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?
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
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
Only problem is that ive started noticing telcoms are discouraging their use by limiting number of sms on monthly plan. Wonder why …?
People from the United States can’t understand how difficult is for us who live in countries where WhatsApp is used for everything, they can’t understand this trend began even before Meta bought Whatsapp. In Mexico is a nightmare without WhatsApp because is the main source of communication not only for the people but for your job, delivery, assistance and more. So basically what you can do is to have a device for WhatsApp and another for your private life
I have two profiles on my GOS and Wapp lives on one of them. However, i manage people expectations telling them that my Wapp phone is almost always off so they know that if its urgent, they need to call or use Signal. Eventually people will understand and if they dont, i am not prepared to live my life by the needs if others. I lived at a time where there were no mobile phones. Life worked the same, albeit at a slower pace. People, we really dont need to be hyperconnected. Relax and let people understand that yheir mental status will improve once they put some rules between them and their mobile devices.
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.
I find not having friends helps with this
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
I use it via Beeper On-Device
https://blog.beeper.com/2025/07/16/the-new-beeper/?ref=beeper-faq
Thank you, that’s a great take
Thats the neat part, you dont
Unlike all the apps you named it, “users” is what make it still alive to this day
You gonna have to use it with Signal if you want to use Signal that much, or just dont
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.
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 😂
I just don’t talk to what Zuckerberg refers to as “dumb fucks”
It’s seriously so self fulfilling. Markey mark made it so easy to not be a dumb fuck. It’s literal actual written instructions on how to not be a dumb fuck. Millions fail the written instructions.
TIL he calls the people that send their data to him “dumb fucks”. But I don’t get what instructions you are talking about? 🤔
It’s a series of fallbacks. Eventually you’re calling each other on the POTS like a couple of cave-people.
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 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.
