Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#61

Post by scope » Wed, May 11, 2016, 2:59 AM UTC

shoggs wrote: post #5

This just seems to be exactly like the Whatsapp Web running in the browser. I don't understand what benefit comes from the native client.

None in my [Mac]book. If you're running on OSX, open WhatsApp web on Safari, allow notification & pin the tab. Same outcome but resource efficient (compared to an Electron app).

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#62

Post by tostitos1979 » Wed, May 11, 2016, 3:00 AM UTC

Why is Facebook/WhatsApp doing the tether to the phone crap? I have a few seniors in the family who have no need of a cellphone (stay at home most of the time). Everyone else in the family uses WhatsApp and these poor people are left out of the look. It is completely stupid as far as I can see. What is the phone requirement buying them?

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#63

Post by devishard » Wed, May 11, 2016, 3:01 AM UTC

dmix wrote: post #45

alexandrerond wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telegram forever ahead...

Minus the whole end-to-end encryption thing... which is still missing in their Linux gui client.

And from all their other clients, if the industry assessments of their so-called encrypted protocol are to be believed.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#64

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 11, 2016, 3:01 AM UTC

tostitos1979 wrote: post #62

Why is Facebook/WhatsApp doing the tether to the phone crap? I have a few seniors in the family who have no need of a cellphone (stay at home most of the time). Everyone else in the family uses WhatsApp and these poor people are left out of the look. It is completely stupid as far as I can see. What is the phone requirement buying them?

[deleted]

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#65

Post by shliachtx » Wed, May 11, 2016, 3:07 AM UTC

tostitos1979 wrote: post #62

Why is Facebook/WhatsApp doing the tether to the phone crap? I have a few seniors in the family who have no need of a cellphone (stay at home most of the time). Everyone else in the family uses WhatsApp and these poor people are left out of the look. It is completely stupid as far as I can see. What is the phone requirement buying them?

Not an excuse, but: A) WhatsApp is a true messaging app. Once the messages are delivered, they are deleted from the server, so you need a primary device that stores the messages. B) It currently uses a phone number as identification, in order to create a true desktop app you would need another method (unless you use a landline or dumbphone phone number for desktop as well).

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#66

Post by andreasklinger » Wed, May 11, 2016, 3:09 AM UTC

tostitos1979 wrote: post #62

Why is Facebook/WhatsApp doing the tether to the phone crap? I have a few seniors in the family who have no need of a cellphone (stay at home most of the time). Everyone else in the family uses WhatsApp and these poor people are left out of the look. It is completely stupid as far as I can see. What is the phone requirement buying them?

i will make a wild guess and assume it has to do w/ legacy in their internal system

most likely their internal system can only think in telephone numbers or something like that

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#67

Post by spacehome » Wed, May 11, 2016, 3:11 AM UTC

leesalminen wrote: post #49

kawera wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their servers do not store unencrypted messages so they need to come from the phone.

Couldn't they store encrypted messages on their servers but not store any keys? They'd just need a mechanism to privately share they key between devices (Bluetooth pairing)?

Or every device has a different key, a la iMessage, which in my opinion is better so long as everyone has Apple devices.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#68

Post by cheez » Wed, May 11, 2016, 3:15 AM UTC

andreasklinger wrote: post #66

tostitos1979 wrote: post #62

Why is Facebook/WhatsApp doing the tether to the phone crap? I have a few seniors in the family who have no need of a cellphone (stay at home most of the time). Everyone else in the family uses WhatsApp and these poor people are left out of the look. It is completely stupid as far as I can see. What is the phone requirement buying them?

i will make a wild guess and assume it has to do w/ legacy in their internal system most likely their internal system can only think in telephone numbers or something like that

WhatsApp was bought for $19 billion. You could probably pay $1 billion and get a couple of different systems that worked well enough to replace WhatsApp.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#69

Post by kilroy123 » Wed, May 11, 2016, 3:17 AM UTC

tostitos1979 wrote: post #62

Why is Facebook/WhatsApp doing the tether to the phone crap? I have a few seniors in the family who have no need of a cellphone (stay at home most of the time). Everyone else in the family uses WhatsApp and these poor people are left out of the look. It is completely stupid as far as I can see. What is the phone requirement buying them?

I REALLY wish they would stop the tethering. It's pretty flakey a lot of the time. I use the webapp probably 80% of the time. Sometimes it just stops working, in the middle of a convo. Very frustrating.

Re: Introducing WhatsApp's Desktop App

#70

Post by tasnent » Wed, May 11, 2016, 3:22 AM UTC

jcl wrote: post #51

tim333 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend Franz ( http://meetfranz.com/ ). Does Whatsapp, works on Linux, mac, pc. Supports Slack, WeChat, HipChat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Google Hangouts, GroupMe and Skype.

...which, for what it's worth, is an Electron app. :)

Eh, I'll still take it.