Signal on the other hand doesn't even attempt any of that: it solves messaging with no perspective on third-party service integration.
I just want a solid texting platform, that's it. So far I've been happy, even with a few unnecessary updates like stickers (?!) and disappearing messages (ugh).
Most people want features, convenience,… real stuff that feels like feature, instead of abstract concepts.
People have a strong desire to imitate and one-up others in their social group.
If you build a feature that even 1% of users self-start to use, then the social network can snow ball that with the right mechanics. And these feature need only be used by 20-30% of users for it to be considered a success. Every user is not expected to use all features.
I'm pretty bearish on Signal for this reason. (even though I use it personally)
The playbook for unlocking adoption would be via a 'minority rule' where Signal users refuse to talk to people on WA, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
What would you think?
That somebody certainly values the choice of platform higher than your convenience to chat with him or her.
Constant growth and expansion isn't always a good thing and IMO it applies here.
Because ideally one doesn't want to be forced to donate data to Facebook because of WhatsApps network effect?
But Whatsapp got where it is through 1 simple feature: it discovered other whatsapp users through your phone book so that made it easy to start using it. Install the app, and others would find you. That feature has since been copied by world + dog. Telegram, Signal, etc. do the same. Now that both are getting to the hundreds of millions of users (telegram got there ages ago), that safe moat that whatsapp enjoyed is not so safe anymore. I know non technical users that are very eager to escape Facebook's clutches that already deleted their facebook profiles and installed alternative chat clients. Moving over is easier than ever.
Anyway, I'm old enough to remember reluctantly joining the msn network because a lot of people I knew started using that. ICQ, AOL, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, etc. all used to be popular and now are pretty much gone. Whatsapp can easily join those ranks. There's nothing inevitable about its perpetual monopoly on communication. Nothing whatsoever.
If anything, Facebook seems in a hurry to blow its feet off with misguided/dubious decisions on privacy, user hostile actions, and increasing likelihood of having to deal with anti trust legislation in multiple of its markets. It's not helping their case. Every time they are in the news it seems to have a negative tone and some of their users act on it. Facebook is being arrogant.
Signal is a breath of fresh air in this space. Structured as a foundation, OSS client and server (unlike most other things out there). Apparently, Elon Musk recommending it the other day caused a nice influx of users.