Comment by pjerem

> If friends can't install another app to talk to you, maybe they don't really wanna keep in touch.

Interestingly, your assumption works the other way too : If you can't install another app (one you don't want), maybe you don't really wanna keep in touch.

I prefer to see it from the other side : I value my friend more than which app they want to use. I do encourage my friends to use Signal but I can't force them.

> When I moved to Telegram I told family and friends where I'd be and they all installed Telegram and actually liked it so they stayed.

Same. And now I realize that Telegram is just a little less shitty than WhatsApp and that it doesn't even do E2E by default and I have no more willpower to migrate everyone on Signal.

> It's been 3 years now and I haven't touched WhatsApp.

Looks like you weren't as pure as me 3 years ago since I never touched WhatsApp until 3 months ago. And you know why ? I've been integrated into a new group of friends which was on WhatsApp. The thing is, making your current friends migrate to another app is difficult. But you can't know where your future friends will be and you will not be able to make them use your app and making new friendships is hard enough in life that I'm not going to filter them by the app they use.

Oh and I have the magic power to be able to use the 3 apps on my phone ! And with Beeper, it's now a superpower.

Anyway, FWIW, I find this messaging apps situation totally pathetic. If it was me, we should all be using an open and decentralized messaging protocol where everybody can own its own data. But since I can't convince all my friends to reach me via e-mail or Matrix, I will suffer the shitty apps and will do my best to use Signal as much as possible (but Signal is shitty in my eyes too since it's centralized).