Does anyone know where this is at? I thought WhatsApp were being forced by the EU in 2024 to introduce this under the Digital Markets App? I’m googling, but am finding very little info.
It would be great if we could use Signal to communicate with WhatsApp groups. The sooner I can delete WhatsApp the better.
Signal declined, despite the EU bending over backwards and handing them the chance on a silver platter to become relevant.
IMO it’s a mistake, like getting rid of SMS support was (which is far less secure than WhatsApp yet Reddit/Lemmy seem to be angry about that but glad about lack of WhatsApp interoperability?? I guess it’s because Americans don’t really use WhatsApp so it’s not a big deal to them, whereas SMS is).
It would have been an amazing opportunity to help those that want to use Signal actually use it.
Yes, I’m aware Meta scrapes what metadata they can from messages, but if you make this clear in Signal when you talk to a WhatsApp user then I don’t see the issue, after all it’s what they did for SMS chats yet everybody loved that feature!
People trying Signal because it’s compatible with WhatsApp that everybody uses would lead to more Signal-to-Signal chats, and that’s a good thing.
The Signal foundation seems to care more about being ideologically pure for its 10 users than they do about making a small compromise that leads to far more users and far more Signal-to-Signal chats. It seriously disappointed me, and I stopped my £10 monthly donation hearing that bad news. I was so invested in Signal because I thought it was a great app, but there’s no point of financially supporting the growth of an organisation that vehemently rejects growth, I was throwing my money away.
I went from having 10 contacts on Signal down to just one after the SMS purge. I want to use this app but it’s pointless. Nobody wants to use an app that nobody uses, and Signal doesn’t seem to want any users either.
Frankly, I don’t buy their excuse. If they were truly that ideologically pure about absolute privacy, they’d never have added SMS support in the first place! And they wouldn’t have tied accounts to phone numbers either!
I think the reason they ditched SMS was down to development costs. Maintaining that functionality, as well as building RCS support, is far more expensive than simply cutting the feature out and trying to salvage some “it’s about privacy!” PR. I think the same is true for WhatsApp integration.
E: I knew this would start getting heavily downvoted once the Americans started logging on. Please try to understand that WhatsApp is big in much of the world. Everybody uses it. My bank wouldn’t let me take out a mortgage without WhatsApp. That’s how ingrained it is. Being able to use Signal and still receive messages from people would go a long way in getting people to install the app.
75% of my signal contacts would delete signal and just use whatsapp if interOp happened… I’ve already slowly lost 1 or 2 contacts a year because i’m the only one they know on signal and they either gave up or forgot to reinstall when they got a new phone
Ok, that’s your guess.
90% of my contacts did leave Signal because of the SMS removal. And that’s SMS, which nobody uses.
People being able to use Signal without being cut off from the world would be massive in terms of getting people to use signal. Which like I said, would mean more Signal-to-Signal chats, which would bring more and more people to signal once they see that it’s an actual worthwhile platform.
I’m simply sharing my own experience. It’s not a “shot in the dark”
There would likely be fewer signal users because a lot of normies only installed signal because one or two of their friends convinced them to. Once they figure out that interOp exists, why would they keep using signal (where only 2 or 3 of their paranoid weirdo friends hang out) when they could just use whatsapp to talk with their signal friends?
Ive had multiple people tell me that they only keep signal around because of me… While i’m flattered, it doesnt bode well for signal.
There would be more people willing to try Signal because they would still be able to talk to people and not become a social outcast.
More people using signal would then mean more Signal-to-Signal chats.
More Signal-to-Signal chats is a good thing.
I doubt it would lead to more signal-to-signal chats. With interoperability, they would be handing off their data to Meta, at which point users will just keep using WhatsApp as most are today.
If getting away from Meta and other for-profit companies is no more, what will be the selling point of Signal?
How could it not lead to more Signal-to-Signal chats?
The biggest problem with signal is that nobody uses Signal. Everybody uses WhatsApp.
If you make it so people can switch to signal without it completely cutting you off from the world, then more people will use it, which will lead to more Signal-to-Signal chats, which will lead to signal becoming widespread enough that people shift from WhatsApp.
People that do use signal value privacy or just want to get away from predatory companies
Once interoperability breaks this, what’s going to be the reason for people to use it?
There’s a good chance Signal will have even less users than it does today if that happens, because the few users who care will leave.
and there needs to be a reason for people to switch; what’s that then?
would it, though? why would anyone move away from Whatsapp if they could talk to Signal users without switching apps?
Yes? 100% it would?
A fair amount of people don’t want to use WhatsApp, but they have no real choice because it’s practically a requirement for living in modern society.
If you make it so they can still chat to people on WhatsApp, they can go to Signal without worrying about that.
Why would anybody play games on Linux via proton if they could just stay on Windows? Because they don’t like Windows.
Like I said above, plenty of people don’t like Meta, they use WhatsApp because there’s no real choice. Offer them a choice, and more will take the plunge.
And why would anybody move to Signal if they can’t talk to anybody?
The massive drop in users after getting rid of SMS support shows that people are willing to use Signal if they can still talk to people, but aren’t willing to use it when they can’t.
why would anybody move to Signal if it’s no different in terms of privacy anymore? That’d be the consequence of interoperability.
Because more people would be on signal, which means more Signal-to-Signal chats.
As I explained in my post.
You’d have better privacy when talking Signal to Signal. Interoperability would be towards those using WhatsApp and then it’d be either using Signal to chat with them or being forced to use WhatsApp’s app.
I’m assuming they’d have two different ways to communicate instead of just switching it all to WhatsApp’s system.
Yeah I also found that decision to be really disappointing. Before you could just use Signal for all your messaging and it would smartly use its own protocol if you both had accounts. Now it’s relegated to dedicated Signal users, which yeah I’ve got like 4 contacts left.
Signal’s management is similar thing that Google did to mozilla.
They are there to keep freedom enjoyers occupied and feeling like we are sticking to daddy and owner class but in reality is a psyop. As long as edge lord are busy jerking them selves off, it is working.
Current signal management is there to ensure that signal never goes mainstream.
Obviously still use them as that’s they the best current offering once balanced for ease of recruitment.
We need something better though and I am always on look out.
Matrix and SimpleX are on my radar but let’s what market decides.