"Sorry, I only use Signal" has worked nearly a decade for me

Take time with the people to do the boring stuff on their phone/computer:

- install [the thing]

- start it, show how it works

- search for yourself, start a convo, exchange messages

- add them to the group

IME the friction comes from having to do the first step, because it's really an annoyance no one cares about, so if you take it for yourself and do it they'll like that

I usually tell people, "It's like iMessage, but it works on iPhone and Android," or "Hey, if you download Signal we can send high-quality photos between Android and iPhone."

My (non-technical) Mom actually got my whole extended family on Signal with a group link. Since there's no real account creation it was painless. It's how we do all video calls/photo sharing/chat now.

I helped an especially non-technical user install Signal and they didn't need my help at all. They were using it in a minute - download from the app store, transcribe a code from a text message, and you're in - and it worked just like legacy text and phone.

I'd tell them that - just download it and you'll be texting me in a minute, and now nobody is tracking everyone you talk to.

I've still got Signal installed, but never use it, I only ever ended up chatting on it with a few ex-colleagues, who were fellow devs / nerds.

I have so many WhatsApp group chats (here in Australia) that are critical for me these days, and that I don't control, and that have way too many people, and way too diverse a range of people, for me to have any hope whatsoever of migrating them all to Signal. School parents group chats (one for each class that my kids are in). Strata (aka Home Owners Association) committee group chat. Scouts group chat. Various friends groups chats. Boycotting WhatsApp is not an option for me, it would literally make me unable to function in a number of my day-to-day responsibilities.

Group stories are great fun and a feature I seriously miss on Whatsapp. They work well from meme chats to family groups.

There being a killer feature that Whatsapp users are missing out on won't convince everyone but it sure makes me feel less like a nerd when encouraging the switch to Signal.

I find it quite funny that such an obvious feature likely hasn't been added to Whatsapp yet because Meta thinks Instagram is for stories. That's pure speculation on my part though

I've had good luck just asking for it, even with group chats (though admittedly my friends are mostly technical and more privacy conscious than the average person). Usually it's a switch from FB Messenger and I just say that I don't want to be locked into Facebook anymore.

Just explain what end to end encryption means. People are starting to get it and don’t want companies able to read their messages.

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