soulfirethewolf

Honestly, I couldn't get my dad to use signal. And personally I think that signal is lacking in a lot of features like a smartwatch app, ability to send messages through a voice assistant, among other things because of the fact it prioritizes security and privacy over everything else.

WhatsApp just recently got an app for Wear OS

Wrapping an internet messaging service with a text messaging system was probably one of the worst things that Apple did.

When I had switched to Android, I was hoping I'd still be able to use iMessage from my iPad occasionally, But eventually I had to give up because whenever I sent an iMessage from my email, my family would just try responding from there as well, Even when I sent a SMS message afterwards.

I managed to convince my father to download WhatsApp (since he doesn't want to use signal or telegram, and personally, I don't really like signals lack of external features like no smartwatch app or assistant integration. And I don't know why not Telegram), but the only other messaging platform my mom uses is Facebook Messenger so that kind of sucks that it's my only option for communicating outside of SMS. Can't really convince my sister to switch to something else (and she blocked me on discord for whatever reason, probably because she's 16 and going through this huge phase right now and I tend to use my sona for almost all online accounts as opposed to my real name)

My family kept complaining that by using something else beyond SMS, requiring them to check yet another messaging app, I'd be complicating their lives too far. But I'm still continuing because there is absolutely no reason for me and my family to be using SMS anymore, and I personally would like to have things like typing indicators and higher quality media back

On a side note, why is Facebook Messenger so much worse than WhatsApp despite being owned by the same company?

I wish the US could have been the same in developing on internet messaging. Instead, It's virtually impossible to find a plan that doesn't have unlimited SMS and therefore no one ever sees the antiqueness of SMS to be an issue.

Actually as of Android 12, there are APIs that allow third party app stores that aren't system apps to automatically update apps.

MacBook USB-C can be goofy. I know for restoring firmware (which Apple refers to as "reviving"), on some models, you have to use a very specific port

I remember seeing this donut passed off as misinformation online where it was allegedly being distributed for free to children at Starbucks where it had Sharia law written on it.

Absolutely wild lol

The costs of Apple subscriptions are probably part of the reason I left the iPhone ecosystem

*chromium, not Google Chrome

I just wish our meter had a P1 port like they did in some countries

This article he just goes:

We should all use PGP, SSL or equivalent tools; VPNs, Tor and/or SSH tunnelling; IPFS, or other distributed file systems — and ditch proprietary OS's in favour of Linux or truly free Android distros. We should switch to Protonmail or similar webmail; to Matrix, Signal or similar messaging. Ad-blocking, URL cleansing and third-party cookie rejection should be the default for everyone. Those tools and techniques should cease to be arcane nice-to-haves for nerds: we must get more non-technical people onboard.

All this is a moral imperative to those of us who have the ability and the means to follow this strategy and to educate others about it.

He just relies entirely on the "moral obligation" people have to use this stuff, but then doesn't give any advice on how to convince people to actually use this stuff besides "using our abilities and the means to follow the strategy and educate others about it". Because I've certainly been trying that for ages and it hasn't worked. Of course a good amount of that stuff I don't even think I would use. I find Protonmail encryption to be annoying in compatibility since you actually have to pay to get the desktop program to decrypt your email, Signal, and a lot of Matrix clients lack a lot of the nice messaging features that extend beyond the app itself (Like Google Assistant/Siri support). Also not sure if OP has seen the current state of using an adBlocker on the web. I'm not sure if everyday people would want to actually deal with that. I certainly can't get my mother to use an adblocker, and whenever I try to instate pi hole onto our network, within moments, someone complains about the internet "not working correctly".

The argument is almost always "we need to start mandating these really private things onto everyone, don't give them any choice on it" and never "how can we make good enough things people will want to use with privacy by design?". I look at apps like Nextcloud and home assistant that have created better experiences than what the market currently offers. And I wish that I could see more of the same with that with apps that are private by design, and can integrate well with just about anything.