I also live in a country where WhatsApp is the messaging app almost everybody uses. You won’t be able to get all of your relatives, friends and co-workers on Signal, so I’d suggest you start small - get SOME people onboard, make it very clear you’re gonna be using WhatsApp for work-related stuff only, see what happens. Besides, Signal has its quirks, too - switching phones and backing up will lead to a lot of frustration and its devs proudly state that “more options is never the answer”. It’ll sadly remain a niche app for activists and the privacy-inclined, I fear. But if you really care about privacy, you should ditch Telegram ASAP.
I’m an Eastern European leftie whose peasant ancestors (not all of them, obviously) suffered through famine, unspeakable state-sanctioned violence and extended prison terms during Stalinism and through decades of opression afterwards. The intergenerational trauma is something we’re all still struggling with. I cannot bear to hear the “Well, you need to break some eggs in order to make omelette”-type of negationist twaddle and I’m reminded daily of how the authoritarian postwar regimes have made it damn near impossible to resurrect the Left in the region. Don’t just fuck tankies, feed them rancid cum only.