I totally get it. It is really hard to change your current messaging app when everyone you want to message is not using it.

Most everybody I know is currently using WhatsApp as their go-to messenger. And to be fair, it is a pretty feature rich and handy app. But WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, and it has some pretty sketchy privacy practices….

Ah, I hear you say, but my communications are “end-to-end encrypted” — so the company really isn’t learning that much about me. Hmm, well no. You see, the valuable information to companies like Meta lies in the “metadata” rather than the content of the messages themselves (the clue really is in the company name). So, things like who you are messaging, when, from where and how frequently are invaluable data points. Thus Meta’s desire to merge the back-end infrastructure for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram. The company knows that the more data it collects about you, the more “complete” will be its profile and the more money it will be able to leverage from its clients.

I don’t really care, you continue — I find WhatsApp incredibly useful for keeping in touch with my friends/family/social groups. Fine, that’s your prerogative — I however beg to differ. I don’t want to willingly relinquish control over the details of my personal life to a company that seeks to monetise them. I have never met Zuckerberg, but I have no desire to use services provided by someone who has previously called his users “dumb fucks” and whom I would trust about as far as I could throw.

Nick R–Medium.

But there is an alternative that I recommend.
SIGNAL is a free, private, default end-to-end encrypted messages, phone calls and video conferencing app (group video calls up to 50 people).

Signal has just introduced “call links”. This feature allows you to send a link to anyone who uses signal so they can join a group video call.

To create a call link, open Signal on your phone or Desktop and navigate to the calls tab. Tap or click to create a call link. You can decide if you want to name your link and whether you want to have control over approving people who want to join or if anyone can join without approval. By default, you’ll have to approve people before they can join a call.

Signal website.

Another feature I really like is that you can generate a name to use as a contact instead of having to share your phone number. If you are on Signal you can message me directly using this name:
shojiwax.01

Anyways….I encourage you to encourage your friends to make the switch.

You can download Signal for your platform of choice HERE.