How do I transition my friends from Instagram DMs to Signal as a Gen Z individual in the US?
I just don't see it happening. Shit I have a hard time getting them to use god damn Whatsapp or Telegram (still bad but at least better than Instagram).
They are all iPhone users in the US so as you may expect they are too damn lazy to install another messaging app despite having Instagram Snapchat Tiktok BeReal and whatever shitty social media app that exists on the App Store.
For the love of god don't just say "you need bettee friends" 😂 cause let's be honest finding a privacy conscious person that you also can get along with in the US as Gen Z is practically impossible.
I know not everyone is willing to do this, but I just made myself unreachable elsewhere and many started using signal for that reason.
Good thing you happened to be popular then. It's akin to self-ostracizing for most, especially young people.
I'm not popular at all, I've got like 4 friends lol. I'm Gen Z too, so not sure why you're implying that I'm not young. If your friends will ostracise you over Signal, you may need new, better friends.
What other option is there? If you can't convince them yourself, it's not like the internet has some magic bullet for making them switch to another app.
The only choice most people have is between being an outcast, and sucking it up and using whatever everyone else is using. Some people are natural trend-setters, most are followers and there are those who want to do things for good reasons rather than copying everyone else. That last group of people have an uphill battle because their lifestyle requires thought and deliberation, which is something most people aren't willing to do, sadly.
Dude this is like something I'd expect to see from /r/intj. Come on. It's not half as dramatic as you make it out to be. If quitting FB and IG kills your social life, you really need to branch out.
I've dragged friends along through multiple platform changes. It took years to get those assholes to let go of Skype... Eventually they all followed, because they're legitimately my friends and they wouldn't let something like downloading an app put an end to our friendship. I make an effort to interact with my friends, and they make an effort to interact with me, that's what being a friend is.
I did the same, and yes, I'm now perpetually out of the loop on group things. But people text me details as required.
This is kinda what I did. I basically said it will be multiple hours before I respond to SMS/Discord/etc but I will respond within the hour on Telegram/Element
Don't have an answer but sharing in your pain as a millennial. 😭
Yk it is a sad world we live in when they already have 5 social media/messaging apps on their phone but refuse to download another one
I can hear the, "But I already have Facebook!" echoing in the halls.
Speaking as someone a bit older, I’ve got an ICQ account, an AIM account, an Apple ID, a Google ID, a few handles on IRC, as well as a Signal account and a Lemmy ID. Never signed up for Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Tiktok, etc. because I actually read their license agreements and privacy policies and in some cases had actual human interactions with some of the owners.
Having said all that, just do you. If you drift away from some of your friends because they’re unwilling to interact with you away from their established online media platform, that’s not the end of the world; it just frees you up for more worthwhile relationships and activities.
I'm 35 now, and I was told recently that not having a Facebook account is a red flag for dating now.
Oh fuckin well, nobody was kicking my door down before I left the site either haha.
"Red flag for dating"... They can ask questions and talk... I heard this line for employment
That's one of many reasons why I'm glad I'm no longer in the workforce 😂
Even like almost a decade ago, having a Facebook account was the red flag for me.
Yeah if not being on Facebook is such a full stop for someone that's just saved both of us alot of time, IMO.
Ikr! It's confusing
@CannaVet
@PrivateOnions
Millennial here. Lucky enough that about 1/3rd of our friend group (and four family members) are somewhat privacy focused and moved to Signal. But getting the rest of everyone to move to better E2E messaging is rough.
I converted my racing group chat because the picture and video quality was better than SMS across Android to iPhone. That's it so far.
A few years ago I got 5 of my millennial friends to move from FB Messenger to Telegram and it took some peer pressure from me and essentially one hangout where we were all together, and moved in one go. Telegram is not perfect but overall it's much better than being on FB messenger.
I did the same thing with my family. I was only keeping FB for the family group chat. Just told them I was deleting FB and moving to Telegram. Set up a group in TG and they all switched then and there.
I deleted Facebook and Instagram and joined Signal. Not everybody transitioned (instead they wanted me to join WhatsUp lol), but it was a good decision in the long run.
Of course not everybody will transition as well, but let me tell you those who did (in my case) are those who want to be really in contact with you. For the rest I use SMS and E-mail like in the old days haha. You just have to hope that eventually they will join.
It's really hard decision that you have to think about (it took me some time) but I just say "F*** that" and just did it. Until I remove my Fb and Ig they think that I wasn't going to do it but well ^^.
I tried convincing my group chats and various friends i messaged on facebook quite a bit to download signal with zero success. About a year later i nuked all my social media and told em to text me.
The important people all moved over to signal eventually after that.
Its kind of a sucky way to do it but it worked for me
Same for me. A few years back I read the WhatsApp privacy policy and immediately deleted it. Told everyone to message me on Signal instead. Most of my friends got Signal after that
I just told everyone "I am only using Signal from now on. If you want to message me do it through that." Worked for those who actually want to keep in touch.
