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Steps, I've taken in order. 0. Removing myself from all active WhatsApp groups. 1. Setting the WhatsApp status to 'Message me on Signal or Email me' and not r

Steps, I've taken in order. 0. Removing myself from all active WhatsApp groups. 1. Setting the WhatsApp status to 'Message me on Signal or Email me' and not responding to non-important messages till they message on Signal or Email me. 2. When someone asks if we can continue our conversation on WhatsApp, politely informing them that I don't use WhatsApp and asking them to message on Signal. 3. Setting a Tasker auto reply for WhatsApp, informing the sender that I'm not available on WhatsApp and they have to message me on Signal or Email me. 3.a. Updated the reply message with 'My WhatsApp account will be deleted on Feb 8 for not accepting new T&C' and has set the status as such too. 4.Setting Signal as the default SMS client (Can invite people easily via SMS, perhaps added protection against SMS exploits).

millibar 6y ago
I like this. Didn't realise it was possible to set up auto responders on WhatsApp via Tasker. Thanks for this :-)
- superkitty 6y ago
  Interesting..What is Tasker? Do I need to download and configure it on the phone device?
  - ksd482 6y ago
    Pretty sure nothing like this exists in ios. Apple won’t allow it so it must be an android app. Edit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=en_US&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.... So Android has this app and it allows your to automate sms among other things.
selfhoster11 6y ago
Uprooting and going away with no warning, and then refusing to communicate unless it's not from an old platform sounds is a perfect recipe for being seen as awfully arrogant. The issue here is that it's a sudden approach. Humans are creatures of habit, and shifting interpersonal relationships slowly matters. This is not an API migration to a new provider where you push a commit or two and it's done. If you explain why, then the other person may even sympathise. If you don't, you will be seen as unreasonable and puritanical.
- boogies 6y ago
  To me it seems to be being somewhat intolerant. Which is a powerful way for minorities to effect change. https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15#.z5ry4bucq https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    The crucial part of that whole post is this caveat: >Second, the cost structure matters quite a bit. It happens in our first example that making lemonade compliant with Kosher laws doesn’t change the price by much, not enough to justify inventories. Might makes right. Being intolerant AND either needing little economic/physical power, or bringing with you significant economic/physical power is what effects change. Which is the problem with convincing people to switch apps. Either you are important enough to the person that needs to switch apps, or switching the app is so low cost that the person that needs to switch doesn't care. Unfortunately, the switching costs is usually too high for most people's tastes.
    - boogies 6y ago
      > Either you are important enough to the person that needs to switch apps, or switching the app is so low cost that the person that needs to switch doesn't care. Unfortunately, the switching costs is usually too high for most people's tastes. Or a mixture. In the case of eg. Matrix or IRC, the cost can be tapping a link and typing a couple things into the browser. That’s probably not low enough for most people to do for everyone they’re in any group chat with, but I think it’s reasonable to do for a family member (my immediate and extended family were willing to do that with Jitsi Meet for me), and most people have a few family members, including enough techy people to make a difference and plant seeds for some change.
- Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
  Hence I included 'Politely', I should have also included I've been doing this for ~ 2 years. My primary mode of communication is email, 100% for professional communication. Yes, there are people who are offended when I impose such communication criteria and I've lost business opportunities. But thoughtful communications due to non-real-time nature of email has qualitatively increased and not having to touch the phone often has resulted in better physical and mental health(the whole reason for me making these major changes in first place)[1]. [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25619584 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25619584 (Related comment on another thread with more details and a good counter opinion).
tkinom 6y ago
Do we need a webbrowser base proxy for WhatsApp to Signal (and other chat platforms)? Run it on webbrowser at home / cloud instance and proxy msgs but drop all FB trackings? Any pro/con to this approach?
- Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
  If you are ready to put in a separate instance to handle WhatsApp, then a separate mobile with Tasker to forward the WhatsApp message to email or other client is the easiest thing to do. If not separate hardware, Android VM or Anbox would theoretically work but would be of more hassle considering WhatsApp actively detects 3rd party ROMS and android VMs/Anbox are not generally stable.
domano 6y ago
Back in the day Signal (i think it was named differently too back then) could encrypt SMS. After they removed it due to lack of active users i gave them a bad rating on the play store only to return because i dropped my mistrust of them as a middleman.
mister_hn 6y ago
I would be careful with 4a. Setting it as default SMS client prevents to get 2FA tokens from applications like Amazon, Dropbox, Paypal, or at least, they come with a huge delay.
- Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
  How come? SMS client functions independent of the GSM stack, I haven't faced any issues due to Signal being the SMS client for several years now.
  - mister_hn 6y ago
    As I switched back to the default SMS app, "magically" all the 2FA tokens are delivered in less than 10 seconds.

