What human being has sent an SMS message in the last decade? Obviously I’m being a bit facetious, but seriously I don’t think I’ve sent a text since mobile internet stopped being pay-per-MB and the only ones I receive are automated.
My plan still is pay per MB (well maybe per GB). So yes, of course I use SMS. Besides, what alternative is there? No one has the same apps.
Wow, surprised anywhere still offers that. Is it normal for your country or just a particularly good deal for you?
what alternative is there? No one has the same apps
Use any of the alternatives depending on who you need to message. Most of the people I want to message are on Signal and I still have WhatsApp for the rest.
My Ting plan is about $30 per month, unlimited talk and text for 2 phones and including the first block of data we usually need. Data is billed combined at something like $5 per GB, so we really prefer to stay under 1GB which is the first block.
Yes, it is a good deal. Less than half what many people pay. I could afford to buy 10GB of data for the cost difference and that is often the limit on many “unlimited” plans.
Edit: Hence we keep our data off by default. To chat, someone would need to text me to meet on an app.
Folks, it being hard to get people to switch from SMS to a more secure messaging platform is not a critique of the video.
Everyone knows its hard, its why videos like this that explain the benefits in simple terms is a useful tool.
Yeah sure, just tell that to literally everyone I know.
Oh and while you’re at it, tell them not to use any of the most popular chat apps like WhatsApp, Telegram or iMessage.
I know some have concerns about iMessage, should Apple go complete evil…but I wouldn’t say it’s in the same league as the other two.
And don’t forget that when those apps eventually die, or the company behind them goes sour, you have to switch EVERYTHING again, and hope that everyone you know does, too.
This has NEVER been an issue with SMS. So for all the bad, it does one thing really well: convenience.
As much as I’d love to move to a secure message platform, this definitely falls into the “more trouble than it’s worth” category, and that’s disappointing.
In many cases those apps are not necessarily tied to any specific service. That’s why many prefer federated FOSS services.
I mean, Signal (the messenger that Privacy Guides recommends) only works with Signal, right? And if I recall, it was difficult or not even possible to back up your texts from one device to another.
SMS, especially for anyone who isn’t tech-savvy in the least, “just works” without any setup.
How do you convince people to move away from that?
I’m not saying we shouldn’t, I’m saying it doesn’t appeal to the majority of people.
Just get them on a friends and family plan on IKmsngr.tx it’s much cheaper than any phone plan and you can get an extension for calls including video calls as well.
The website has the app, you need to sideload it but it’s very easy. The voice and video extension is on github, linked in the IK Msngr FAQ.
It’s time to add a descriptive text to video posts, here’s why:
For some concerning reason; Fwy can’t even find the YouTube version of this video without manually concatenating the video ID to the watch page of fwy’s personal invidious instance. Please, make sure the video is searchable if it’s intended to be live.
An invidious link; this one will take you to public instances so you can find one that’s up and running.
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=B9BWXvn-rB4
Fwy’s own instance, unfortunately, isn’t public; it’s only shared with fwyfwy housemates on a VPN solution.
