Does anyone here use Whatsapp? A dear friend is travelling overseas and wants to stay in touch using it. Is there anything I should be wary of? Would prefer to get some opinions before signing up.
Whatsapp is about contacts (i.e. phone contacts) rather than friends or followers. It means someone with your phone number can get access to info you set in Whatsapp unless you tweak the privacy settings. When you sign up, go to the Privacy tab and go through the “Who can see my personal info” section to make sure it suits your preferences. I don’t like to show my picture to anyone who has messaged me unless I’ve saved them as a contact, for example.
The other quirk is “auto-download” I think turned on by default, which means images etc. that get sent to you get saved to your phone. If you’re just swapping memes it can clog things up. Have a play and see what works for you.
It’s basically another Facebook Messenger app. It was its own app until 2016/2017 sometime when Facebook bought it. Your contacts will be shared with Facebook. For all of that, it’s a decent messenger.
I don’t personally use it any more because I hate all things Facebook.
I went with Telegram, which functionally at least was pretty identical to WhatsApp back when I had both apps.
Telegram has a bunch of other stuff these days (channels etc); I still only use it for chatting with family and friends. I had leverage over my family: I was in Melbourne and the single source on the Internet of grandchildren photos was Telegram. So they all signed up to it. 😃
Signal didn’t exist 10 years ago when this all happened. Encryption is nice and all, but kid photos aren’t exactly state secrets and the user experience of Telegram is 10x better than Signal.
Does anyone here use Whatsapp? A dear friend is travelling overseas and wants to stay in touch using it. Is there anything I should be wary of? Would prefer to get some opinions before signing up.
Whatsapp is about contacts (i.e. phone contacts) rather than friends or followers. It means someone with your phone number can get access to info you set in Whatsapp unless you tweak the privacy settings. When you sign up, go to the Privacy tab and go through the “Who can see my personal info” section to make sure it suits your preferences. I don’t like to show my picture to anyone who has messaged me unless I’ve saved them as a contact, for example.
The other quirk is “auto-download” I think turned on by default, which means images etc. that get sent to you get saved to your phone. If you’re just swapping memes it can clog things up. Have a play and see what works for you.
It’s basically another Facebook Messenger app. It was its own app until 2016/2017 sometime when Facebook bought it. Your contacts will be shared with Facebook. For all of that, it’s a decent messenger.
I don’t personally use it any more because I hate all things Facebook.
no fb 🚫
If only my family weren’t so attached I’d be gone from there as well lol 😭
I went with Telegram, which functionally at least was pretty identical to WhatsApp back when I had both apps.
Telegram has a bunch of other stuff these days (channels etc); I still only use it for chatting with family and friends. I had leverage over my family: I was in Melbourne and the single source on the Internet of grandchildren photos was Telegram. So they all signed up to it. 😃
Signal?
Signal didn’t exist 10 years ago when this all happened. Encryption is nice and all, but kid photos aren’t exactly state secrets and the user experience of Telegram is 10x better than Signal.
I have both apps, but nobody I know uses Signal.
Scammers who have your phone number (like those scam call thingies) will send you msgs, you can just block and report them.
Otherwise, you just add your friend by the number they will be using overseas (mobile) and you two can msg.
You add people by their phone number. Just ignore any contacts from anyone who isn’t your friend and only add them