Do you have any suggestions on how to do that? The People I know either think Whatsapp is gods gift to mankind and won't switch or they can't use anything else because the people they interact with think it's gods gift to mankind and won't switch. I find it pretty hard to break that cycle.
The nice thing about both whatsapp and telegram are there are no accounts, so they just need to download the app, and they'll show up in your contacts. So all you have to do is convince them to go to the app store and install the program.
From there you just send them messages on Telegram, or start group chats. You likely won't convince them to switch themselves instantly, but if they want to message you, hopefully they're more likely to check telegram, because they'll want to get a better idea of when you were last available.
It's not perfect, but it's something, and hopefully if whatsapp keeps up with their paid subscription nonsense, it will push more people away.
I don't think WhatsApp Web is a ridiculous hack. Instead I think it's quite an ingenious hack to allow you to use a computer to send and receive messages without 1) dealing with the pesky message synchronisation issues that plague iMessage, and 2) having the server store all messages. And your phone only needs to be connected to the Internet, not necessarily on the same network. Regarding the use of QR code, I think it's a clever way to authenticate too; no password to memorise, just a long random auth token.
Have you even tried Telegram on the Web? It's clearly superior and yes, WhatsApp's solution feels like a nasty hack when compared to it. Also, didn't get that mention to iMessage.
This totally speaks to me but I imagine saying to my buddies at the club: "You should use Telegram. It's free, you don't need an account, and best of all there is even a command line client.". That'll convince them right away. ;-)
Your phone does not need to be on the same network!!!!
I have my phone in front of me right now at work and I remoting into my home computer(Chrome remote desktop) and using the web client.
Do you have any suggestions on how to do that? The People I know either think Whatsapp is gods gift to mankind and won't switch or they can't use anything else because the people they interact with think it's gods gift to mankind and won't switch. I find it pretty hard to break that cycle.