For the past one week, there have been lots of discussions going around about WhatsApp after the company updated their policy. There have been multiple views shared on this topic. The most important thing that has been a concern here is the privacy of the users. Apart from the facts, there are also speculations and myths spreading around the users.
For someone who concerns a lot about security and privacy, then it is wise to review the new policy and make a decision. People who are socially comfortable can continue using WhatsApp even if the company tracks all the messages sent in and out. (Right now that is not the case)
I would like to say that people should read the policy clearly and analyze if the new changes work for them or not. Some people say that Facebook/WhatsApp was always collecting the user data for experiments and data research purposes. It is just now they are disclosing it to the public. In my opinion, I would suggest going to other alternatives if possible if we are not sure about what we are signing up for.
Is signal a good alternative?
Recently Elon Musk tweeted asking people to switch from WhatsApp to Signal which is yet another messaging application. There was a significant increase in the number of users after that announcement was made. In addition to that, the stock price of Signal also saw a significant increase. People have already started moving slowly to the Signal application as it has some better advantages than WhatsApp when it comes to privacy. I'm not sure if Signal would be able to be a perfect alternative for WhatApp by providing all the features that WhatsApp had.
I also tried installing Signal and I did not find it very attractive comparatively. I personally felt that there were even better options available than Signal. One thing that was a big problem for me was the data backup facility. Signal had only a local data backup storage facility. In my case over a month back my phone caught fire and I lost all the data and I was fortunate to get back all my WhatsApp data because I had a cloud backup. So, I personally don't find Signal to be amusing.
I might consider using Hike
The next application that came to my mind after this WhatsApp problem was Hike. This has been one of the good messaging applications out there. Especially for the number of stickers that has and the Emojo attractions that it has. A few years back I was using Hike regularly but when WhatsApp became popular and was widely used by everyone I had to switch back to WhatsApp.
So, Hike might be the next application I might switch to if there is a need to uninstall WhatsApp for good. There are many family groups and other dependencies on WhatsApp which I don't know how easy it would be to move to a different application.
Telegram and Discord
Without a doubt, discord has always been the most comfortable application for me. Not only because I can write discord bots but also because it has so many competitive features that no other application has. But it is really challenging to bring people to Discord. My friends and family members consider or find discord to be a techy thing and they are hesitant to use it. So, for a common user Discord may not be a comfortable thing.
Telegram is another comfortable application that people have started using. I'm not a big fan of Telegram and at the same time, one thing that I hate about Telegram is that they don't have a proper web interface. Their website sucks.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Are you planning to uninstall WhatsApp and if so what other alternatives are in your mind?
