I convinced my friends and family to ditch WhatsApp for Signal

I over the last few months I made it my mission to convince my friends and family to switch from WhatsApp to Signal, a more secure and private alternative. It wasn't an easy task, but with persistence and creativity, I succeeded in getting them to switch.

I was browsing YouTube and came across a video titled "How to convince your friends to use a private messenger". I watched the video and was inspired to take on the challenge of getting everyone I spoke to over to Signal. At that point in time, I had some people who already made the switch, but I could never convince the rest to do the same.

After watching the video, I thought I'd give the delayed response tip a try. I started to deliberately delay my responses to people on WhatsApp by 24 hours. Cheeky I know, but it proved effective for me. I was able to subtly convey that I was no longer prioritising the platform. Admittedly, this small change of delaying my responses caused frustration amongst a few people my contacts, but after explaining why I was no longer responding straight away, they understood and agreed to download Signal to reach me faster.

Changing my profile picture

When I changed my WhatsApp profile picture to an image featuring the Signal logo along with the download URL, this caught the attention of a few family members. It became a good conversation starter when they asked me what my profile picture was about. I explained what Signal was and why it was a better choice for their online privacy. I highlighted that Signal's end-to-end encryption messages were just like WhatsApp, but with the added bonus of minimal meta data collection, and the company's non-profit status - which thankfully resonated with them to make the switch and delete WhatsApp!

Fast forward to today, and I'm thrilled to report that everyone I communicate with now exclusively uses Signal. It's rewarding to know that everyone I got to switch to Signal, I've helped them take a significant step towards protecting their online privacy.

If you are trying to get friends and family switch from WhatsApp (or another messenger app), I encourage you to be patient and creative in your approach. The impossible task of getting people to switch messaging apps really isn't that impossible after all.

Feel free to use this image I created to change your profile picture on the app you want people to move away from:

Until next time...