toynbeeLast night, I suggested switching to Signal in my family group text
My friends and I would love to switch to Signal but every time we try it we just find that the app isn’t very nice to use and a lot of functionality we have come to take for granted is missing. Has it improved recently or is that still the case?
I cannot find anything lacking in the app that exists in the default texting app. If you would like to provide specific examples, I can possibly give a better answer.
All the stickers you have in WhatsApp. For almost all my friends it’s one of the main thing that keeps them from switching. I also just noticed it doesn’t have live location.
I’ve never once used WhatsApp and … Honestly don’t really know what stickers are in this context.
For location, I wrote a whole paragraph that I then realized came from a place of privilege. I will acknowledge that that’s on me.
But what are stickers?
Stickers are quite big in some countries. They are slightly bigger emojis that use gifs or pics that people themselves can make. Some of my group chats are filled with memes with my friends faces on them. We communicate a lot through these. Make up our own moods and ways to express ourselves. When a new sticker is used in another group chat we sometimes find it so hilarious that we share it in another. WhatsApp makes it very difficult to transfer stickers away. You have to do it one by one.
About your comment: thank you for teaching me.
About what it says: I don’t know how best to express my frustration, so I’m just going to say … Actually I can’t even think of a positive way to share my thoughts.
It’s cool that you’re able to put yourself out there that way. It’s very upsetting that Meta gets to decide whether or how you do so.
I share your frustration, it’s yet another trick such that WhatsApp doesn’t have to compete.
𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘Reddit, I know, but here is an easy way to transfer your stickers from Whatsapp to Signal en masse.
Thanks for sharing, the link doesn’t load though.
It works for me. Not sure why it’s not working for you.
Here’s a crude copy.
Hello, I saw a few people asking this question*, so I thought of preparing a short guide. Basically, you need two things to carry stickers; firstly, your stickers as webp files (because WhatsApp saves them in this format) and secondly, Signal’s desktop application.
I guess the easiest way to move webp’s is by using WhatsApp’s own “export” feature:
… You can send all the WhatsApp stickers to yourself or one of your chats so that you can export all your stickers effectively. To export chat in WhatsApp on phone, you need to
Step 1 Go to the chat that include all your WhatsApp stickers, it might be the one you sent all the WhatsApp stickers to.
Step 2 For iOS devices, tap the contact name of the chat, scroll down and you will see the Export Chat, click on it. For Android, click the three dots on top right corner, from the pop up asking if you like to attach media files, click Attach Media because we are exporting WhatsApp stickers which are media files.
Step 3 After the process of exporting data, you can choose which app to export to. Normally people will choose email to export. You can also choose Google Drive, or anyone you like. The chat will be exported as a zip file include a txt. file and a folder with all the media files, so it’s better that you can receive on computer.
Source: imyfone
Android users can even transfer it directly to their computers via cable, but I think this is the easiest way for IOS.
Then you could simply download your stickers and upload them to Signal database by using Signal’s desktop client:
Step 1 Open Signal Desktop and select File > Create/Upload Sticker Pack.
Step 2 Add up to 200 stickers. Drag and drop to re-order. Hover over a sticker to preview in light and dark theme.
Step 3 Select one emoji per sticker.
Step 4 Enter a Title and Author. (Optional) Select a new cover sticker. Make changes now. Stickers are not linked to the Signal Creator’s account. You cannot edit a sticker pack after uploading.
Step 5 Copy the link to share your sticker pack outside of Signal.
Step 6 Use the hashtag #makeprivacystick to help other people find the URLs for any custom sticker packs that you would like to make publicly accessible.
Step 7 Select the sticker icon in your chat and select a sticker to automatically send.
Source: Signal
And there is an unoffical site for finding or sharing stickers too: Signal Stickers
If you want to create your own stickers by Adobe Photoshop there is a psd file for this to use, just don’t forget to save your files as png, webp or apng: WhatsApp
Let me also make a warning that I haven’t seen on the internet. All of the stickers in your sticker package appear when the sticker is clicked. Keep that in mind.
I hope this was helpful.
Edit: I just saw FutureSwim’s great guide, but I think this short guide still could be useful for those who
I used a bot to transfer some in the past, it wasn’t the simplest solution but it exits. I don’t remember what it was called anymore unfortunately
Everywhere I’ve searched the solution is to transfer only one at a time.
Well, fair enough, but default texting was what we were using before so this is an upgrade.
Stickers don’t seem like something any of us need and you would have great trouble convincing me (and probably them) to use WhatsApp, so Signal works for us!
Signal is easy to use, but I think mainly that some people might say that it’s “boring”. The motif and colour is not as jazzy and lighter as WhatsApp, and people like jazzy and light colours.
EvilCartyenWhat… What sort of functionality? I struggle to think of something it lacks as a messaging app…
I can imagine live location and stickers. Like all the stickers from WhatsApp can’t be transferred.
