I'll never understand the hold whatsapp has on people
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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The network effect: If everyone you ever message is there and stays there, it's hard to leave...
I'll never understand the hold any of these apps have on people.
Go split your emails over 3 different clients and open only some in 1 and others in another.
For me it's no big deal but centralisation feels good in lots of circumstances.
It's not even whatsapp specifically. I used to live in a place that only did Viber. Which is just Whatsapp with ads, themed purple. Everyone was on it, and people on whatsapp were maybe 50/50 at best. But without Viber, you didn't exist and couldn't message anyone and expect a response.
I wonder, maybe you feel comfortable naming that country? :D
Let's just say it's one of the purple ones in the map.
It's physchology I think.
People who feel they need to have regular communal celebration of their every thought and act really struggle to consider losing a few contacts who refuse to move to better alternatives. People who are happy to recieve the same ego strokes through fewer closer peers are ok with the move.
Same with leaving Facebook, Twitter, etc..
With messaging apps unless the new app does something new they want, people won't even think about it. Here in Spain the only other app is telegram because it has a bunch of extra things, if the new app does the same why bother. A year ago I installed Signal, only three of my contacts were there and no one else has appeared since.
Edit: I just checked, now I have 8 contacts on Signal. Yay! Maybe there is hope
Here (Netherlands) basically all our family and friends app groups moved to Signal. Only some groups with parents of the kidsโ school class, or colleagues, stubbornly keep clinged to whatsapp. For most cases, some negative news items about whatsapp/Meta/zuckerberg with regards to privacy and/or Zuckerbergs Trump-fetisjism, created enough momentum to move at least half of the group to another app (signal in this case). Afterwards, FOMO usually does the job in getting the other people over as well.
The issue with Signal is that it is US-based.
If Trump learns he can break it, he will consider it.
True, but Signal is quite clear theyโll leave the US if necessary. (And Mark โprivacy-is-deadโ Zuckerberg on the other hand, is quite clear his highest priority is to fulfill all trumps wishes)
Do you really think they cannot find a way to take over Signal, if they really want?
Thet seem to already control the Supreme Court, wouldn't be suprised to see them take over Signal at some point.
So what solution are you proposing? And by that I donโt mean things that โthe marketโ or something similar would, in an ideal world, sort out for us, but measures that individuals can take today?
Use decentralised communication.
Nobody has full control over all emails or phone calls in the whole world, this should also be the case for messaging.
Avoid single points of failure. A decentralised system cannot be broken, even if all countries agreed to fight it, it would likely still continue to exist.
If a single provider closes shop, the rest continues to exist.
We need resilient infrastructure, especially in these troubling times.
Some people actually have a social life and that often requires texting people that aren't just your close friends you could convince of switching to Signal
The only American software I run is FOSS. I've got no problems with FOSS devs of any country. American corporations are the swollen sore on your lip you keep biting. Get rid of them and the world's your oyster.
I might have to steal this. Eloquently put. :)
I kinda feel like all dumb phones have to do is ship with an Signal client, the lack of WhatsApp was apparently the driving reason why the reporter went back and I think its more reasonable to expect friends to move to Signal than to SMS. (Its also really unsecure)
There are a couple of community made clients I wonder how hard it is to implement the signal protocol.
Signal is American too though
True, but itโs not owned by privacy enemy and trump slave Zuckerberg, or a similar big tech bro
That still does not help you if Trump finds out the server can just go offline to pressure other countries.
The only thing that helps is using something not tied to the US.
Use open standards. For example you could use https://conversations.im/
I mean tbh it feels like the EU is putting more pressure on private chats than America does, at least right now. I am not sure how things are in Asia. I think the bigger problem is their reliance on AWS if Bezos or some friend of his does not want Signal to be a thing they can probably just switch it off fairly easy.
To be fair, I recently discovered RCS messages. Very cool. I've been using those quite a bit recently and with many people I do not need Whatsapp anymore.
You can't use RCS without Google, though.
Can't use WhatsApp without Meta. What's your point?
The point is not relying on US tech. It's in the title.
The person went back to the smartphone in order to use WhatsApp. I feel RCS is a better option as it doesn't strictly need Google, the reason why it is google is that google has developed the only application which supports RCS.
I did try RCS with a couple of friends and its great.
The only problem I have with it is the same I have with WhatsApp is that I cannot make sure what is happening on the server side (or even on the client side for that matter if its closed source) and what they are doing with the meta data. It seems like they would still be able to map out with whom I talk to and when (even if the content is encrypted which is not the default with RCS i believe).
Messages are end to end encrypted, I believe it is by default.
Google definitely has some metadata if you use the android app, at the very least the list of your contacts.
Regarding who you talk to, maybe: messages do not necessarily go through the servers of Google, it depends whether your carrier has their own servers.
Either way, I do see this as a great advantage over Whatsapp: while this system is still mostly controlled by Google the underlying technology most definitely is designed for decentralization and I know quite a few carriers are beginning to support it.
It's open. Just compile your own client. Though it's be allowed on the Signal network. So you have speed up a server too. American and open isn't a problem.
I am confused as to why they went with a dumb phone. Why not go with a non american degoogled android phone? Or to even go a step further, get a sailfish OS powered phone.
The narrator did not want to buy things just for an experiment.
Notice this sentence (emphasis mine):
On that first morning, with my iPhone shut off, I reached for a Nokia brick from Finland.
Pardon me if I am being presumptuous but the title seem to imply that the author was going to use somewhat equivalent non US alternatives rather than rummaging through what they already own.
To use an analogy, it is as if you have an article titled "I survived 72 hours without eating processed foods" and the author opted not to buy non processed alternatives and just work with with whatever they have at their home. Then you learn it was a couple of onions and a tomato they had in the fridge. If they say they were starving by the end of the experiment, it does not really paint an honest picture of how hard it is to get by without processed foods.
I believe the title and the article were written by different people
So much to unpack.
Trying to live without U.S. tech, I would find out, essentially amounts to trying to live without tech at all.
No. It's just different tech. I for one live with a lot of tech, but no US tech at all.
You know, it's possible to research products before choosing it. It's not necessary to live in a cave just to avoid US tech.
This sentence makes it sound like an impossible that should not even be started, which it isn't.
The so-called dumbphone is the type of device now enjoying a second life among people detoxing from screen time and is also a favorite of drug dealers seeking to avoid getting busted by any tracking and data collection.
This fails to mention that dump phones still lead to metadata collection nerwork-side, using it for drug dealing is just dumb. Drug dealers that are a bit more smart would use Signal and perhaps a Google-free Android ROM.
I did notice that I was pacing up and down my flat because my usually overstimulated brain apparently couldnโt handle focusing on a voice-only call.
Doesn't mean it's hard to live without the US tech, it means US tech is making live harder.
Swearing off Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and YouTube was also part of the deal โ already eliminating a sizable chunk of my leisure time.
Perhaps the author should look for a hobby?
Also, I see two critical areas where things need to change:
- communication: Just use XMPP. Find a provider in the EU. Fascists can do a lot of damage when they control your communication.
- money: blocking flows of money can hurt us pretty bad and just the US knowing those flows is already bad