Now that Skype will shut down, i see a good chance to geht my family to switch to a better solution. In order to even have the chance to be accepted instead of just switching to teams i think it has to check the following goals:
- easy to use
- reliable
- direkt calling (called device will just ring)
- multi paltform (iOS, Android, iPad, Windws)
- group calls
- free to use (unfortunately)
I tried:
- Jami: unfortunatly was unreliable in my first two device test
- Jisti Meet: no direct calling
- Signal (already failed to convince all family members a view years back switching from Whatsapp, mabye this can be an new chance. But Videocalling infortunately is too often unreliable)
Why not Signal? it’s like WA. My family were able to accept it in the end, and it’s easier now than years ago.
Controversial take:
When Signal came up WA sucked, wasn’t secure. Nowadays they adopted the same E2EE that Signal uses and there isn’t much difference privacy-wise. Of course I still prefer not to feed the Zuckerborg, but WA objectively isn’t as bad as it was back then.
edit: apparently the E2EE does not apply to media and document attachments, and all metadata, so you might still want to consider who you entrust with that.
Controversial take
Meta still collects all the meta data it gets it’s hands on. Also WhatsApp is completely closed source and proprietary. You will never know if they properly encrypt your stuff and if the private keys really never leave your device. You still have to trust Zuckerberg that he properly protects your data … from him.
WhatsApp being not as bad as it used to be is a low bar that doesn’t really speak to any sort of reliability or trustworthiness
