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Comment by annzabelle

15 hours ago

Nearly everybody uses it in the USA. It's very common to text people through the default messaging app on your phone there (probably an outgrowth of the popularity of iPhones and iMessage), and backup options would be Instagram, Snapchat for a certain demographic, or Facebook messages. Whatsapp is only for messaging foreigners, and Signal/Telegram are for messaging your drug dealer.

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annzabelle

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SoftTalker  15 hours ago

Yep, I have never used anything other than the stock messaging app that came with the phone. Whether that's SMS, iMessage, or whatever has never crossed my mind

exceptione  4 hours ago

TIL. My deepest condolences. I thought that we, from this side of the pond, were upholding the honor of being the dumbest with our Whatsapp subjugation, but alas.

michael-bey  14 hours ago

I was really disappointed when Signal went away from being used as an "everything" messenger, including regular SMS. I onboarded all my family and now because it's not a default messenger, nobody is using it.

  • exceptione  4 hours ago

    Give them 2 channels, be clear about your terms of service and that your intent is to become exclusively available on Signal after one year:

    - Signal. high priority channel, checked daily

    - $PrivacyHazardApp. low prio, checked with steadily increasing intervals.

    Make sure you communicate those intervals in advance, have them in the footer of every message you sent on $PrivacyHazardApp. Average Joe needs lots of patience and lots of education.