Hi everyone,
First of all, I know WhatsApp doesn’t belong to Google so I’m technically in the wrong community.
Still I think getting rid of Facebook is part of the same movement.
I’ve been using Threema (and Signal/SMS a little bit) for years with all my close contacts, but I can’t fully get rid of WhatsApp as I’m part of some groups where I can’t convince/force everyone to move to Threema.
Because I was still on WhatsApp, a lot of people outside of the necessary groups thought it was okay to contact me on WhatsApp.
I had looked into ways of blocking everyone except these essential groups, but I couldn’t find anything on the web.
Now I think I’ve found the solution to prevent people outside of these necessary WhatsApp groups to write to me on WhatsApp. I had never heard of it before yesterday, but you can download a WhatsApp Business app which lets you send automated answers when people are writing to you.
So I basically just created an automated answer telling people that I’m using Threema/Signal/Sms and that I won’t answer on WhatsApp. Now I don’t have to write long messages telling people to please write to me on another app (and then these people keep writing on WhatsApp of course). So now it’s make the effort or leave me alone 😅
I still plan in ditching WhatsApp for good at one point, but it seems like a good temporary solution and, since I hadn’t found anyone suggesting this idea, I thought I would share it here to help people who have the same problem.
Good on you, man. The network effect is always the most insidious to beat when you want to make the step away from a big platform, and you found a way to hopefully steer the casual contacts onto other, safer platforms. I’m happy for you.
Yeah I guess « network effect » really sums it up perfectly.
It’s difficult to make people understand that it’s your right to try to get away from all these big platforms without ending just being the old grumpy guy.
Oh, I totally embraced being that grumpy weirdo who insists that what people see as some sort of benevolent, public utility… isn’t. Friends and family still ask why I have to be so critical of corporate social media; I’ll never understand why they aren’t 🤷
Oh I’m already that grumpy weirdo who’s buying Threema for everyone, but I feel like there is a limit to what I can do until I start offending people or losing important information which is more important than what I’m losing by giving some of my data to Meta.
When I suggest people leave Discord/Reddit/WhatsApp/Facebook/IG/Windows, etc. I’m absolutely lambasted and taunted in a vulgar manner for suggesting such a thing. It’s extremely depressing.
Do you suggest it in a nice and reasonable way to people that you think would appreciate your suggestion or are you the stereotypical vegan equivalent of FOSS communities?