I just started selling them drugs, and told them we use signal now.

Around the time when Meta announced some big privacy changes to WhatsApp, it became a hot topic in the news since everyone here uses WhatsApp.

I took advantage of that situation to talk to my friends and family about how much better Signal is. I set up our existing groups like Family Chats, Friends, and Sport Groups on Signal, and helped some people install the app. I kept reminding and urging them to switch and assured them we would continue using Signal, everything will stay the same just super secure.

To make it clear to everyone still on WhatsApp, I changed my profile picture to say “please contact me via Signal.” Surprisingly, within 1-2 weeks, everyone I care about made the switch and, to my surprise, they still use Signal today.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for all the privacy concerns about WhatsApp in the news, I think convincing them to switch would have been much harder.

To be real, getting someone to change their habit is near impossible and when that happens, just send them SMS.

The way I did it was getting rid of the apps I no longer wanted on my phone. This forced people to send text messages. If they try sending a good pic/video it would obviously fail. Their only option was usually something more difficult than just installing Signal. I don’t provide Whatsapp as an alternative. I did lose some contacts, but close friends/family will obviously opt for the better messaging experience compared to default SMS.

1. Uninstall WhatsApp
2. Family+friends will get notification that you left in every group you were in, and lose their shit. They will call you asking wtf is happening
3. Try to calm the waters by telling them you found out Meta is a bad company and you don’t want to participate it
4. Get confusing looks and asked wtf is wrong with you
5. Try to divert the complexity of the subject by mentioning that they can just download Signal and reach you there
6. Get scoffed and manage to get one or two nearest friends on your Signal app
7. Still get contacted by everyone’s else on whatsapp and by your grandmother on FB messenger , although you ain’t there
8. Sucessfully managed to keep your 2 contacts on Signal and even see it growing to 4 over a year.
9. Wait till Signal fucks up, delete it, install SimpleX, start over again

Around the time when Meta announced some big privacy changes to WhatsApp, it became a hot topic in the news since everyone here uses WhatsApp.

I took advantage of that situation to talk to my friends and family about how much better Signal is. I set up our existing groups like Family Chats, Friends, and Sport Groups on Signal, and helped some people install the app. I kept reminding and urging them to switch and assured them we would continue using Signal, everything will stay the same just super secure.

To make it clear to everyone still on WhatsApp, I changed my profile picture to say “please contact me via Signal.” Surprisingly, within 1-2 weeks, everyone I care about made the switch and, to my surprise, they still use Signal today.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for all the privacy concerns about WhatsApp in the news, I think convincing them to switch would have been much harder.