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Is it (still) worth trying to switch my family and friends from WhatsApp to Signal? (Read all of it, please.)

This may sound a bit dumb, but eh.

So when that WhatsApp privacy policy change thing happened in early 2021, I tried switching from WhatsApp to Signal and Telegram. Telegram kinda stuck with me since i still get news from there, but Signal... not really because I didn't care about privacy back then. Now, I want to make the switch from WhatsApp to Signal, and I have a few plans on how to do that. But, is it worth it, since most people in Türkiye use Whatsapp and even if I switch my family and friends over to Signal, they'll still use WhatsApp since most people are on there.

So, yeah. Should i try, or is it not worth doing? Let me know, also, thanks in advance!

(Note: Most of my family and friends don't really care about privacy.)

(Note 2: This was also posted in c/[email protected], c/[email protected] communities, the m/[email protected] magazine and r/signal and r/privacy subreddits.)

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  • I also live in a country where WhatsApp is the messaging app almost everybody uses. You won't be able to get all of your relatives, friends and co-workers on Signal, so I'd suggest you start small - get SOME people onboard, make it very clear you're gonna be using WhatsApp for work-related stuff only, see what happens. Besides, Signal has its quirks, too - switching phones and backing up will lead to a lot of frustration and its devs proudly state that "more options is never the answer". It'll sadly remain a niche app for activists and the privacy-inclined, I fear. But if you really care about privacy, you should ditch Telegram ASAP.

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