millibar 6y ago

I like this. Didn't realise it was possible to set up auto responders on WhatsApp via Tasker. Thanks for this :-)

superkitty 6y ago
Interesting..What is Tasker? Do I need to download and configure it on the phone device?
- ksd482 6y ago
  Pretty sure nothing like this exists in ios. Apple won’t allow it so it must be an android app. Edit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=en_US&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.... So Android has this app and it allows your to automate sms among other things.

selfhoster11 6y ago

Uprooting and going away with no warning, and then refusing to communicate unless it's not from an old platform sounds is a perfect recipe for being seen as awfully arrogant. The issue here is that it's a sudden approach. Humans are creatures of habit, and shifting interpersonal relationships slowly matters. This is not an API migration to a new provider where you push a commit or two and it's done. If you explain why, then the other person may even sympathise. If you don't, you will be seen as unreasonable and puritanical.

boogies 6y ago
To me it seems to be being somewhat intolerant. Which is a powerful way for minorities to effect change. https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15#.z5ry4bucq https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  The crucial part of that whole post is this caveat: >Second, the cost structure matters quite a bit. It happens in our first example that making lemonade compliant with Kosher laws doesn’t change the price by much, not enough to justify inventories. Might makes right. Being intolerant AND either needing little economic/physical power, or bringing with you significant economic/physical power is what effects change. Which is the problem with convincing people to switch apps. Either you are important enough to the person that needs to switch apps, or switching the app is so low cost that the person that needs to switch doesn't care. Unfortunately, the switching costs is usually too high for most people's tastes.
  - boogies 6y ago
    > Either you are important enough to the person that needs to switch apps, or switching the app is so low cost that the person that needs to switch doesn't care. Unfortunately, the switching costs is usually too high for most people's tastes. Or a mixture. In the case of eg. Matrix or IRC, the cost can be tapping a link and typing a couple things into the browser. That’s probably not low enough for most people to do for everyone they’re in any group chat with, but I think it’s reasonable to do for a family member (my immediate and extended family were willing to do that with Jitsi Meet for me), and most people have a few family members, including enough techy people to make a difference and plant seeds for some change.
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
Hence I included 'Politely', I should have also included I've been doing this for ~ 2 years. My primary mode of communication is email, 100% for professional communication. Yes, there are people who are offended when I impose such communication criteria and I've lost business opportunities. But thoughtful communications due to non-real-time nature of email has qualitatively increased and not having to touch the phone often has resulted in better physical and mental health(the whole reason for me making these major changes in first place)[1]. [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25619584 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25619584 (Related comment on another thread with more details and a good counter opinion).

tkinom 6y ago

Do we need a webbrowser base proxy for WhatsApp to Signal (and other chat platforms)? Run it on webbrowser at home / cloud instance and proxy msgs but drop all FB trackings? Any pro/con to this approach?

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
If you are ready to put in a separate instance to handle WhatsApp, then a separate mobile with Tasker to forward the WhatsApp message to email or other client is the easiest thing to do. If not separate hardware, Android VM or Anbox would theoretically work but would be of more hassle considering WhatsApp actively detects 3rd party ROMS and android VMs/Anbox are not generally stable.

domano 6y ago

Back in the day Signal (i think it was named differently too back then) could encrypt SMS. After they removed it due to lack of active users i gave them a bad rating on the play store only to return because i dropped my mistrust of them as a middleman.

mister_hn 6y ago

I would be careful with 4a. Setting it as default SMS client prevents to get 2FA tokens from applications like Amazon, Dropbox, Paypal, or at least, they come with a huge delay.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
How come? SMS client functions independent of the GSM stack, I haven't faced any issues due to Signal being the SMS client for several years now.
- mister_hn 6y ago
  As I switched back to the default SMS app, "magically" all the 2FA tokens are delivered in less than 10 seconds.