Well, I suppose. I’ve found that my keyboard has most of that, so I don’t need it in the apps I use.
Live location is shared as needed. This means the app isn’t consciously transmitting your location, but you can send your location whenever you want by pressing the + then location. This design choice is more private.
As for the stickers, yes, your WhatsApp ones won’t transfer (unless something changed), but they have plenty premade packs to choose from and you can make your own sticker packs (super easy).
I see that, and I have signal, I just know I won’t make my friends move there unless there’s a big shock that moves everyone. I’m also not convinced signal is future proof in terms of privacy (open to your argument against, it’s just a hunch)
Let me explain the power of the stickers. We have made and shared stickers with each other for many years. These stickers are ourselves, edited memes, pictures we have created from videos. They are extremely contextual and can’t be replaced with packs. I don’t think we should underestimate the power of this. It sounds ridiculous but it’s like forcing a friend group to stop with half their inside jokes that have built up over years.
WhatsApp doesn’t own the concept of stickers. It was invented by a Japanese messaging app. I think its possible we can push for a requirement for messaging apps to sync stickers across platforms.
I’m also not convinced signal is future proof in terms of privacy (open to your argument against, it’s just a hunch)
No argument against. It’s a centralized platform, and is not immune. It’s just the best one thus far.
I left a link in another comment to a HowTo on moving all your stickers from Whatsapp to Signal. Someone had a hard time opening it, so I’ll copy it below as a crude copy/paste.
You don’t have to explain yourself. First of all, if it’s important to you, it’s important. Secondly, I completely understand your needing them, even without your explanation.
Hello, I saw a few people asking this question*, so I thought of preparing a short guide. Basically, you need two things to carry stickers; firstly, your stickers as webp files (because WhatsApp saves them in this format) and secondly, Signal’s desktop application.
I guess the easiest way to move webp’s is by using WhatsApp’s own “export” feature:
… You can send all the WhatsApp stickers to yourself or one of your chats so that you can export all your stickers effectively. To export chat in WhatsApp on phone, you need to
Step 1 Go to the chat that include all your WhatsApp stickers, it might be the one you sent all the WhatsApp stickers to.
Step 2 For iOS devices, tap the contact name of the chat, scroll down and you will see the Export Chat, click on it. For Android, click the three dots on top right corner, from the pop up asking if you like to attach media files, click Attach Media because we are exporting WhatsApp stickers which are media files.
Step 3 After the process of exporting data, you can choose which app to export to. Normally people will choose email to export. You can also choose Google Drive, or anyone you like. The chat will be exported as a zip file include a txt. file and a folder with all the media files, so it’s better that you can receive on computer.
Source: imyfone
Android users can even transfer it directly to their computers via cable, but I think this is the easiest way for IOS.
Then you could simply download your stickers and upload them to Signal database by using Signal’s desktop client:
Step 1 Open Signal Desktop and select File > Create/Upload Sticker Pack.
Step 2 Add up to 200 stickers. Drag and drop to re-order. Hover over a sticker to preview in light and dark theme.
Step 3 Select one emoji per sticker.
Step 4 Enter a Title and Author. (Optional) Select a new cover sticker. Make changes now. Stickers are not linked to the Signal Creator’s account. You cannot edit a sticker pack after uploading.
Step 5 Copy the link to share your sticker pack outside of Signal.
Step 6 Use the hashtag #makeprivacystick to help other people find the URLs for any custom sticker packs that you would like to make publicly accessible.
Step 7 Select the sticker icon in your chat and select a sticker to automatically send.
Source: Signal
And there is an unoffical site for finding or sharing stickers too: Signal Stickers
If you want to create your own stickers by Adobe Photoshop there is a psd file for this to use, just don’t forget to save your files as png, webp or apng: WhatsApp
Let me also make a warning that I haven’t seen on the internet. All of the stickers in your sticker package appear when the sticker is clicked. Keep that in mind.
I hope this was helpful.
Edit: I just saw FutureSwim’s great guide, but I think this short guide still could be useful for those who
Here’s a list I made last time I tried it. Might not all still be true!
- Signal accounts are tied to a phone number, which is dumb and limiting. You can’t contact someone by username only (or let someone contact you without giving them your phone number), nor can you have multiple phone numbers (I have a work phone and personal phone).
- Signal has no polls or pinned messages.
- No cloud chats comes with a few disadvantages e.g. no global search across all chat history.
- No cloud media storage means you only can keep as much as you can fit on your device, whereas in telegram i can still look at pictures sent to me a decade ago.
- No bot api, which most people probably don’t care about but sucks for me cos I regularly make telegram bots to improve my experience and for fun.
- Signal also has no custom themes but that’s kinda meh.
- Signal has no silent or scheduled messages, and editing/deleting a messages is time-limited (and beta).
- Pretty sure telegram has better emoji reactions and animated gifs etc though not sure.