A mass exodus from Whatsapp created a great opportunity to change a whole landscape of communication tools, but seems it is already missed though. Instead of switching to wonderful self-hosted (rocket.chat, element) or even p2p serverless (briar etc) alternatives, millions of ex Whatsapp users stuck with yet another centralized USA-based messenger - Signal. Sad.
I don’t know about this being missed opportunity… Getting my 18 friends over to Signal has been an uphill battle…Am talking grown ass middle aged men of diverse ethnic mix here… It sure as hell would not have happened if I asked them to move to anything else and trust me I know this because I have tried this ever since whatsapp was acquired by FB. But it was only now I could make it happen… So not a missed opportunity in my world eh!!
Signal is great for those who are privacy conscious and mediocre for those security conscious. For majority of users though security isn’t as big a concern (we aren’t planning a revolution or resistance) as privacy is and on that basis alone move to signal is a win for good guys in my book.
ahaha definitely understand your situation, my gf tried to convinced her relatives for a year.