Iam trying to make all my family members and friends switch to Signal but the privacy things are not enough for them, Could you please help me find a unique benefits of using Signal over Whatsapp?
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You can use Signal without giving it access to you address book and your files/folders, while whatsapp is unusable without those permissions. Not sure if it fits in âexcept for privacy thingsâ though.
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Signal works with multiple devices is big for my family. My mom jokes that I carry so many phones I look like a drug dealer. I tell her no I will not sell you some weed.
Half my family use iOS so they want to face time I ask them to buy me another phone to carry to talk to them or install Signal.
The same reasons they use against Signal works as well. They donât want to install more apps due to storage or battery use. Flip it around. Installing all those apps kills my battery where Signal does more and it does not kill my battery. Again ask for a new phone, that always works out. No one wants to spend money on something free.
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âitâs like iMessage but it works on Android tooâ (solid argument if youâre in the US)
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When explaining Signal to a non-tech-savvy person Iâll usually use one of two elevator pitches. Either something very similar to what you said:
âSignal has the modern features and convenience of iMessage without the artificial barriers imposed by Apple, everyone can use it and there is no vendor lock-inâ
or
âSignal has the modern features and convenience of Whatsapp, but in contrast to Whatsapp itâs owned by a non-profit with a great reputation, not a near-universally disliked and distrusted big tech conglomerate (Meta/Facebook), and FWIW the founder of Whatsapp recommends Signal over Whatsapp.â
or just a simple
âitâs like iMessage or Whatsapp but, private and independent from big techâ
At the end of the day, I think it is important to frame our explanations or âpitchesâ to the individual we are speaking to, youâve got to find the aspect that appeals to that person, find the things they care about.
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My two cents based on my experience:
Getting my immediate family to switch to Signal was relatively easy. Since many of them rely on me for tech support, getting them to add another app to their phone was not a problem since I âmanageâ their devices for them anyway.
With friends, it gets harder. Close friends will usually add the app and I found many of them actually do like Signal because it is a cleaner messaging experience. Signal users are not the type to send random forwards and there is no scam/spam like there is on Whatsapp. Regarding additional benefits that Signal has over Whatsapp, many of the benefits are technical and wonât be enough to convince a user to switch. Open Source, Minimal Data Storage, Non-Profit Organization â most users donât care about this.
So my solution was not to leave Whatsapp entirely, but to install it on a second phone. That phone has nothing on it except Whatsapp. If anyone messages me on Whatsapp, they get an auto-reply informing them to expect delayed replies as I do not check my Whatsapp regularly. If they want a fast reply, please message me on Signal.
That way itâs more of a soft sell and you are giving them a choice.
By the way, there is a way to use iMessage on Android phones (messaging only, no video or audio calls) in case you did not know. And if you want to check Whatsapp from your primary phone without installing Whatsapp on it, you can use WhatsApp Web To Go on Android.
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Thatâs not necessarily accurate. I have received several scam messages in Signal.
Found it odd since Signal users are typically tech-savvy and less prone to falling for scams.
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Really? Wow okay then I stand corrected. I assumed they didnât exist because I never received one.
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You can motivate them saying them that, unlike WhatsApp (and iMessage ?), on Signal you can edit your messages after sending them and you can program messages to be sent (and you can finally edit messages but WA can too).
Welcome to the forum @anon78640931 I have never used WhatsApp, I am going to add the suggestion of using a second device just for that app to my arsenal.
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Iâm fairly certain the inverse of this is true at the moment. iMessage has supported message edits since September of last year. WhatsApp added support recently. Signal has only released a preview and it has yet to roll out across all clients on stable.
What feature is this referring to?
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I think he is referring to this :
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Ahhh feature parity! thatâs so nifty! I wish it was available on iOS
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I used scheduled messages a lot when I worked shift.
Sometimes it would send right before I was waking up, but drafted while they were sleeping.
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Ok I did not know about iMessage thanks for the answer.
WhatsApp still did not added support for message editing in the stable version in my country. Signal did (not only in the beta).
I kind of feel like there arenât any. Whatsapp is better across the board imo if you donât count privacy stuff. Signal seems to get less spam, but i feel like whatsapp didnât get a lot anyway.
I agree with you on that, I tried the last days to think of anything but I canât, the only + you could tell someone is that its not run by Facebook and hope that they donât like them for any reason.
I usually say something like âIâm just not comfortable using WhatsApp because of previous issues involving it, its parent company, and other subsidiaries of said parent company. How about Signal instead? WhatsApp uses its protocol for the encryption stuff so we may as well get it from the source, it also offers a Snapchat-like experience and itâs cross-platform.â
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This might not be exactly what you asked for but I usually donât make it too technical. The moment you start talking about features and privacy, people will subconsciously start to defend their current behavior and try to argue with you why WhatsApp is good enough.
In reality people are usually somewhat aware of the privacy implications of using Facebook products.
So I try to make a bit of a stricter but more subjective argument that one canât really argue with: If you want to talk to me, do it through Signal; I only use that.
Itâs completely subjective and it doesnât create a âBut, uhmâŚâ situation. I know it doesnât work for everybody, and you can try to phrase it more diplomatically than just that, but itâs the most honest statement I can give people
âŚMacOS, AppleID and telephone number required.
People randomly give me old tech to wipe and recycle for then. I ended up with an old ipad 4th gen. I wiped it and noted it still worked so after doing a factory reset I decided that this was my chance to poke around an apple device. I explored OS10.xx - honest first impressions: the retina display is very nice⌠Even for old tech, so I totally get the apple screen loyalty 100%. Otherwise its a software prison. Its the âaolâ of tech. Everything is presented to you and thats it. Want to delete bloatware; nope. Want to use the hardware for another operating system; nope.
MacOS is different than on an ipad/iphone⌠But why people? Oh well - the same is forsure said about me for not having a facebook or google account. GrapheneOS os in its own way a similar prison⌠I just have the option to turn on the play store or not.
But what I dont have to do is register an account to download software for the device. I can side load. As far as I can tell: without appleID a i-device is useless without sideload.
Could you imagine the way the world would change if an alternative OS could be installed on iPads and iPhones? If Apple one day announced they were opens sourcing their OSâ? It be cool.
Anyway off topic I apologise⌠Signal messenger!
Caret:
I show people how I use signal on my phone, and then show them the usefulness of having that on my desktop. When Im working I dont have to pick up my phone to answer a message on signal desktop. Peaks some interest.
Otherwise they âjust prefer textâ
Stick:
I tell people that I have a prepaid sim with a number but that its used to maintain signal. That my phone has a data only sim, and if they call or text that number it will go to another device. They would have to use signal to route a message directly to my pocket.