Here in South Europe people mostly use Viber. Edit: I was very unaware about situation in Southern Europe as I’ve learned from this post… Most people in Croatia use Viber!

  • Zak@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    As an American living in Germany, I have:

    • Signal
    • Matrix
    • Discord
    • Whatsapp
    • Telegram
    • SimpleX
    • SMS via Google Voice for some very stubborn Americans

    Everyone I know in Europe uses Signal or Whatsapp, often both. Sometimes when I suggest to Americans who live in the US that they should use one of those, they counter that I should buy an iPhone and use iMessage.

      • Zak@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I’ve even seen technically-sophisticated adults exclude people from group conversations for not having iPhones. The resistance to using anything else is weird. I’m even willing to add to the above list if somebody has a different preference that isn’t the one thing not everyone can use.

      • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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        9 months ago

        With the Digital Market Act in the EU they’ll soon all be speaking to each other. Vestager is about to tear those messaging monopolies a new asshole!

        • MaggiWuerze@feddit.de
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          9 months ago

          That sounds good, until you realize that your data will then end up with Meta after you specifically left all of their services.

          • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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            9 months ago

            That’s a GDPR request away from deletion, at least in the EU (and for a while at least, the U.K.)

            • MaggiWuerze@feddit.de
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              9 months ago

              I don’t want them to have my data. It doesn’t matter how easy it is to delete them. And basically every time someone scans their contacts I might get re-added to allow this cross functionality

      • Zak@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        SimpleX is interesting. Its complete lack of server-side profiles would be promising if I had something really secret to discuss, but I don’t. It doesn’t have a way to get timely notifications without keeping the CPU awake and draining the battery, so it’s kind of a non-starter for general use.

        What features do you prefer in Telegram? Few people I know use it and I just keep it around as an alternate because why not?

          • Zak@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Signal does stay in sync between my laptop and phone, but I think if I wanted more than that it would not be easy to achieve. Message editing was added in a recent update, and it seems to be as easy to send photos via Signal as any other messaging app (I can’t remember if it was ever difficult).

            I’ve become more insistent about E2EE for anything I rely on lately because big platforms have been scanning “private” conversations for content some computer program guesses violates their policies. Someone I know recently got a suspension from Facebook (yes, they’re probably worse than other platforms) for a joke sent to a friend in chat years prior. That took it from an abstract they could to a concrete they do.

              • Zak@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                No doubt they’re the worst, but will Discord do the same thing? I wouldn’t be shocked. Will Telegram? If they get enough pressure from governments because of people talking about doing bad things over Telegram, they probably will.

                So now if I’m using anything that isn’t E2EE, I find myself thinking about whether dark humor or hypothetical self defense scenarios will get my flagged by some algorithm. People act differently when they’re being watched.

      • Asudox@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Are you using Telegram for its privacy and E2EE or just for the features. Because Telegram sure is not private nor does it have any E2EE unless you specifically select to be in a “secure chat” with someone.