I used to enjoy signal, but now it's mostly useless as only a handful of my contacts adopted it. I would like something that's what Signal used to be so I can message all my contacts with encrypted messaging once again.
Whatsapp makes the claim the messages/calls are end-to-end encrypted.
(But the app is also running on each end, where the unencrypted messages live. There's nothing stopping that app from sharing those messages directly with FB.)
No: while there are some notable (and maybe critical) differences surrounding how group chats are handled, by and large WhatsApp literally uses Signal's protocol.
You trust Meta? haha I don't think there's any need to spread misinformation. They're one of the worst companies on the planet. Right up there with Nestle.
Telegram - 80% this is my preferred method of communication
iMessage - 10% for friends who refuse to install telegram
Whatsapp - 5% for video calls. Surprisingly Telegram video call quality degraded over last 4-5 months for users in USA. So now I have to use facetime + whatsapp combo
Misc - 5%
Telegram is years ahead of the rest by user experience and features.
It's a network problem. People will flock to the easiest to use solutions, not the most secure. Just don't share anything sensitive over the unencrypted channels.
It doesn't matter what options are out there. People aren't going to bother.
It is the other way around - others are terrible pieces of software.
Telegram just works as it expected to. Perfect intuitive UX, flawless features execution, plenty of features both for basic and advanced hardcore users.
One of just few examples of software products that you can call great.
I downloaded Telegram and tried to use it, but it looks like it's not for SMS. More like a discord sort of thing. I'm trying to find a decent SMS app for Android. I don't think one exists anymore.
Also, as soon as I opened the app and got into it one of my contacts began messaging me. I don't know why or how they did it, but I then deleted the app.
sms is the messaging protocol typically used by phones. it's the default for text messages on android. mms is group message and rcs is another protocol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS
Looks like you still new to this new generation of messaging apps.
They are far away from oldschool SMS -> they send messages over internet but connect people based on their contact lists (phone numbers users sign up with).
Very few people using Signal, a few people on iMessage (a group chat or two, plus a few key people)
Everyone else is on WhatsApp
I also have Slack for communities, IRCCloud, Ivory for Mastodon and BlueSky.