@Maggie8K Aaw that triggers great memories for me too! The good old days of the 80s and early 90s, travelling around with my trusty Lonely Planet guide, hitching up with other travellers met in youth hostels, sharing travel stories & tips, long road trips on buses, trains or car shares, no internet or mobile phones, looking forward to picking up snailmail at the next Poste Restante!
How on earth did we manage without all the tech of today?!!
But manage we did and what adventures we had!!
Aah the good old days!
Back then who’d have thought that one day you’d be able to just lie in bed, smartphone in hand, and book a flight, text a friend, watch a Youtube video, transfer money internationally in seconds, write an email, make a video call, look at photos, open documents, order products online from all over the world to anywhere in the world… Etc etc… all using one little hand held device!! Amazing and quite miraculous!
I remember, back in the 70s & 80s, my (very forward thinking) father telling me that one day you’d be able to make video calls on your wristwatch (as he called them back then!) It sounded so farfetched & hard to believe! My darling dad died in 2005 so never saw his prediction actually come true! 
Love your post, @lokstar. So many memories.
Your father was a forward thinker.
Sure, those alternatives exist but she doesn’t want to add those apps just to connect with her dad when I’m always available.
Have him look at Signal. Someone else suggested it and I just downloaded it and tested it. It seems to work well, has better security than WhatsApp, and doesn’t require you to connect to your contacts.
And Signal! Which functions very similarly to WhatsApp with better security and doesn’t require access to your contacts.
I suggested Signal. Many folks in tech use it for those reasons.
At one point, I started an investigative reporting team and those folks used it, because it’s more secure than other apps. We needed to protect against people hacking into what we were working on with sources. But nothing is entirely secure and people should be aware of that with any communications platforms.
@Maggie8K I used Botim while in Dubai.
@kimshady Because someone asked you to or otherwise?
Since there are more folks on WhatsApp and that’s what the tour folks and driver I hired used, I went with that. I’m agnostic.
They had blocked what’s app in the Emirates @Maggie8K - not sure if it’s changed recently. #uaechallenges
Good to know, @Cuttlefish. I was there at the end of 2022.
Oh, I just googled and it says you can still use it to msg, but not do video or call. I was just using it for the tour folks and driver, so I never called via WA. I had a local SIM card for data and calls. (I carry two phones, because I need authentication functionality for telecommuting.)