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Why is it so hard to get friends to leave Discord, WhatsApp, Instagram, and others? Anyone else feel this? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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I’ve been seeing this more and more in comments, and it’s got me wondering just how big this issue really is. A lot of people feel trapped in apps like Discord, WhatsApp, and Instagram, but can’t get their friends to leave.

It’s really annoying when you suggest trying something new, whether it’s a different app or just not using these platforms so much but sometimes it can feel like no one wants to go first.

So I’m curious, what apps do you feel most trapped in? And have you tried convincing your friends to leave them? What happened? Is it an issue for you, or are you just going along with the flow?

Looking forward to hearing if this is as common as it feels!

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[–] 6 points 1 year ago (8 children)

For me it's Discord, I can't find a good enough self hosted alternative with all the features me and my friends want.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    This is a big one. I had no problem ditching the rest and I've been able to slowly get friends and family onto signal. But discord despite its incessant enshittification just has no real alternative. Matrix is the closest thing and it's a clunky, confusing mess.

    Plus even if I were to switch, what's the point if the communities I use discord for aren't moving too? They really built a monopoly out of this dogshit app and it's going to be ridiculously difficult to get people to switch to anything else. Hell, look at Twitter - people clung to that shithole for far too long (they still do tbh), and didn't jump ship until bsky came around, which is barely any better. Meanwhile, Mastodon's literally been there the entire time but nope.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Matrix is the logical successor to discord.

    We should focus on improving it instead of making something new from scratch.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Only if the people behind Matrix just copied the Discord UX exactly instead of making weird choices nobody can understand

    We need a “server” with multiple channels that are easily discoverable for everyone on said server. We also need to be able to gate channels behind roles.

    Can it do that?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Pretty sure you could do all that on matrix in 2023, maybe not the gated roles, but you can just make a subgroupchat

    you can even this on telegram to an extent

    discord delenda est

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Just missing like 90% of the features and UI

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I wouldn't say Matrix needs 1:1 feature parity with Discord in order to be a viable alternative for a lot of users.

    My social circle doesn't typically use the entire suite of features in Discord. Text chat, voice chat, video calling, file sharing, and screen sharing cover our usual needs.

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