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> I’m just observing reality.

Well me too and... Even before this recent WhatsApp fiasco I noticed that some parents are using Telegram at the school where my kid goes. Out of 24 kids in my kid's class, there are 3 families which I know for sure have Telegram (I don't have contact with all of the parents so I don't know).

And I think Telegram is reporting more than, what, 500M users by now? If it's true, it's definitely a sizeable dent in WhatsApp's market share. It may not be 2B+, but 500M is quite something.

The thing is: users are not loyal at all. Telegram or Signal or others are a click or two away: it's neither hard to find/install nor to use.

I really wouldn't be surprised to see a bigger shift some day once more people begin to realize that "WhatsApp = FB" (many don't like FB but have no idea WhatsApp belongs to FB).




> The thing is: users are not loyal at all. Telegram or Signal or others are a click or two away: it's neither hard to find/install nor to use.

Users aren't loyal, true, and installing another app is easy, but getting your friends and family to switch often is not.


the ToS hubbub going through mainstream media has made it much easier to get people to switch though.

In my case, I was one of those people really not wanting to use WhatsApp but being forced by group pressure.

But now that I can even just vaguely reference the ToS issue with WhatsApp, I find people are willing to at least try and install Signal.


There's quite likely a lot of overlap. For example I'm using all of them (Signal, Telegram, whatsApp, iMessage and whatnot).


> many don't like FB but have no idea WhatsApp belongs to FB

When you start WhatsApp the splash screen says "WhatsApp from Facebook" so I would be surprised if people really didn't know that the two companies were related. Instagram is the same, it says "Instagram from Facebook".

WhatsApp: https://i.imgur.com/JS20lGJ.png

Instagram: https://i.imgur.com/1SWybdu.png




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