RIP WhatsApp

[3930dave]

The writing has been on the wall for some time. After the mangled forced update of WhatApp on my phone today, I'd had enough and removed it altogether.

Some background.....

"The New York Times:
The move, described by four people involved in the effort, requires thousands of Facebook employees to reconfigure how WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger function at their most basic levels. While all three services will continue operating as stand-alone apps, their underlying messaging infrastructure will be unified, the people said. Facebook is still in the early stages of the work and plans to complete it by the end of this year or in early 2020, they said.

Mr. Zuckerberg has also ordered all of the apps to incorporate end-to-end encryption, the people said, a significant step that protects messages from being viewed by anyone except the participants in the conversation. After the changes take effect, a Facebook user could send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, for example. Currently, that isn't possible because the apps are separate."

Zuckerberg Plans To Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger - Slashdot

If one is a fan of the Zuk's products, ignore the above PSA.

Rgds, D.

 

[Tomtint]

I deleted my FB page about 5 months ago.. don't miss it at all. ..IMO..FB is circling the drain, they are not attracting young users..and their existing base user is aging..and using it less. When it first came out, it was a nice way to say hi to old friends..once it became a litter box for commercial adds, and a political censor for the left.. it wore out its welcome with many.

 

[3930dave]

I found WhatsApp useful for videoconferencing, but there are other better alternatives.

With the possibility of some kind of govt action looming, the point has been made that this circling of the wagons (locking those applications together) is being done to make it technically more difficult to order a breakup.

Rgds, D.

 

[Jchonline]

I deleted my FB page about 5 months ago.. don't miss it at all. ..IMO..FB is circling the drain, they are not attracting young users..and their existing base user is aging..and using it less. When it first came out, it was a nice way to say hi to old friends..once it became a litter box for commercial adds, and a political censor for the left.. it wore out its welcome with many.

Why do you think they purchased Instagram and WhatsApp? The real issue is software obsolescence. It evolves so quickly, and the young are always looking for some new "thing" to talk about or use. Facebook will eventually end up like Myspace.

I have a degree in IT and I don't use any social media at all. It just isn't worth the security risk or the ire of folks I have never met. Text messages, phone calls, or a hand shake are sufficient!

 

[Wakey]

I found WhatsApp useful for videoconferencing, but there are other better alternatives.

I have an android phone, any recommendation?

 

[Tomtint]

Why do you think they purchased Instagram and WhatsApp? The real issue is software obsolescence. It evolves so quickly, and the young are always looking for some new "thing" to talk about or use. Facebook will eventually end up like Myspace.

I have a degree in IT and I don't use any social media at all. It just isn't worth the security risk or the ire of folks I have never met. Text messages, phone calls, or a hand shake are sufficient!

Agree

 

[3930dave]

I have an android phone, any recommendation?

I dropped Signal onto our Android phones a little while ago.

Signal (software) - Wikipedia

You can read the history above..... suffice to say it's lead by 2 heavy-hitters in the electronic privacy world (including the orginal founder of WhatsApp, who left FB not long ago....), and at the moment, it is independent, and not commercially indentured to anybody. :thumbsup:

Install was easy and clean. I like the performance so far, video quality is good, as is audio performance.

Signal has one small feature that I've not seen elsewhere, that I sometimes find very useful. In the Texting portion, you also have a single-button Record and Send Instantly option for a Voicemail - you can also cancel-out mid-recording if desired.

I found it to be a friendly Install (Signal) to use....... if you read up on it, there are extensive (but optional) security practices available in Signal - when I first read about it, I figured those heavy-security features would be intrusive/complex, but that's not the case at all. I've found it to be a high-performance, very secure communication platform, with a well designed User Interface.

Rgds, D.

 

[Tomtint]

The writing has been on the wall for some time. After the mangled forced update of WhatApp on my phone today, I'd had enough and removed it altogether.

Some background.....

"The New York Times:
The move, described by four people involved in the effort, requires thousands of Facebook employees to reconfigure how WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger function at their most basic levels. While all three services will continue operating as stand-alone apps, their underlying messaging infrastructure will be unified, the people said. Facebook is still in the early stages of the work and plans to complete it by the end of this year or in early 2020, they said.

Mr. Zuckerberg has also ordered all of the apps to incorporate end-to-end encryption, the people said, a significant step that protects messages from being viewed by anyone except the participants in the conversation. After the changes take effect, a Facebook user could send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, for example. Currently, that isn't possible because the apps are separate."

