How I convinced >40 contacts to move to signal - The ultimate switching to Signal guide
Hey guys, I've seen a lot of people wanting to switch to Signal but unable to fully convince their friends to make the move. So, I decided to gather my experience and combine it with several other awesome posts I found on this subreddit. I made a step by step guide below how I did it. It includes general advice, but also little tips that somehow worked for me. Maybe it will help you. Enjoy!
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Step 0
I made it clear to myself that I want to make a switch to Whatsapp but not abandon it completely yet (mainly because of the group chats). Set yourself a goal. In my case, it was to make my family and my 2 most frequently used group chats to migrate to Signal. That way, I would already cover around 80% of my Whatsapp-Usage. I would advise to start off with smaller group chats (less people to convince). Then work your way up.
Step 1
I started off by posting this great post into my whatsapp story. Suck on that Zuckerboy. Personally, I left out the first slide, because I didn't fully want to commit to Signal from the start (in case no one would follow).
To top the story off, I ended it with a message saying “Whoever dm's me on Signal gets a cookie”. This led to my closest friends downloading Signal. Also, a couple people downloaded it just to make me give them a cookie, a sacrifice I was willing to make.
Just by doing this, 10 people downloaded Signal.
Step 2
Next, I dm’ed some of the guys in my friends group chat (~25 people) who knew a little IT stuff. In my experience, these are the people most willing to make the move. Try it! Personally I didn't expect it to work, luckily it did.
I also replicated 2 of the most important group chats I have on Whatsapp onto Signal.
Step 3
This Step was very easy for me, I convinced my family to join Signal. They all agreed, and even said they would try to convince their friends, too.
Step 4
Now it was time to take it a Step further (pun intended). I made this my Profile Pic, to make people even more aware. Also, I started messaging friends who I thought would be willing to change. Some did it right away, some needed more convincing. I recommend reading this AMA to be prepared for the questions (I might make a Signal FAQ Thread which will be linked here in the future). Also, this post is awesome, just like this one! My Signal contact numbers started going up even more.
Step 5
I convinced my second friends group chat (~8 people) to join me on Signal. At that time, we were all in a Video call, so it was pretty easy because I could tell them why it made sense. They didn't need much convincing, and I had my answers ready from the AMA (link above).
Step 6
It kind of escalated at this point. Some friends, who I´ve already convinced to join Signal (the dudes from Step 2), started messaging in our friends group chat telling everyone to make the switch to Signal (awesome!!!). However, now people started getting negative about Signal, and argued that everyone gathers your data and you can't do anything about it. Still, even more people (after me dm’ing them) started downloading Signal. At this point, more than half of the people in my big friends group chat migrated to Signal.
I wrote this message into the new Signal group:
I'll tell you the plan:
“Insert group chat name” will almost only be written here, not on Whatsapp.
In your private chats, you should also write with people on Signal (this will be difficult at the beginning, but try it, trust me) On whatsapp you only message the people who didn't change (yet).
Step 7
Make people want to change! What is the benefit for the people to change to Signal even though they don't care about privacy (which they should!) ? In my case, I sometimes edit little videos of people in our group, and they are pretty popular in our group chat. I told the people in the Signal group that I will now only post these Videos on Signal. This convinced several more people who didn't want to change yet to at least download Signal (fear of missing out).
Step 8
I am counting on the “fear of missing out” to make the rest of my friends make the change to Signal. Is that kind of evil? Yes. But it works, okay?
I am also thinking about using an answer bot on whatsapp to make people message me on Signal.
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I really hope this guide will help you! If you have any questions or recommendations please comment below, I will update this post in the future.
Also, Englisch isn't my first language, so don't be too harsh on me please:)