Yeah, now I’ve realized why Whatsapp is so popular. It is the only option that works.
Signal is great for normal chats, not so great for group chats. It’s also great for calls, both video and audio, but only if you manage to connect one. Most of the time the other person never hears a ring, if they do and try to connect it just drops with no explanation.
Signal is just bad with notifications overall, I’ve had many friends complain about group chat notifications never showing up, and even personal messages sometimes don’t seem to trigger anything.
I guess the best way to keep your conversations private is to never let them happen.
Duo is horrible, video calls are super laggy, and no amount of weird filters and effects can make up for that.
So now I’m using Signal for chats, and Skype, of all things, for video. It works, not as reliably as Whatsapp video calls, especially on slower internet speeds, but it does.
At least I got away from Zucc’s sweaty balls, Gates’s smelly armpit is a slight improvement.
It is weird how good Whatsapp is compared to the competition, everything just works. My choices were rather limited though, I didn’t want to try Telegram for example, so it’s possible there are other viable, single-app replacements for Whatsapp, but I haven’t found it.
Whatsapp is so popular that life without it can be a bit embarrassing. One of my old friends now needs to send an email whenever he wants me to see a screenshot or a photo, email for fucks sake, like it’s 2006.
I ordered something last week and the guy wanted to send the tracking details over Whatsapp, so I had to make up an awkward lie about why I don’t have an account on it.
It’s difficult to explain to people why you deleted your account, privacy is not something that exists for a lot of them, all they see is that they got something for free, so why bother with anything else. Trying to explain the hegemony of Zucc, and the evil, incompetent way he uses his immense power is even harder.
Sometimes I think sooner or later, I’m going to have to buy an old Nokia 1100 and star living in a cave, the amount of moral and ethical compromises you have to make on a daily basis just keeps going up. But, this is the world we live in, and I’m trying to keep my hands clean as much as practically possible.
The only cost is inconvenience. I’m happy to pay.