I find not having friends helps with this

Don't use it. Refuse to talk with anyone that says they want me to use it. It's been working great.

Had to install and use an anonymous number that no one has for like 2 things that I was really in need to for interacting with some businesses though and for when many people were laid off in the company and that's where I needed to find some info.

Either I use Signal only or SMS which has worked great for many years. Now with RCS it's the same as any other internet based chat even with video calls.

All my friends went cold turkey when I canceled all Facebook products two years ago. I switched to signal; some were using it already, some followed me, some use both. Screw the rest; they can use SMS, or snail mail, it turns out they were unreflective jerks to begin with. Culling is always refreshing. Admittedly, with signal being USA based, I will probably switch to a EU service soon, so the fun starts all over 🤪

It takes time. I've been "indoctinating" my family fo years. And that really just means reinforcing things we all, "regular" people included, know about big tech. Part of that meant straight up telling them I wouldn't use anything other than Signal. That worked, and a few years later I now have my mom on Linux. Sometimes doing the right thing means being stubborn and putting your foot down

Edit: my parents have both become open source evangelists, and my mom has asked me more than once the difference between Free Software and oss. My parents are also both pretty conservative so it wasn't easy to turn them. But like I said. Put your foot down. Tell them you are doing the right thing, and if it comes to it, withold tech support 😂

Its easy. I have never used WhatsApp. I refuse to install or use any meta apps.

Naomi Brockwell TV on YT or Odyssey had a video about that, forgot the name. You basically make it more painful to communicate on other platforms, reward for using your preferred platform (e.g. offer tickets to a game through preferred platform).

Don't expect people to move completely, including close friends

i patiently explain why i refuse to use it and then speak about the preferable alternatives

People from the United States can't understand how difficult is for us who live in countries where WhatsApp is used for everything, they can't understand this trend began even before Meta bought Whatsapp. In Mexico is a nightmare without WhatsApp because is the main source of communication not only for the people but for your job, delivery, assistance and more. So basically what you can do is to have a device for WhatsApp and another for your private life

I don't have Whatsapp and I will never use it. If people don't want to use Signal, Telegram, XMPP, Matrix, SimpleX, or Delta Chat, we will talk over RCS/SMS.

hard to say, I don't use WhatsApp, i deleted it when FB bought it, yes, that long ago.

I use WhatsApp without any Android rights other than foreground data usage. I still check my messages once a day, but if someone wants to reach me now, they have to use signal. It also makes it at least less bad for privacy.

My close circle of friends and family do use signal for me and I only get relevant messages every few days on WhatsApp, but getting rid of it still isn't possible in my situation.

I just don't talk to what Zuckerberg refers to as "dumb fucks"

It's seriously so self fulfilling. Markey mark made it so easy to not be a dumb fuck. It's literal actual written instructions on how to not be a dumb fuck. Millions fail the written instructions.

Got my entire family on Signal.

I use the Whatsapp Business app which allows me to be added to groups that I can’t avoid (kid’s class groups, kid’s soccer groups and my wifés family group) and to have an automatic message for people writing to me privately saying I won’t answer except if they write to me on Threema, Signal, iMessage, SMS or email.

With my own family and friends I only use Threema and Signal, even if I kind of lost or got further of some friends with my stance.

Still, I already don’t have enough time for myself, so I’m not looking to have more friends.

In my country, Whatsapp is almost everywhere, so I’m not don’t think I’ll be able to 100% leave it without sacrifizing some of my kids activities sadly..

I make like-minded friends. They don't use WhatsApp either.

I have tried not using it and it is not worth it for me. The problem was not close friends. But everyone else including all other than my direct family if i don't have WhatsApp my family just send sms and at that point I thing WhatsApp is better at least its end to end encrypted. You also exclude your self form groups that get created at clubs/association(i don't know the English word).

I decide some time ago that my person life is more important that privacy because my mental health suffered because of stressing about privacy and cutting my self socially off to some extend by not using WhatsApp.

If you use android you can install it in a privet space or a second profile so it don't run all the time in the background.

It's a series of fallbacks. Eventually you're calling each other on the POTS like a couple of cave-people.

I managed to do a surprisingly good job convincing a decent chunk of my friends to move over to signal several years back and they've mostly stayed. I still have WhatsApp but it's a much more secondary chat app for me now days.

I've only met one person who actually uses Whatsapp before and asked me to download it. My mom just asked me if I knew what it was 2 months ago because I guess it's popular on cruises. It certainly doesn't seem popular enough to have to deal with here at least

Never used it. I have app fatigue. I am forced to download so many apps, make so many accounts, I really dont want to make another one. Sucks to hear how few options some countries have. The people who matter wont care how you want to keep in touch.

Everyone I talk to regularily has Signal or Discord (yes i know I would prefer Matrix or something), basically the only reason I have WhatsApp is one or two group chats I don't read.

The few people who really care about me, agreed to contact me via SMS.
The close family even uses XMPP for me.

!demeta@programming.dev crosspost candidate =)

Not at all.

I have a non gms ROM (e/os) I have shelter (work profile jail), and WhatsApp is living in the jail and doesn't see any contacts or rest of the phone.... I split my comms to (beeper for all texts that I don't care about for privacy that I can not get away from e..g LinkedIn/WhatsApp/g messenger but I have signal/briar that actually runs on the phone (non shelter). And I refuse to add them to beeper.

conceal

I think you might've made a typo here, did you mean concede?

Yes, you give up if you want to talk to them. What else csn you do. Ten year campaign to switch everyone?

Never had WhatsApp, never will

I'm the developer of a small messenger, so take this with that in mind. The honest answer from the other side of the fence: there is no trick. A messenger only works when the other person has it, and most people won't install a second app for one contact.

What has worked for me, a little: not asking people to "switch", but to keep one conversation somewhere else. One person, one thread (a partner, a sibling, a friend you talk to daily). If that one thread is pleasant, the second one follows on its own. Asking a whole family group to move at once fails almost every time.

The other thing that helps is removing the sign-up cost entirely. My app (FlickerTalk, Android, AGPL) has no account and no phone number: you open it, show a QR code, done. Chat history stays on the phone, and if the other phone is off a mailbox holds the message end-to-end encrypted until it's picked up; we can't read it. Limits, since this is a privacy community: it's 1:1 and small circles only, no large groups; on a direct connection the other phone can see your public IP; and Google delivers the wake-up notification (not the content). Not a WhatsApp replacement for a 60-person family group. For the one person you actually want to talk to privately, it's enough.

Thats the neat part, you dont

Unlike all the apps you named it, "users" is what make it still alive to this day

You gonna have to use it with Signal if you want to use Signal that much, or just dont

I use it via Beeper On-Device

https://blog.beeper.com/2025/07/16/the-new-beeper/?ref=beeper-faq

I just don't talk to people.

I mean, I didn't watch Game of Thrones, so I'll never be a citizen of humanity. Seems like a decade and a half went by of conversations that went "So did you see Game of Thrones last night?" "No, I don't watch that show." "Oh. Bye." The sooner you realize everyone is an empty headed content consumer and there has never been anything worth saying to or hearing from any of them, the sooner you'll wonder why you even own a phone.

Thank you, that's a great take