Having returned to Goa after 32 years overseas (barring those annual visits home) where I managed pretty well in two continents without WhatsApp, it has been quite a rude shock to have to cope here with the challenge of trying to survive without WhatsApp.
WhatsApp seems to have taken complete control over almost everyone’s lives, personal and business. India is reportedly WhatsApp’s largest market in terms of number of users. Yes, it is convenient and economical to have easy access to free calls and SMS, but why are we allowing Meta Platforms (Facebook) to reign supreme in our country? Couldn’t we, one of the most technologically advanced nations have relied instead on a desi app (“Make in India”)? Like China, for instance, that uses its locally developed WeChat.
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After Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 and users of WhatsApp lost services resulting in anger vented through social media, several WhatsApp users attempted to move to other messaging services like Telegram (who reportedly gained 8 million new users) and Line (2 million).
In January 2021, when WhatsApp announced a new privacy policy that would allow WhatsApp to share data with its parent company Facebook Inc., forcing users to accept it or lose access by February 8, 2021, its users began looking at other options. WhatsApp then amended its policy to extend the deadline and render such acceptance non-mandatory. In October 2021, an outage experienced by Facebook also affected WhatsApp, reportedly resulting in registration spikes for free messaging apps like Telegram and Signal.
The founders of WhatsApp, viz Brian Acton and Jan Koum, left WhatsApp in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Acton left to start an independent nonprofit – Signal Foundation – that developed Signal, a competitor to WhatsApp. Here, unfortunately, some of us are being dragged, kicking and screaming, into downloading and communicating almost exclusively via WhatsApp, by various government entities, public utility offices, and private entities in India, not to mention our own service contacts, friends and relatives. Why specifically WhatsApp, when we have so many options and each of us has our own preferences?
My personal preference is Signal; others may prefer Telegram, etc. Phone calls and SMS may be free, but the down side with WhatsApp is over-reliance on a single app, and inability to reach most of our personal and service provider contacts via a normal phone call, SMS or email, as most today are apparently too busy all day in WhatsApp. Almost with every phone call that I make for any services required, I am told, please WhatsApp it to me, or, I will WhatsApp it to you. No, thanks. I neither use WhatsApp, nor do I ever intend to.
Mummy sees my frustration over lack of responsiveness to my SMS and email to various public utility services, individuals, etc, so, she advises me time and again to make my life easier by installing WhatsApp. She also sees my determination to try and manage somehow without it.
A former colleague advised me to get WhatsApp, so she could send her daughter’s wedding photos. I declined, so I guess I’ll never see those photos! Please, let’s stop this over-reliance on a single foreign app once and for all.
