I entered the privacy world/rabbithole a few months ago, and after reading a lot about various topics in this world, I felt it was the time to start using signal to replace whatsapp (and maybe also switching from iOS to GOS in the future).
Here’s the issue, which I found frequently on this forum too: not a single person I know uses signal, so drastically dropping whatsapp for it would mean not being able to chat with anyone, which is not exactly what I wanted to do…
This all leads to my main question: how can I convince at least my close friends and relatives to download signal to chat with me? How do I explain them in simple terms this simple action will benefit all of us in terms of privacy?
Explain your reasons to move to Signal and why it is a better platform to use instead. If those reasons resonate with their values, they will likely move to it. Or begin using it with at least you.
But what I have learned in my experience is that most people simply don’t care for those reasons and don’t find them important enough to disturb the status quo they have set for their digital lives. It is sad and demoralizing but there’s only so much that can be done.
Keep trying to spread awareness and convincing people of it is all I can say.
Write a lot of WhatsApp messages to your friends telling them stories from your old aunt Tess who learned playing Golf at 70. Talk about different locations, playstyles and clubs. Ask them if they ever thought about learning Golf etc.
Then wait for your friends getting Golf related ads in their web browsers.
I deleted WhatsApp and it took about a year to get the majority of important friends and family members on Signal. You have to be prepared for a lonely first couple of months. Also, don’t forget to tell people you are deleting WhatsApp, so they are not left guessing why you’re gone.
I don’t believe in evangelicizing. Mostly, the conversation goes:
A: I’ll get in touch on WhatsApp.
Me: I don’t have WhatsApp. Do you have Signal? It’s really good!
Sometimes that doesn’t work, but eventually it has for the most important connections.
An extra bonus is that I am oblivious to long-winded neighbourhood or big family group chats.
To sum up, with time, you should be able to get your important people to talk to you on Signal.
Fully understand your problem. What I did was that I kept WhatsApp for a while, however, only opened it once a day late in the evenings to respond to messages from friends. After 1-2 weeks, I apologised for the late replies and told them I rarely check my WhatsApp but I’m active on Signal where I respond immediately.
For associates, I responded to WhatsApp messages once a week on a Sunday Evening. When they started to notice the late replies, I gave them the same spiel re being active on Signal.
After a few months around 9/10 of friends and 10/10 associates transferred to Signal. As for family, I simply said it was the only method of contacting me.
It’s a difficult tasks to get people to migrate, and the difficulty is very dependent on your type of social circle. I wish you good luck and hope you get the people that matters to you migrated.
In my experience you don’t even have to get into get into the privacy stuff too much when explaining your reasoning to people. If you use Android it’s usually enough to say you want better texting features and don’t like Facebook so don’t want to use WhatsApp or Instagram, and everyone you talk with uses Signal already as a result. Even if people use Facebook products they usually know enough about them to not think you’re wearing a tinfoil hat to avoid them. Alternatively even simpler if they aren’t pushing WhatsApp on you and are an iPhone user, you could just explain it as like iMessage but it works on both Android and iPhone, so there will be no green bubble.
If they still say no after hearing a completely reasonable explanation on your end, they might not be worth your time and energy anyway tbh. There’s usually not a real reason to not install one more app for keeping in touch with a friend who has valid reasons for using it, other than they don’t really care about you that much (barring any potentially valid reasons they raise, which I can’t think of but of course might exist).
I found it a lot easier to get people over when I switched to android and I used it as an excuse. It was also a good excuse for me to push harder because I didn’t have to mediocrity of iMessage to fall back on.
One of my favorite things about Signal over iMessage—besides the obvious metadata, security, and cross platform benefits—is that you don’t have to give out a phone number; therefore, even if your contacts give away your phone number as they are forced to do when using WhatsApp, your phone number is not shared with WhatsApp. There is no real way for your contact to compromise your conversations, at least on iOS, short of screenshotting and posting them.
In the past couple months since I switched to GOS, lost iMessage, and have tried to migrate completely to Signal, I have got ~29 people to use it for me, and 9 of those switched as a birthday request.
Sell them not on privacy but shiny features of signal, “just family cross platform chats”, WhatsApp is a mess with all the companies now using its business API
Family: tell them about how most scam text attacks happen through WhatsApp and you are worried it might happen to them. Load signal for them, verify your accounts and set up a family chat. Now not only do they speak to you through it they may speak to each other.
Cheating friends: show them the recent lawsuit against meta WhatsApp having no encryption at all. They will move all on their own.
Good friends: it’s important to you and you realise they may only use it for you for a while, but it matters to you.
Then you need to prioritise signal messaging over WhatsApp personally. Perhaps only answer WhatsApp messages once a day
This is going to sound weird but raise your social capital. Make yourself useful and needed amongst your friends and family. Become an interesting person by following your passions. I know it sounds silly, but you’d be surprised how much these factors influence your ability to convert people.
Two privacy conscious people could have the exact same arguments to persuade others, but one has considerably more success simply because people like them more and are drawn to them. People want to listen and help you just because they like you. BE KIND.
Of course, all the privacy arguments that others have mentioned matter, but your likeability and usefulness to others matter too.
Tell Them Govt is Spying on them, Explain How WhatsApp is NOT secure.
How Data Is Being leaked to Govt by META APPS,
How Govt Spy using Meta Apps FACEBOOK, WhatsApp, Instagram.
MOST IMPORTANT WHY SIGNAL CAN RESCUE THEM AS WELL.
Locally speaking, WhatsApp is almost universal. Even among the elderly.
Even businesses are starting to preference it over SMS.
I’ve drastically changed how I deal with WhatsApp. But getting rid of it entirely isn’t necessarily realistic between dealing with family members that don’t know how to install an app to begin with and businesses that just assume you have it whether you actually do or not.
