• JackGreenEarth
    link
    fedilink
    English
    08 months ago

    You can’t get rid of Whatsapp.

    I can repeat, if you like. WhatsApp is not installed on my phone. Everyone I care about talking to uses Telegram. I understand it may not be as easy in your case to get people to switch, but if it’s either Telegram, Signal, or nothing, and they care about speaking to you, they’ll switch.

    • MudMan
      link
      fedilink
      98 months ago

      No, it’s not “as easy in my case”, it’s impossible in my entire country.

      It’d mean not having contact with friends, family, work clients, businesses and plenty of other conveniences.

      I’m glad you’re self-sufficient enough to not interact with humans on the basis of their messaging app, but here in the real world, if a client gives me their Whatsapp contact and I point them at Telegram I look like a weirdo who suddenly wants to have a ten minute conversation about social media instead of doing their actual job.

      So I can repeat, if you like. You can’t get rid of Whatsapp.

      • JackGreenEarth
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -28 months ago

        If they give you their WhatsApp number, it’s the same as their phone number, and you can just use SMS without them noticing.

        • MudMan
          link
          fedilink
          58 months ago

          I mean, no, they’ll notice. The messages would appear on a different app.

          But me texting them is not the issue, people don’t remove their text message app. The issue is them wanting to text me, entering my phone number on Whatsapp and having it not be there.

          Never mind that a number of these interactions are using groups and other tools. So no, it’s not an option. You may as well tell people you don’t have a phone or you refuse to interact through anything other than wax-sealed letters. Is it possible? Yes, sure, the post will deliver those. Does it make sense? Not at all.

          People underestimate to what extent Meta apps have supplanted signfiicant chunks of communications infrastructure in many places around the world. For all the crap people give to Musk’s little hostage crisis on Twitter, it’s peanuts compared to Meta’s stranglehold. Americans in particular don’t realize how hard they already won social media.

        • zeroxxx
          link
          fedilink
          English
          48 months ago

          Nobody answers SMS here. It is fucking expensive for a fucking message.

          Even 2FA is now over WhatsApp.

          • MudMan
            link
            fedilink
            -28 months ago

            I don’t think any providers charge for SMS anymore. Or at least you get enough free ones that nobody ever hits the cap.

            Because everybody uses Whatsapp instead, so it’s not even worth trying to monetize the residual usage. It’s like email, only automated communications use it, so you’re better off only charging government agencies and companies who are the only ones using it.

            • zeroxxx
              link
              fedilink
              English
              58 months ago

              We are still paying for each SMS. Not talking about America.

              • MudMan
                link
                fedilink
                18 months ago

                Me neither :)

                Of course there are more than two countries in the world, so it’s entirely possible to have different pricing structures anyway.

        • HidingCat
          link
          fedilink
          28 months ago

          So how do you participate in the work chat with just SMS? Lots of informal collaborations in both my last role and current role needed and needs WhatsApp, with both internal and external stakeholders. I literally cannot do my jobs without WhatsApp.

          Delivery services will contact you on WhatsApp as proof that the delivery was made, disputes are much harder to solve without it.

          Many businesses use WhatsApp as part of their chat support (luckily, not the banks, small wins at least). Talk to a person on the phone? Good luck.

          These are just the examples off the top of my head; I feel like so many here are naive on what it’s like to live in a modern, digital society.