1---
 2template:
 3url: whatsapp
 4title: What's next after WhatsApp?
 5subtitle: Let's not act surprised here, this was bound to happen
 6date: 2021-01-08
 7---
 8
 9**Update 2021-01-17**: I'm now using Signal. It's fine for now, but [we
10can do better](/blog/signal).
11
12Ever since Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19bn, it was blatantly
13obvious that they wanted in on the massive userbase, and consequently,
14the data they could collect. The acquisition wasn't all too bad at
15first, I'll admit -- they added in full E2EE via the Signal Protocol,
16their privacy policy wasn't _all too bad_, at least for a Facebook
17product. While I obviously didn't enjoy using it -- being the only
18non-free app on my phone -- I could still put up with it, considering
19how ubiquitous it is here in India.
20
21That will no longer be the case, however. With the new [privacy
22policy](https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy) introduced by
23WhatsApp, the below data will be collected and shared with Facebook and
24its associated companies (quoting from the privacy policy):
25
26> - Account Information. Your phone number, profile name and photo, online
27>   status and status message, last seen status, and receipts may be
28>   available to anyone who uses our Services, although you can configure
29>   your Services settings to manage certain information available to
30>   other users.
31> - Your Contacts and Others. Users with whom you communicate may store or
32>   reshare your information (including your phone number or messages) with
33>   others on and off our Services. You can use your Services settings and
34>   the block feature in our Services to manage the users of our Services
35>   with whom you communicate and certain information you share.
36
37And if you don't consent to these -- i.e., you don't click on "Agree" on
38the pop-up about the new terms, you can no longer use WhatsApp.
39Naturally, I didn't.
40
41Now, it's fairly common knowledge that the entirety of India revolves
42around WhatsApp. _Everything_ happens over WhatsApp. Invoices, shopping,
43general logistics and operations, and in my case -- university
44communications. I'd even declare WhatsApp as "critical infrastructure",
45like power and water; without which the country cannot function. That's
46a scary thought in itself -- imagine an entire nation relying on
47Facebook for something so pivotal. 
48
49So what are my options? I can either switch to a new messaging app, or
50ditch instant messaging altogether.  Let's explore these.
51
52There are some neat potential alternatives to WhatsApp, the most popular
53one being Signal. While I think Signal is technically sound, I'm
54skeptical about using it primarily due to its centralized nature, hosted
55in the US. Moxie is openly against federation/decentralization.[^1]
56
57[^1]: https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/
58
59And then there's [Session](https://getsession.org), a fork of Signal
60that aims to be completely decentralized. It uses [onion
61routing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_routing), similar to Tor.
62It _does_ involve some blockshit, but the actual messaging is all done
63over onion routing (they call it "onion requests"). From about 5 minutes
64of usage, I can tell that the app's UI is very nicely done.  It does
65suffer from severe UX issues though -- you can't add someone from your
66address book, rather, you have to paste their Session ID (a long
67alphanumeric) to initiate a conversation. In its current state, Session
68is more "tech for tech people" than "tech for the average user".
69
70And then there's the issue of actually getting people to use an
71alternate messaging app. I know that 99% percent of the people I talk to
72on WhatsApp don't care about the new privacy policy. I also know that
73they're _not_ going to switch for just one guy (me). Further, the
74network effects are enormous. Assuming they did switch, they'd then
75have to convince all _their_ contacts to do so as well -- which isn't
76happening.
77
78Which brings me to the second option: ditching IM completely. This
79option is starting to sound a lot better than having to talk to people
80about why Facebook is bad, and why privacy matters and why they should
81quit WhatsApp -- for what will be the hundredth time. I don't see any
82immediate downsides to it. Sure, I'll miss out on some socializing but
83who am I kidding, it's all mostly smalltalk anyway.
84
85Perhaps that's what I'll end up doing -- use WhatsApp until it works,
86and uninstall it after. Matters of immediate attention can be conveyed
87over a phone call. Otherwise, an SMS/email should do.