That's kind of what it came down to for me too. Hey signal is good and its free. I don't have Snapchat, fb, tiktok, WhatsApp or telegram. Its signal or SMS.
Also if you can get a group together for a purpose like playing call of duty together that can help with adoption.
This is the approach I took as well, and it thankfully worked for me.
You may want to give this a quick read before using signal
https://dessalines.github.io/essays/why_not_signal.html
I personally haven't verified the claims on there but I've been using a personal instance of Matrix for a while now and it's been working great.
This is straight up misinformation about Signal. The internet was made in part by the US government, so was Tor. You don't avoid using those, and it's very public knowledge that they were created with help from the feds.
As a gen z I find this to be basically impossible unless the platform is already in flux. I'm sure Instagram will do something people hate soon enough so just be ready when it goes down.
The real chads get their friends to use Session. Better than Signal imo
It is better but is even harder to convince others to use than Signal because you have to share some random generated ID and then name the contacts accordingly and looks like some hacker man shit to normies so they will probably get turned off.
What makes it better? In your opinion
Edit: just reading about it and it sounds almost too good to be true
Aye. I have yet to go through the entire Whitepaper but it is very well made
Thanks for replying. I'm gonna read more on it, maybe even the whole white paper if my brain can stand it (lol).
I'm not sure what answer you're expecting. There isn't one. You can't make people give a shit about privacy. You can change your standards, you can make exceptions to your privacy rules for friends (defeating the purpose), or you can accept that most people don't care and think it's weird that you do. Nobody said the private life was one bursting with social activity.
Set up matrix instance and invite them. Better to use something you control over signal which is run by a company on their servers. Saves you the trouble of having to do this all again down the line if something happens with signal. Also there are many chat bridges for stuff like signal, IG, WhatsApp, etc. Theres even an Imessage one but it is not in the ansible playbook yet.
https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy makes it very simple to deploy.
Tell them you've got some hot gossip that you're too scared to share without encryption. Make it spicy.
by force if necessary
Instructions unclear, currently in jail for kidnapping and aggravated assault
I hope one day, that we have a viable protocol like email that will free everybody from vendor lock-in into messaging apps. Allowing us to chose our platform freely.
Unfortunately, I don’t think Matrix is there yet
I bridge WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and Slack using Matrix.
Works extremely well for me.
@scott TIL bridging exists, I'll check it out!
Matrix is one area I've wanted to get into, but haven't managed to yet. How does bridging work?
Effectively it's a plugin to the Matrix server instance that acts like a client to the remote network. You can then interact with users on the remote networks like they're local to yours.
Sort of like interacting with users on Kbin or Mastodon on, say, lemmy.world.
It allows me to have, for example, a chat group with people on disparate networks. i.e. a "room" with users from Signal, WhatsApp and Slack having a discussion and everyone just chats without having to worry about who is where or using whichever network.
Say what now? Signal, Whatsapp, and Slack all talking together without a problem?
Yep. There's a whole lot of protocols/networks that you can bridge. They're just the ones I use.
Here's a list: https://matrix.org/ecosystem/bridges/
Oh wow. I didn't realize it had this capability. I need to dive into this now…
I'm out of the loop just learning privacy things, what's matrix?
Matrix is an open protocol that is federated and end-to-end encrypted. It's current main use case is instant messaging but can be used for all sorts of things.
Thank you for answering :)
I have used Matrix with nontech family for years without much issue. Text, voice, video, addons such as todolists. Works well for me.
Yeah have the same issue. Why tf are all the normies using this dogwater called wattsapp is beyond me.
I just stopped using those apps, if anybody wants to reach me, they have my number. Suddenly I have a bit more free time. Win win.
well, people started using it for years and years, then facebook bought it. the more people and the more tightly knit, the more the platform solidifies, the harder it is for people to move. suddenly it's easier to contact businesses through whatsapp than e-mail. I remember one time when whatsapp fucked up and everyone wanted to move to telegram, but when asked why they haven't done so yet, they replied "I'm just waiting for people to start dipping"
You could use matrix and use bridges. Then they can migrate whenever they want.
This probably won’t work for everyone but I ended up deleting social media accounts. After that, I made more of an effort to maintain the relationships I cared about. I texted more, called more, invited them out more, etc.
Slowly but surely, they became annoyed with regular SMS and I offered telegram or signal as an alternative because it gave them features they were accustomed to on social media messaging platforms.
Luckily, my friends liked me enough to download another app to keep in contact
For real, just my closest friends have gotten signal, and techies, and privacy focused family. Slow up hill battle tbh.
My next trick is more family on the wagon, by convincing them to do more video calls through signal. They want to use Duo, but we are getting closer to more family with Signal than Duo.
