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Signal is gradually gaining adoption in the circles that I am in. Few years ago? Unusable.

Now, many of the people I meet are fine starting a signal chat instead of SMS.

Yep. I have tons of people on signal today, and when I started it was just 1 or 2. About half came after the whatsapp exodus, and then it's been a steady trickle.

To be clear, it's still not enough to start a group chat with random people because of course that's a problem in 2022.

I mainly use only signal now. I feel very uncomfortable using other messaging platforms that keep the text sitting in a database that is either plain text or encrypted with keys they have. I mean private messaging apps, not things like twitter or HN.

It's where the people are. I don't use Facebook in the main, but there is a local neighborhood group that I feel I have to subscribe to.

You don't always get to pick the venue.

Did whatsapp change significantly?

Twitter has a "culture" in a way that whatsapp doesn't really. That's a lot more ephemeral and subject to disruption.