The best solution for that is to filter out your real friends. Here is what I did: I changed to Threema and told everyone that if they want to talk to me, I will only be available there from now on. My real friends switched over and 1 or 2 people did not. Nobody would refuse to install 1 additional app on their phone rather than staying friends with you, if they are really your friends and understand that the decision you make is important to you.
Note on the app’s price:
- It’s 420% worth it, I am serious.
- On Google Play there is a thing called “Family Library”, so if 1 of your friends buys the app and invites 4 more friends, then the price can be split among your friends, which means 2.99 / 5 ≈ 0.60 . I think friends will survive this amount of money without having to skip food and water for a month, especially considering the huge advantages this app has over WhatsApp.
Since I already started stating my opinion, I might as well go on:
Telegram
- You are forced to provide your phone number, which is unnecessary.
- Secure conversations are optional and a hassle if you want to casually start talking or respond to someone who started talking to you in “normal” mode.
- It’s not secure.
Signal
- It’s not secure.
- Didn’t use it, because of Point 1.
Threema
- It is actually secure.
- Fully end-to-end encrypted. But 4 real, not like the others.
- If you are used to WhatsApp’s UI, then you will get used to this app within 3 minutes or less.
- All the features that WhatsApp has, but also more than that.
- OPTIONALLY provide your phone number.
- OPTIONALLY provide your e-mail address.
- OPTIONALLY save your account on the official server (fully encrypted of course) or on your own server.
