Chat apps (WhatsApp, Signal etc0

CroydonDog

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hi there technologically minded Kennellers,

There seems to be a of a hullabaloo at Whatsapp's new user agreement and what i meas for datasharing with its parent co, Facebook.

There is also some big endorsements being made for an app called Signal. My Mrs uses something called Line with her friends, and I know someone else that uses something called Viber. I have two friends who work in the tech space who have said they are exiting whatsapp.

Of course there is no point using a messaging app if none of your friends are as well.

So, is the WhatsApp thing that concerning, and should we all be changing to something else?
 

CroydonDog

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I also feel sorry for Skype. Does anyone actually still use it?
 

Dawgfather

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I've started the transfer of my chats over to Signal, and have also downloaded Telegram as a backup in case Signal gets taken offline as well.

The new whatsapp privacy policy is concerning to say the least.

Also, anyone who is totally paranoid about what they send should use Wickr. It's essentially impossible for anyone to see what you've sent on the app (including law enforcement).
 

DinkumDog

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Telegram is the best of all in my view and I use it daily.

I’ve tried Signal but their development is way behind Telegram. Line isn’t in the game in terms of popularity. Viber was known to have malware problems.

The issue with WhatsApp is it will now share data with Facebook. It doesn’t matter to me as I’ve never had Facebook but many don’t like it as if they were messaging only on WhatsApp but had a Facebook account, they will now start getting friend and product recommendations as well as targeted ads based on their messaging in WhatsApp.

Many think Facebook are overstepping and hence abandoning WhatsApp. Telegram sent out a message this morning saying they’ve had 25m new users join in the last week.

It’s illogical for Facebook to keep all its products via acquisition separate, so I think there will be more integration if not full merging of Facebook / Instagram and WhatsApp / Messenger.

And yes, Microsoft paid way too much for Skype and in true MS spirit, ruined it, but they also then had a plethora of competition from other messengers and video chats like Zoom.
 

CroydonDog

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Telegram is the best of all in my view and I use it daily.

I’ve tried Signal but their development is way behind Telegram. Line isn’t in the game in terms of popularity. Viber was known to have malware problems.

The issue with WhatsApp is it will now share data with Facebook. It doesn’t matter to me as I’ve never had Facebook but many don’t like it as if they were messaging only on WhatsApp but had a Facebook account, they will now start getting friend and product recommendations as well as targeted ads based on their messaging in WhatsApp.

Many think Facebook are overstepping and hence abandoning WhatsApp. Telegram sent out a message this morning saying they’ve had 25m new users join in the last week.

It’s illogical for Facebook to keep all its products via acquisition separate, so I think there will be more integration if not full merging of Facebook / Instagram and WhatsApp / Messenger.

And yes, Microsoft paid way too much for Skype and in true MS spirit, ruined it, but they also then had a plethora of competition from other messengers and video chats like Zoom.
Re Telegram - are your friends on it as well? An app is only going to be as useful as the number of contacts you can use it with.
 

hayes

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Telegram is the best of all in my view and I use it daily.

I’ve tried Signal but their development is way behind Telegram. Line isn’t in the game in terms of popularity. Viber was known to have malware problems.

The issue with WhatsApp is it will now share data with Facebook. It doesn’t matter to me as I’ve never had Facebook but many don’t like it as if they were messaging only on WhatsApp but had a Facebook account, they will now start getting friend and product recommendations as well as targeted ads based on their messaging in WhatsApp.

Many think Facebook are overstepping and hence abandoning WhatsApp. Telegram sent out a message this morning saying they’ve had 25m new users join in the last week.

It’s illogical for Facebook to keep all its products via acquisition separate, so I think there will be more integration if not full merging of Facebook / Instagram and WhatsApp / Messenger.

And yes, Microsoft paid way too much for Skype and in true MS spirit, ruined it, but they also then had a plethora of competition from other messengers and video chats like Zoom.
Skype has actually paid off big time for microsoft it probably the most used product during the pandemic.

If you used teams for meetings is used Skype teams is just the interface.
 

DinkumDog

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Re Telegram - are your friends on it as well? An app is only going to be as useful as the number of contacts you can use it with.
Agree.
Pretty much all of them now yes.
Some I had to ‘motivate’ and others were more than happy to leave WhatsApp etc.
 

DinkumDog

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Skype has actually paid off big time for microsoft it probably the most used product during the pandemic.

If you used teams for meetings is used Skype teams is just the interface.
Yeah, the pivot to bundle with Office 365 was smart, that’s true, I was referring more to the consumer space it used to play in. Zoom is slowly eating its corporate lunch as far as I can see. 99% of my corporate video conferences are either Zoom or WebEx and stuff like Teams or GoToMeeting are just not that popular.
 

CroydonDog

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Yeah, the pivot to bundle with Office 365 was smart, that’s true, I was referring more to the consumer space it used to play in. Zoom is slowly eating its corporate lunch as far as I can see. 99% of my corporate video conferences are either Zoom or WebEx and stuff like Teams or GoToMeeting are just not that popular.
we were only using Teams for internal stuff, and everything else seemed to be on Zoom.

Mrs CD, who works for a multinational with a lot of video conferencing pre-covid, uses Webex. It seems to be popular for hose types of companies that rely on it, particularly American ones.
 

DinkumDog

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we were only using Teams for internal stuff, and everything else seemed to be on Zoom.

Mrs CD, who works for a multinational with a lot of video conferencing pre-covid, uses Webex. It seems to be popular for hose types of companies that rely on it, particularly American ones.
Yep. I work for an American company and we were WebEx but have just cut over to Zoom.

There were some early concerns about Zoom’s enterprise credentials including security but they’ve developed a lot in that area over the past year and hence increasing in popularity due to its simplicity. WebEx did a major ‘upgrade’ in 2020 that made it more complex/painful so might bite them on the bum.

We also used to use Atlassian’s corporate chat tool but cut over to Slack for similar reasons to Zoom but now Slack has been sold so not sure where it will pivot now.
 

Hacky McAxe

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Many of my friends use Telegram. I look at it occasionally and see 2,000 new messages in the groups then I think "there's no way I'm reading that"
 

DinkumDog

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Many of my friends use Telegram. I look at it occasionally and see 2,000 new messages in the groups then I think "there's no way I'm reading that"
The other cool thing about Telegram, you don't have to find people to invite them or anything.
If you give the app permission to access your contacts and/or email, it will scan names and when it makes a match it lets you know that Person X is on Telegram - you can then accept or decline to add them into your chats.
I also like how you can create folders for different users, so I have chat rooms for 'Work', 'Mates', 'Sport' etc. Keeps it clean and simple.
 

DinkumDog

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Skype has actually paid off big time for microsoft it probably the most used product during the pandemic.

If you used teams for meetings is used Skype teams is just the interface.
Funnily enough, just this week I’ve had two external companies want meetings using MS Teams. I stand corrected :-) but still find 90% are Zoom.
 

hayes

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Funnily enough, just this week I’ve had two external companies want meetings using MS Teams. I stand corrected :-) but still find 90% are Zoom.
Companies will start to used teams a lot more than zoom as there are security concerns zoom and can hack very easily from what I've been told.
 

DinkumDog

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Companies will start to used teams a lot more than zoom as there are security concerns zoom and can hack very easily from what I've been told.
That was definitely the case previously but they’ve done a lot of work on enterprise security in the past year. My company is uber careful in this area and did a six month test with Zoom before selecting it to replace WebEx. It might also come down to bundles with 365, number of employees and other factors over what is the preferred platform. They all work pretty well.
 

Mr Beast

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I only use Whatsapp and Wickr, both serve different purposes.
 
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