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Comment by agilob

3 years ago

>The only large group of people who still primarily use SMS to communicate person-to-person is Android users in the USA.

BS. I visited city I grew up recently, met with a few (9+) people (25-32 years old) and only one of them had WA, most haven't heard about Signal, everyone simply uses SMS. It's simply multiplatform, works with their gradmas and no one wants to install __another__ app to send messages to people. No one cases about RCS that will be used to push QR codes and ads, people will use SMS for its simplicity and reliability. I'll be dropping Signal and moving to WA once Signal drops SMS support.

8 comments

agilob

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grey_earthling  3 years ago

If you're going to bother migrating and presumably taking people with you, why migrate to another company's proprietary service, rather than an open protocol?

Or (bluntly): why not Matrix (and/or XMPP)? What makes WA so much better that you're willing to go all-in with this company?

  • agilob  3 years ago

    >If you're going to bother migrating and presumably taking people with you, why migrate to another company's proprietary service, rather than an open protocol?

    I'm not taking anyone with me, they already have Signal and WA and obviously SMS. I'm uninstalling Signal and not recommending it again. I can already message Signal contacts using WA or SMS. I don't need Signal for that, and I'm not keeping 3rd messaging app.

  • Markoff  3 years ago

    network effect, as much as I like Matrix idea there is no chance it can compete with WhatsApp

    now give me Matrix client with basic SMS support (I don't need even MMS) and I'm installing it immediately to replace my dedicated SMS app

    I did same love with family as poster, from Signal with family, WhatsApp and SMS just to WhatsApp/SMS combo though already years ago after PIN nagging

shp0ngle  3 years ago

but… WA also doesn’t have SMS support?

  • agilob  3 years ago

    But I have 40 contacts on WA, and 4 on Signal? Everyone on Signal is also on WA and SMS.

    • ale42  3 years ago

      "Everyone on Signal is also on WA": not true. I'm not and I know other people who aren't. But of course, this is not the majority. And "on SMS" isn't completely true either: you can have Signal on a landline number (I do have one on my office line), which of course can't receive SMS.

      1 reply →

    • SECProto  3 years ago

      I have 0 contacts on WA and 30 on signal. Only time I used WhatsApp was a decade ago when travelling in Europe.

      Personally, I use signal as a replacement for Hangouts.