what progress does signal need? or you mean in adaptation?
Comment on Why does most of the world use WhatsApp as their messaging app rather than RCS/SMS?
BladeFederation@piefed.social 14 hours ago
It’s not such a mystery. WhatsApp came out in 2009. RCS would not be rolled out widely on Android until 2019. RCS was not implemented properly on iOS until literally a month or so ago.
Therefore its competition has been SMS mainly, which it is directly better than in every way. SMS is not encrypted. WhatsApp is. SMS (technically MMS) heavily compresses pictures & video. SMS splits up long blocks of text into multiple texts, which may or may not come in the correct order. SMS used to be limited in cell phone plans around the time of WhatsApp’s release, and STILL is in some parts of the world. SMS requires a consistent cell signal which requires a paid monthly subscription, WhatsApp only requires internet. Sometimes it is easier to find public Wi-Fi than a good cell signal in some places, and it was a popular thing for some teenagers to get an iPod touch or parent’s old phone and only be able to use it with Wi-Fi.
People got used to it being the best for at least a decade, and don’t want to switch. Even nowadays, RCS is nearly as closed a standard as WhatsApp bring limited to an app. You have to use Google Messages or I message specifically. In Apple’s case, your messages aren’t encrypted on their servers unless you specifically request it, and they hold the keys. I suspect Google is the same. Of course, the same is true of WhatsApp and they’re ran by Meta, so it’s a lateral move at this point.
The real solution is a WhatsApp replacement like Signal.
rapchee@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
BladeFederation@piefed.social 3 hours ago
Yeah, social adoption mostly. Not needing a phone number would be cool too, but functionality & security/privacy is pretty great. The only thing that could improve it is being decentralized like Matrix, but Signal is more functional as of now so I don’t recommend Matrix as much to people. Signal takes 2 seconds to set up & is visually familiar.
LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 8 hours ago
One thing you missed… WhatsApp took off BEFORE facebook (now meta) bought it. So it had a huge network effect while it was independent.
BladeFederation@piefed.social 3 hours ago
Exactly, and they’ve been uncharacteristically quiet about it. You have to dig through settings for an option to link it to Facebook or Instagram, and I’ve never got a notification prompting me to. They’ve been hesitant to roll out enshittification too, so most people don’t see a reason to move. Which is why I still haven’t gotten rid of it.