Something that also helps, shame them for watching ads, there is no reason you have to watch ads unless you are using the shitty apps that force it on you. You separate them from ads though and you get less push back on new apps. Them ads really do be working on people.
I also tried to make my friends use signal or anything that respects privacy, but it was almost impossible. They were used to their platform which is instagram or discord, and they didnt want to move since they had no reason except privacy, which is not their major problem.
The good old “I've got nothing to hide”. I really don't understand why people care so much about not getting a better messaging app. You can still use everything else and it's not like getting into a new system. Signal and WhatsApp have a very similar interface. Right down to those awful stories Signal added.
just install it on their phone without them knowing and tell them that is a new apple app
The problem is they will keep talking, but they will just use SMS which is absolute dogshit for sending pictures and stuff
Ignore them
Start with your family. A small group of friends. The 1-5 people you communicate with the most. Though, to be completely honest - iMessage is still a far cry better than instagram messages and SMS.
Just assume that everyone involved lives a life of multiple identities and they aren't ready to share their secret Signal identity with you yet.
I'm being sarcastic, but that actually isn't that far off from how things tend to actually work, it's just a matter of whether someone is conscious of how much their online behavior is performative.
While we are at it, how do I get my fellow older millennials to use it?
I tried to get them on Matrix/element first. Couldn't do it, but then Signal looked easy enough and sticked. Might give another try if I can get my own Matrix server at home.
With Matrix you can use Mautrix-Bridge that allows you to basically communicate with every popular messanger out there. I highly recommend reading the entire docs first before setting it up.
Edit: the link above leads to the go-based bridges. Here are the python based bridges
Just send them the app url and let them know you do private chats on a private messenger. Show them all the fun stuff like stickers, GIFS, groups, stories, etc. Save the delete messages stuff for later.
Maybe you don't... https://dessalines.github.io/essays/why_not_signal.html
TOR was started and funded by the US Naval Research Labs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it's not perfect, but I know it's widely used as a first line of defense. I won't comment on the Radio Free Asia stuff because I have no knowledge of that, but I feel like there's a lot of privacy tools we use that were initially funded by the US government, and even the US military in some cases. It always comes back to relative threat levels. Are you trying to avoid invasive corporate monitoring and some degree of government surveillance as a regular person? Signal is fine. Are you actively trying to hide from government intelligence agencies? Maybe it's not so fine. Signal is still preferable to a messaging application owned by Meta, imo.
Good points
Holy heck, it almost seems like there is some counter-intel op against Signal going on here by the powers that be that doesn't want you to use it because of its encryption (see? even I can make conspiracy theories like this). Now let me copy-paste one of my earlier posts:
Governments seem to have given up after 2021 haha
This is full on, unadulterated FUD. Practically the definition of it. Signal is tried, tested and legit. You are not doing anyone any favors by spreading such bullshit.
How stupid is this? The internet and Tor were also built in part by the US government. You not gunna use the internet because of that? Clearly you're here so that's not the case.
The point is you dont know if its true or not because signal backend is more or less a black box that cannot be audited.
That is completely false too. It has been successfully audited by multiple auditors.
You have no idea what you're talking about, you're literally just spreading FUD and making people less secure.
I'm not saying it is stupid or now, just passing along information that people should consider.
It's misleading information, and you're the one spreading it.
It might be, or not. For what's worth Signal might be the most secure and private solution out there, probably event safer than Matrix. I'm not going to stop using it because of that article but people should know about all sides of a story and decide for themselves.
No might is needed here. You spread misinformation.
To be honest I can't say I blame you; It's absolutely impossible to get people to move away from a platform without a hard reason.
It's absurd how often people in general are simply afraid to simply read their screen and try new things on a device.
I recently started sending trivia questions to my friends in group chats on the old horrible comms. To get the cash rewards for winning answers, they must respond to me on the specified decentralized comms (Nextcloud, Session, XMPP, Matrix, Simplex, fediverse..). It costs me some money, but we are having fun while they learn new things.
Pay them or buy them a beer.
We should be aware that signal might not be the promised lands. It was created by a CIA affiliate. It's also suspectible to National Security Letters from the U.S., requiring it to disclose information about its users.
Also why does signal need my phone number?
A viable alternative might be France based Olvid. But I haven't done much research on them.
Sources:
Signal is way better than a lot of the alternatives as they do not have much data about you.
Checkout this video about what the US government got with a subpoena to Signal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oPeIbpA5x8
Tor was created and is funded by the US Navy. Does that mean we should stop using Tor? Also Signal was asked to provide data previously and the oy data they were able to provide was the last time the user logged on, and the time that they registered which is farrrrr outside of my threat model and 99.99999% of people's threat models
Just get yourself an iPhone and use iMessage with them. Problem solved!
I'm an Android and Signal user, BTW, so /s, naturally
I am not getting a whole ass overpriced phone when all they would have to do is downlad an application