I am signed up to Signal, and have been for a couple of years, but nobody uses it!
I use Telegram mostly to watch Russian posts as IG/Meta is blocked there and most folk migrated to Telegram. I do not watch any controversial or nasty stuff there.
When I go abroad ( Caucases/ Central Asia) – before I go – I make sure my Desktop laptop has WhatsApp set up and synced with my iPhone and it then works seamlessly on WiFI in hotels. No idea of the background privacy issues – but I am not important enough to worry about the finer points of that – I just need something that works and no risk of Roaming charges. In the past I got caught in Uzbekistan where my phone did not work, either BT(UK) or UZCell (Uzbekistan) did not work and I could not sync WhatsApp. I was pretty much in-communicado for the whole trip. Email in/out was fine.
I suppose it depends on what your needs are- if it is connectivity – Sync your ipHone with eat Desktop before you go and then get on with it… unless you are a security risk… in which case contact the CIA!
Lastly if you want a map utility that does not need network access- try “maps.me” – local copies of maps all over the world, and no data charges and pretty impressive levels of detail.
Hope that lot makes sense.
Sparkling Heart
- fastfins2icloud-com