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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 2 days ago by autonomoususer@lemmy.world 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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[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 20 hours ago

I tried to get friends to use Signal. It's hard because it's a new app they e never used. One flat out refuses to use anything other than SMS and one messaging app to avoid bloat, and the others it's just hard to get buy in when you're the only person they know using it.

[-] anon5621@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

If they like use so much sms convince them to use silence so it would give SMS encryption to messages https://f-droid.org/packages/org.smssecure.smssecure/

this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025

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