profile so it don’t run all the time in the background.
Either enjoy the advantages of WhatsApp and be happy with the way it is. Or just don’t use it.
There are no advantages for WhatsApp, it just happened to exist before Signal. The only selling point is the user lock in. WhatsApp could show a 30 second ad for every sent message and let an AI crawl all your chats and it would stay the most used messenger in countries where it currently is.
People don’t use WhatsApp because they like it so much, but because not using it means loosing friends and excludes from hobbies.
The advantage is comfort and numbness. Even if it is considered to be a negative advantage by any tech savvy mind - or any other reasonable and logical person. My point is to not whine around like OP. Either use it and get fucked or don’t use it and have a good life.
South Park on point as always: m.youtube.com/watch?v=fGKR1Z1lRik
I think you might’ve made a typo here, did you mean concede?
Yes, you give up if you want to talk to them. What else csn you do. Ten year campaign to switch everyone?
I use the Whatsapp Business app which allows me to be added to groups that I can’t avoid (kid’s class groups, kid’s soccer groups and my wifés family group) and to have an automatic message for people writing to me privately saying I won’t answer except if they write to me on Threema, Signal, iMessage, SMS or email.
With my own family and friends I only use Threema and Signal, even if I kind of lost or got further of some friends with my stance.
Still, I already don’t have enough time for myself, so I’m not looking to have more friends.
In my country, Whatsapp is almost everywhere, so I’m not don’t think I’ll be able to 100% leave it without sacrifizing some of my kids activities sadly…
Naomi Brockwell TV on YT or Odyssey had a video about that, forgot the name. You basically make it more painful to communicate on other platforms, reward for using your preferred platform (e.g. offer tickets to a game through preferred platform).
Don’t expect people to move completely, including close friends
hard to say, I don’t use WhatsApp, i deleted it when FB bought it, yes, that long ago.
I use WhatsApp without any Android rights other than foreground data usage. I still check my messages once a day, but if someone wants to reach me now, they have to use signal. It also makes it at least less bad for privacy.
My close circle of friends and family do use signal for me and I only get relevant messages every few days on WhatsApp, but getting rid of it still isn’t possible in my situation.
Never had WhatsApp, never will
Not at all.
Thank you, that’s a great take
I use it via Beeper On-Device
https://blog.beeper.com/2025/07/16/the-new-beeper/?ref=beeper-faq
I just don’t talk to people.
I mean, I didn’t watch Game of Thrones, so I’ll never be a citizen of humanity. Seems like a decade and a half went by of conversations that went “So did you see Game of Thrones last night?” “No, I don’t watch that show.” “Oh. Bye.” The sooner you realize everyone is an empty headed content consumer and there has never been anything worth saying to or hearing from any of them, the sooner you’ll wonder why you even own a phone.
While your statement was true regarding phone (and WhatsApp) being a lifestyle choice, it has become a critical requirement for participating in the society.
In India, every little thing now requires WhatsApp. Want to contact your doctor, lawyer or want to get receipt? Good luck if you don’t have a smartphone and WhatsApp.
So not having WhatsApp is not a choice. Believe me. I have been running GrapheneOS, WhatsApp free. It is so hard.
Disagree. My doctor shouldnt be using whatsapp to communicate my health issues. We guve them this freedom. Stand for your rights.
The doctor isn’t the problem here. They’re simply trying to communicate in the most frictionless way possible. So do the billions of people. The real failure is our governments. They allow basic communication protocols to be privatized and monopolized rather than mandating open, federated standards.
Sure, but governments don’t do what is right for people. If pepple are jappy with poor software why should they intervene?
I don’t have Whatsapp and I will never use it. If people don’t want to use Signal, Telegram, XMPP, Matrix, SimpleX, or Delta Chat, we will talk over RCS/SMS.
Sms is now so developped, sending pictures and videos, calling is one click away, no need to install or update : it is surprisingly useful. Then you have the same issue with Wechat for Chinese communities
Only problem is that ive started noticing telcoms are discouraging their use by limiting number of sms on monthly plan. Wonder why …?
SMS is only text. Pictures and videos are MMS which, in many countries, are not configured by default, are not included in plans and cost a lot, around 0.20€/MMS.
Ah ! I am in France, did not knew that sorry
The few people who really care about me, agreed to contact me via SMS.
The close family even uses XMPP for me.
Never used it. I have app fatigue. I am forced to download so many apps, make so many accounts, I really dont want to make another one. Sucks to hear how few options some countries have. The people who matter wont care how you want to keep in touch.
Got my entire family on Signal.