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.
I remember I used to have Pidgin, but facebook closed the messenger API (I think, this was a while ago) How does this work?
I think the core issue is that I don't have enough social clout to get people to change messaging platforms.
Yeah, exactly. This is why Facebook exists.
We could solve this problem if we think about it in the right way.
That's interesting!
I'm just not sure the "security" of WhatsApp is preserved in that case but it's certainly better than not being able to talk to certain people at all.
Also I think these kind of meta chat apps have been tried before and it usually doesn't end very well so I'm not sure I would be super optimistic.
Any of the chat provider can break their link to beeper and since they probably don't really care about it it shouldn't very reliable.
But a cool find nonetheless!
I'll take facebook messenger over whatsapp any day. At least it works on PC and has third party clients
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.
I'm not sure I have all of them, but I regularly use (privately)
- encrypted email
- unencrypted email
- text
- Meta Facebook Messanger
- Meta Instagram messages
- Meta WhatsApp
- Signal
- Telegram
- Microsoft Teams (yes, even privately)
I'm tired boss.
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.
Same in Australia. I have Facebook disabled, but I've got messenger to keep in the loop
I'm from the NLs and removed WA last year. What I liked about switching to Signal: people who care about me also installed Signal, so I didn't lose that. What I did lose? All the groups that I got into through the years, all of which were completely non-essential. If I need messaging with someone outside Signal I just use sms. The best part of leaving WA is that you'll find a lot of people willing to install Signal for your sake, and that's how it becomes easier for others to make the move.
Just removed whatsapp a few years ago. If people need you, they will install Telegram!
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
WhatsApp seems very conservative with adding new features. I generally feel the features they do decide to add are all pretty useful. Telegram on the other hand doesn't ever seem to slow down with the new features. Many of them seem great, but just as many I would never use. I'm still wondering why Telegram won't introduce end-to-end encryption as a default.
e2e encryption makes it difficult to provide fully cross-platform messaging experience, this is probably why they are not looking at it
They aren't implementing e2e by default because that would limit the amount of data they collect and sell to intelligence agencies.
WhatsApp is usually 2 years behind Telegram for all cool and interesting features.
On the other hand telegram makes it a chore to have encrypt messages, doesn't allow encrypted group chat, and breaks normal functionality when encrypted (reactions, GIFs, etc.)
I hope that the DMA gets passed in the EU. It'll (hopefully) break the monopoly worldwide
Interoperability is a weird one though. Imagine WhatsApp can connect to Signal, and people use this feature. What would then be the point of using Signal, if WhatsApp gets the data after all?
(Signal has already announced not wanting to support this, I just used it as an example)
So what needs do you have outside of a different look? Privacy doesn't seem to be one of them, and the two apps are very similar otherwise.
Fair enough. Won't work with Signal though, they've stated that they will never open up
The point is that anyone could switch at any time and we wouldn't have to make switch all at once.
There would be real competition.
True. However there are certain advantages
- WhatsApp gets only a part of your data (coz many people might be on different apps)
- You don't have to run WhatsApp on your device so they can't collect that data either
I know it's not perfect but better than the current scenario and a step in the right direction
Since WhatsApp is proprietary, we don't know if the users are the only ones who can decrypt their messages. I'll always have to assume Meta can read everything, which is the most sensible data they could possibly collect.
So that alone should be reason enough to avoid it.
Yes. I don't endorse WhatsApp. What I meant is if you chat with 15 people out of which 5 use WhatsApp, only those 5 chats are potentially readable by Meta. Because those are the only chats which will get sent to Meta servers.
So you have the benefit that the other 10 chats are not readable by Meta.
Yeah, true. And concerning your name and phone number, they probably already have that too, one way or another.
At this point I just assume Meta, Google and Apple have my number due to people storing the number on their devices. Amazon also might have it because people might have paid me via Amazon Pay (and given it access to contacts).
I think it's already been passed, it should be coming into force next year!
Oh yeah it says it directly on the wiki page you linked XD
was signed into law by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU in September 2022
Same. I hate all these messaging apps people use. Unless you need security, then just use the one your phone already has. Otherwise use signal.
No idea. It’s just not a platform anyone in my life has used in a manner that dragged me in.
Matrix or Signal only for me. nobody uses Whatsapp here in the states, sms is simply insecure in every way, and telegram has very suspicious roots imo, along with a lack of e2ee and a terrible ui.
signal is the most secure option and matrix is federated making it the most "open" option.
Signal was decent when Musk was promoting it. Then they started throwing in new features without keeping the app functional or thinking about budgeting. So now it's the worst performing chat app, basic functionality like calls are broken, and they want to monetize the app through crypto to cover up their lack of planning.
Matrix is pretty great, but the clients are still pretty bad, also it's confusing as hell to anyone who doesn't understand the idea of federation. I've tried getting people on element, but every single person needed help to create an account and get to chatting, and they've all deleted the app after a while. Also, did matrix fix that encryption bug that was leaking data if someone connected through a different server?
signal works perfectly for me idk wym, I'm not sure how musk promoting it means anything. afaik the matrix leak is fixed
I wish. It's completely replaced text messaging in a lot of countries, it's not going away anytime soon
But why? Why not just text people? What does WhatsApp give you that’s worth handing over literally every private conversation to Facebook?
well texting people is honestly worse, there is no encryption at all and features are stuck in the stone-ages
Texting is expensive and mobile data for Whatsapp messages is much cheaper, even though mobile data prices are still outrageous.
In South Africa 1 SMS costs 50 cents on standard rates, and 25 cents on bundle rates. For one message. There are 100 cents in one Rand obviously. 1GB of data is around 80 Rand. If one WhatsApp text message is 30kb, 1GB of mobile data gets you over 30 000 WhatsApp texts. Meanwhile that same 80 Rand only gets you around 300 SMS's on bundle rates.
I honestly hate these apps but have no choice but to use them. Shit sucks.
