Not sure if any of you have encountered the same resistance to using Signal. Some of my cousins refused to use Signal because they are already using “too many chat apps” (e.g. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Telegram, Line, Snapchat, etc.). To them, Signal will just be another chat app among their numerous other chat apps. I understand that jumping between so many messaging apps imposes some kind of cognitive and maintenance burden. What are some ways to convince such people to use Signal?

  • bh11235
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    1 year ago

    I don’t personally use Signal but I do use a bunch of other tools that the average user balks at (Linux as my daily driver, vim, Libreoffice, a god damned password manager, etc…). Call me defeatist but after years of experience evangelizing to people about these sorts of tools, I’ve written it off as a lost cause. Most users only care about one thing, “what actual problem that I have does this solve?” – I’m not even talking about the other uncomfortable conversation of “if I seriously use this what new problems will it create for me?”. The median user won’t budge on account of a promised solution to a problem that’s never bothered them and they’ve never thought of until you brought it up and insisted that it was totally a big deal.

    When the normie alternative is literally on fire that’s when you get people willing to make changes. So, if you want to get a lot of people to use Signal, all you have to do is orchestrate a series of huge damaging scandals that people could totally imagine happening to them, and that were only possible because those involved were using more mainstream messaging apps. Short of that I have no idea.