Zuckerberg Plans To Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger - Slashdot

If one is a fan of the Zuk's products, ignore the above PSA.

Rgds, D.

Facebook'''s Traffic Is Down Nearly 5% in Two Years | Fortune

 

[3930dave]

Facebook'''s Traffic Is Down Nearly 5% in Two Years | Fortune

Depends how you dice the #'s....

The researcher contends that many of Facebook’s users are turning to mobile apps instead of the browser to access the social network. In fact, Facebook app usage is growing and total engagement on the world’s largest social network is up.

I think what I saw of this latest WhatsApp push update indicated it was being bound much tighter into the FB world...... not happening on my watch..... or my phone

Some people have ditched FB, while others still don't care about the privacy issues.... that group may never change horses....

For those of us not willing to drink the Zuk Koolaid, and actually want to communicate with people one<->one, there are better options, like Signal.

Rgds, D.

 

[Wakey]

Thanks Dave, I'll give Signal a try.

 

[Jchonline]

IPhones do the voicemail text natively. If Signal ever gains appreciably market share, they will be bought out. For the time being it sounds like a decent option.

 

[3930dave]

IPhones do the voicemail text natively. If Signal ever gains appreciably market share, they will be bought out. For the time being it sounds like a decent option.

That's unfortunately the normal cycle...... enjoy while you can. If we have a unicorn here (Moxie is not a fan of big biz, and the original Whatsapp founder should already have enough money to last the rest of his life), then the ride may be a bit longer.

I've never drank the iKoolaid, and after using an ipad at work recently, it just reinforced my disinterest in that closed architecture.

I grok most tech just fine.... part of why these games irritate me. I used to threaten to go back to a basic flip (and may yet), but the latest non-stop rounds of nonsense have me thinking I'll have relatively more privacy using a ham FM repeater . No joke.

Google confirms it uses dummy phone numbers to record calls with local services | The Star

15 Senators Call on FCC and FTC to Investigate How AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint Sold Phone Locations to Bounty Hunters - Motherboard

Rgds, D.

 

[Jchonline]

That's unfortunately the normal cycle...... enjoy while you can. If we have a unicorn here (Moxie is not a fan of big biz, and the original Whatsapp founder should already have enough money to last the rest of his life), then the ride may be a bit longer.

I've never drank the iKoolaid, and after using an ipad at work recently, it just reinforced my disinterest in that closed architecture.

I grok most tech just fine.... part of why these games irritate me. I used to threaten to go back to a basic flip (and may yet), but the latest non-stop rounds of nonsense have me thinking I'll have relatively more privacy using a ham FM repeater . No joke.

Google confirms it uses dummy phone numbers to record calls with local services | The Star

15 Senators Call on FCC and FTC to Investigate How AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint Sold Phone Locations to Bounty Hunters - Motherboard

Rgds, D.

Google has its own share of closed architecture. Google’s iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary | Ars Technica

Google also makes its own hardware/software offerings (Google Pixel phone, etc). I also dislike the inconsistency of app development on Android. The back button is in different places, basic behaviors require learning a new apps method of presenting them. With Apple they make all of that consistent. It is boring, but consistent.

I have both iOS and Android devices and like them both for different reasons. However, dont think Apple is this closed system and Google is open.

 

[3930dave]

I have both iOS and Android devices and like them both for different reasons. However, dont think Apple is this closed system and Google is open.

No, I wouldn't call Google fully Open either. Like many things, shades of gray here..... and, there's plenty that I don't like about what G gets up to.

More accurately put, I view Android as less closed than ios. Yes, in a closed system, it's much easier to attain/maintain consistency - a key strength.

Before the last push update, I had wanted WhatsApp on that ipad at work.... no way to do that directly. (iphone yes, ipad no).

Every Linux and Windoze platform that I've installed AdBlock Plus on has had it work right out of the box, like I want/need it to. There may be work-arounds, but at the moment, I still have ads on that ipad.

So.... 2 simple examples of why I consider that ipad more Closed.....

Rgds, D,

 

[k0ua]

I deleted my FB page about 5 months ago.. don't miss it at all. ..IMO..FB is circling the drain, they are not attracting young users..and their existing base user is aging..and using it less. When it first came out, it was a nice way to say hi to old friends..once it became a litter box for commercial adds, and a political censor for the left.. it wore out its welcome with many.

Amen. I deleted mine about a year ago for the same exact reasons.