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Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and Reels

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Re: Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and Reels

#281

Post by antoferra »

Oceoss wrote: post #278

"focus on blocking the app itself instead of the addictive feed" " the "healthy" and "social" features" maannn, this totally resonates with me, I totally agree and I always thought about this too social media/instagram has positive parts (connect with friends) and extremely negative parts (reels) I will try that

I actually built an app to do that for iOS. It’s called TimeCap, and it creates a web view of Instagram without reels and the explore page. Then I use Beeper for the DMs. My daily social media use is less than 20 min per day now.

Re: Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and Reels

#282

Post by vel0city »

charlie-83 wrote: post #235
sneak wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not nice to subject your friends’ private communications to ad tech surveillance. I deleted my Instagram account, now my friends and I message on other (end to end encrypted) platforms that don’t subject us to censorship and spying.

Sometimes you have to choose between not talking to someone and talking to them on such a platform. For friends, sure, just says that you want to switch to something e2e. But for people you don't really know that well it's kind of unreasonable to expect them to switch for you. LinkedIn is a good example, I don't like using the platform but I also have no interest in adding loads of random old colleages I might talk t…

> it's kind of unreasonable to expect them to switch for you

And yet they expect you to switch for them?

Re: Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and Reels

#283

Post by [deleted] »

charlie-83 wrote: post #235
sneak wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not nice to subject your friends’ private communications to ad tech surveillance. I deleted my Instagram account, now my friends and I message on other (end to end encrypted) platforms that don’t subject us to censorship and spying.

Sometimes you have to choose between not talking to someone and talking to them on such a platform. For friends, sure, just says that you want to switch to something e2e. But for people you don't really know that well it's kind of unreasonable to expect them to switch for you. LinkedIn is a good example, I don't like using the platform but I also have no interest in adding loads of random old colleages I might talk t…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and Reels

#284

Post by heresie-dabord »

diggan wrote: post #267
heresie-dabord wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sincere question: What is the reason for the popular appeal of using Instagram for messaging?

> What is the reason for the popular appeal of using Instagram for messaging? Same reason people use any social network: because your friends, family and/or people you otherwise/somehow care about are there.

Sure, but why Instagram specifically? Is this just first-mover/early-mover advantage or is IG better at something?

Re: Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and Reels

#285

Post by loloquwowndueo »

reaperducer wrote: post #268
diggan wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is the reason for the popular appeal of using Instagram for messaging? Same reason people use any social network: because your friends, family and/or people you otherwise/somehow care about are there.

Same reason people use any social network: because your friends, family and/or people you otherwise/somehow care about are there. If they're on Instagram, aren't they necessarily also on SMS, plus a billion other people? All ad-free?

If they’re on instagram they’re already in the Facebook ecosystem which means WhatsApp should not be objectionable and it covers the messaging aspect quite well.

Re: Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and Reels

#286

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

philipp-gayret wrote: post #270
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude if you only want to use insta for dms, try bleeper. I swear, most of my school friends only use / are active on insta and I never used insta because I Hated reels / insta in general (my personal opinion, never found it appealing) So my friend suggested me to use bleeper, I had heard of it ofc but I mean I always thought eh it would be too much of an hassle, then when my friend did it and said its easy so I actua…

Bleeper or Beeper ( https://www.beeper.com )? Beeper is an app like you describe, can't find Bleeper. And it's by Automattic which I think have an OK reputation for not destroying their products.

oh I meant beeper, I don't know why I said it to be bleeper. My bad, I don't really know why my brain actually just thought of bleeper instead of beeper, no reason lol..

Yeah what I mean is beeper.

Re: Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and Reels

#287

Post by inanutshellus »

cj wrote: post #264
heresie-dabord wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> potential friends Hmm. So it's the perceived "best place" as a default. Is there some "discoverability" feature as well?

He means in real life. You’re at a bar. You meet someone. They ask for your insta username to follow/message you. Making friends and meeting people is hard enough for most people. The added friction of not being reachable on the platforms people use every day for messaging isn’t ideal. It’s not ideal to say “Sorry, I’m philosophically against social media so I can’t give you a username, you’ll have to text me” - and…

group SMS/MMS really blows. It's not a surprise people look for alternatives, but man there are SO many alternatives all with their own niche.

Every time my kids start a new sport or class or group we all get a new "group text" app to download and babysit.

Very much an XKCD moment -

https://xkcd.com/927/

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