this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
53 points (96.5% liked)

Privacy

2338 readers
463 users here now

Icon base by Lorc under CC BY 3.0 with modifications to add a gradient

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
all 49 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago

In theory everyone around me does. I have refused to use whatsapp and fb messenger and the like for around 10 years now. As a result I don't have contact with the majority of people I used to call friends as they refused to use anything else.

Consequently my immediate family use it and a few friends that actually cared to stay in touch do.

I have a couple of hold outs who I have contact with but pretty much everyone I'm in regular contact are on signal now.

[–] thuhtoosan@programming.dev 9 points 1 month ago

My whole family (excluding my extended family) uses Signal to talk with me, haha.

[–] PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Only a small handful of people in my circle are willing to use it. Most can’t be bothered to change despite my efforts to explain how much better it is to use. I’ve waned in my usage of unencrypted chat so that is isolating me from some which saddens me a bit. I can handle that, but I am far more disappointed in people’s indifference in the matter.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe -1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I don't find it "better" in any way other than privacy.

From a user standpoint, the UI is just SMS, that is it's not good.

Plus I no longer trust them after the lie that they dropped SMS because if "engineering costs". There are free SMS apps, because the app has fuck all to do with SMS - your app merely registers as the SMS app, and uses the native API calls for the SMS database.

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 6 points 1 month ago

From a user standpoint, the UI is just SMS, that is it's not good.

SMS don't support group chats, do they?

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I think you misunderstand the purpose of Signal. It's for encrypted communication. SMS can be encrypted but it can be a real hassle and security risk if messages are sent over 2 different channels and start arriving out of order or not at all. Sending media over SMS is also a problem as now that introduces another problem: MMS is over data, not SMS. If you don't have data but do have SMS, a message in the chain isn't delivered which means key renegotiation.

They dropped SMS for very good reasons. It's not because "they are lazy" or and they had "fuck all to do". If it really were that easy, it would've been done.

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] rutrum@programming.dev 5 points 1 month ago

Me and one other tech friend who appeased me. We tried simplex first, but sometimes their background service would be off and they wouldnt get messages. So we switch to Molly.

[–] fzz@programming.dev 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Almost zero. We are all in the Matrix. It’s especially necessary when you are refugees by 🇷🇺, but personally me started to use matrix a very long time ago.

[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

I usually use matrix too though haven’t used it with irl friends 💪

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 4 points 1 month ago

All but two of them.

[–] FancyPantsFIRE@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Myself, my wife, her parents, and my parents all use it, though honestly the latter are there for grandkid pictures and I’m confident 100% of their conversations with anyone else are sms/facebook/etc.

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

As far as I'm aware: Zero.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 points 1 month ago

Friends are almost all on signal. Parents are bad at technology and can barely figure out sms.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just me. I'm holding out I'll meet someone else who has it installed someday.

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I had a friend the other day telling me that his mother made the whole family group switch from Whatsapp to Signal following Meta supporting Trump. Unexpected, but good to see.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 0 points 1 month ago

Lol, funny the things that make people jump.

Glad to see it, but clearly privacy wasn't the reason, which is weird to me.

[–] match@pawb.social 3 points 1 month ago

this is the type of question i would only answer on signal

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] throws_lemy@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 month ago

only one, online friend 👀

[–] ScandalFan85@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago

Everyone I'm close with uses Signal. Family, friends and even some coworkers.

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

Most of the people I want to receive messages from use Signal. But to be fair (to be faaaiiiir), that number isn't that large.

All of my close friends, slowly making its way in some members of my family. Always find it funny when a friend that I haven’t seens in a while say : yeah I have signal install for some shit and I proceed to had him/her to all the stupid conversations my crazy friends made

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 3 points 1 month ago

A bunch. I simply do not communicate without private messengers. If somebody asked me to use Matrix / Element, that'd be fine too.

People who don't care enough to use a private messenger are implying that they don't care about my and our privacy. It's quite simple for me not to want to talk to them 🤷‍♂️

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] Cube6392@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago

most! i have one straggler on telegram

[–] neons@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

12 family members, 3 friends.

[–] paulbg@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

not much. most of them are still using telegram believing durov is a good guy

[–] noodlejetski@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

most of the people I'm closest to do. other than that it's all Whatsapp, unfortunately.

[–] darksiderbun@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

The entire family on both sides now! We still use FaceTime for video sometimes as it is also E2EE and seems to be much less often blurry than signal video.

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 month ago

Immediate family, two friend groups I'm in, a client's client, that's about it.

Or perhaps there are other people around and we just aven't managed to realize / First Conatct.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

None, they barely had the energy to switch to Telegram while staying on WhatsApp when it became popular a few years ago. Nobody wants to take it seriously because they "have nothing to hide".

[–] verstra@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

We are a matrix family, mind you.

[–] xtools@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

not barely enough

[–] LovableSidekick@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

None that I know of.

[–] aim_at_me@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Tech friends, all my family, and all my wife's family are mostly on signal. Other "regular" friends from other circles are on a mix of Facebook messenger and WhatsApp.

[–] nerd_E7A8@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago
[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 1 points 1 month ago

None.

When they dropped SMS support, I no longer had a mechanism to get people to switch.

[–] uhmbah@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

0

Unfortunately

[–] Colloidal@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago
[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I got my parents and a few friends. I take longer to answer anywhere else.

[–] burgerchurgarr@lemmus.org 1 points 1 month ago

Three fiddy

[–] Purple_haze666@piefed.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Only 2 IRL friends, family no they're too stubborn and don't care for privacy

[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

2 that I know of, but that’s the majority of my social circle (not working, no family). The other people I don’t think would want to because it’s different and difficult and those are “leave everything at default” sort of people when it comes to tech, so lost cause anyway.

Both the people who do use it are there because of me, though!

My partner and I were struggling when I was android and they were iOS, there was delays that threw everything out of order, so we tried a few messaging apps that worked cross platform and I found signal and we started using it together, and my friend started using it when dating a new person because e2ee for naughty photos and stuff, at my suggestion. They were using Snapchat and I was like ummmm.. no. Don’t do that. But we use it to talk all the time now.

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago
[–] Kissaki@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

I don't know. So it very well may be zero.