Signal. I love it but can't always get people to use it
Ugh. Signal for me, as well. I love it, it was amazing, I was getting decent adoption across my friends and family... And then they removed SMS support and all that momentum got lost. It was the one thing I could leverage to get folks on board, and now it's gone. Myself, one friend, and my father still use it despite the change. But I can't get anyone to even look at it anymore.
I just wish Signal had better history and backup features.
Yea Telegram is better for some stuff like that
Signal.
A few years ago, I didn't really care about privacy and even worshipped Google and such. Now that I do care about them, I rejoined Signal (which I disliked a few years ago). I am currently waiting for the EU's DMA law to take effect (specifically the messaging app interoperability) so I can delete WhatsApp and my account for good and only use Signal to communicate with others, no matter if they're using WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. Feels good to be in the EU atm. You know how stuff is in the EU, literally everyone is using WhatsApp so you have no choice but to use WhatsApp as well. I tried to get my family and friends into Signal now, but it seems like they are like the people that say "I have nothing to hide, and I don't trust such sketchy apps.". Feels annoying but I no longer need to thanks to EU's DMA law.
The DMA won't do much for you, Signal already announced last year that they wouldn't open up for interoperability, specifically not with WhatsApp.
I don't have to use whatsapp but i do have to use viber and snapchat
Back in the days before smartphones, when people were still messaging from their PCs like dirty cavemen, I've gone trough a lot of messenging apps, but this Jabber client called AQQ was my favourite. Community created plugin-ins with extra functionalities and skins that could completely change its look, so the below are examples:
(one of the first apps I remember that embraced the dark themes, though there were all kinds of them, including light and pink...)
It supported multiple networks simultaneously, something that doesn't happen nowadays.
Like all of those apps, in the end, it lost to Facebook messages.
EDIT: only now I noticed the second part of the question - "... and rejoined". Sorry, I'm stoned. In this comment branch we name the ones we're just sorry they're gone ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Haaaa! I haven't heard about Jabber in waaay too long. Thanks for the memories.
Ah, multiple networks. I remember using Miranda IM to connect to ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Chat, AIM, Jabber, and Google Chat (when they used XMPP).
I quit whatsapp and managed to migrate all my contacts to signal, it was not easy. But then I was forced to rejoin as it was the de facto communication canal with my kid's teacher and other parents. I however used a different phone number so that my other contacts would not use it to communicate with me.
Yeah, I had to un-quit Whatsapp when my siblings-in-law moved to Argentina - because Whatsapp is the main communication platform for a lot of Argentina and that's where all the various family chats moved to once the in-laws no longer had local phone numbers or reliable SMS service.
I have a love hate relationship with Telegram. I want to like it, but I don't, so I install it every once in a while, but then delete it again.
For me it's the other way around. I don't like Telegram, but it has great UX and some important communities.
Permanently Deleted
I don't really get messaging apps. I have discord on my phone but I disabled notifications because my phone buzzes any time someone posts anything in any community I'm a part of and it was getting really annoying. I also don't use it for messaging, I just use it for the voice lobbies.
Other than that, I text exclusively.
You can adjust it in settings so it only sends you notifications when someone DMs you or specifically mentions you in can.
Snapchat.
I hate when the only way to get in touch with people is to use a shitty app like it.
Same with me.
Snapchat is so bloated. But the ability to just take easily take a video and send it is awesome. It's really a convience factor. My most used group chat is on signal, but we still use snapchat for videos with eachother
i use snapchat to bypass discord
What does "bypass discord" even mean?
Facebook Messenger Lite. My mom just won't use anything else.
Every single one I ever used. I even disabled iMessage once because I was annoyed it wasn’t syncing properly between the phone and the computer.
