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Can you please post a reddit-AMA style proof to assure users that it really is you. It is unbelievable that you weren't aware of HN and that the profile was created just a few hours ago. Thanks. :)
i have no idea what is reddit-AMA style proof is... sorry i didn't get around to making HN account before today.
Whatsapp is so damn frustrating to me and the people I talk to.
The microphone button is so finicky that I lose hours of my week to trashed messages. I don't know if it's the size of the button being so tiny that a man's thumb easily hangs over the edges, triggering the trash feature with the slightest movement, or some other strange bug. A call comes in, message trashed. An alarm, message trashed. I've literally recorded a 10 minute message and lost it, condensed it to 5 minutes and lost it, condensed it to an angry 2 minutes and lost it and then just given up...
Then there's the volume. Why do I have to crank Whatsapp up so high in my car that EVERY OTHER audio event blows my ears out?
How are these huge usability problems not being fixed with the amount of money that was thrown at it?
I can't find anyone or anywhere to complain about it either. The Contact Us area of the application REQUIRES you to give them your full contact list before you proceed.
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You mentioned in one of your talks about a small loophole in the early days of the App Store where apps were showcased under "new and noteworthy" if one made an update to the app - Q1: is this true? And Q2: when you say "took off on its own" does it mean folks learned about WhatsApp only from word of mouth with no effort from the WhatsApp team? Q3: what impact did charging for the app have on the company finances and…
1. yes, i believe so - of course it was eight years ago.. i think if you submitted new version of the app and changed the name, it would show up under "new" category 2. yes, word of mouth only... but we helped people spread the word by putting "Tell A Friend" functionality into the app :) 3. it helped us pay for office space, salaries and server bills without eating much into VC or angel money we had in our bank acco…
I honestly don't even want to watch this, out of spite. Whatsapp is so damn frustrating to me and the people I talk to. The microphone button is so finicky that I lose hours of my week to trashed messages. I don't know if it's the size of the button being so tiny that a man's thumb easily hangs over the edges, triggering the trash feature with the slightest movement, or some other strange bug. A call comes in, messag…
Please fix. These are minor changes.
Can you please post a reddit-AMA style proof to assure users that it really is you. It is unbelievable that you weren't aware of HN and that the profile was created just a few hours ago. Thanks. :)
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BBM had huge potential as well in the early days. Blackberry practically invented this "SMS-alternative" type of chat application. It was being quickly adopted in emerging markets as a replacement for SMS, which was much more expensive. However, Blackberry screwed that up by keeping BBM Blackberry-only for so long. The BBM should have been available on the iOS and Android stores (and probably on Symbian/Java) since 2…
yes of course - because having a random 8 digit hex pin was so user friendly, easy and intuitive :)
That's why in 2013, BBM was released on ios and later android. but by then it was too late, they were losing a lot of marketshare.
Jan is the entrepreneur that I admire the most. Here are some of the reasons: 1. He was so focused on building the product that he just ignored all emails from carriers and investors. Sequoia partners had to hunt down Whatsapp's office just to get in touch with him. Most entrepreneurs would be easily distracted by investor attention. 2. He didn't care about the press (despite a ton of inbound interest). I don't know…
> 3. Very balanced outlook towards global users - even though SV (or even US) didn't recognize their traction, he always understood that there is a big world out there where not everyone has an iPhone. This impressed me the most, because at the time whatsapp went mainstream globally - it was available on all platforms including the old BlackberryOS, BlackBerry 10, Symbian (S60), Windows Phone and even some candy phon…
I've no idea if true or not, my memory unreliably tells me I found some kind of confirmation, but common sense tells me not to rely on such recollections.. but I often pondered if such channels exist in the GSM spec, back in the day, when I was shocked to receive a sms, the service having been given free to early subscribers in the UK, I literally had the first (edit)model Nokia GSM handset, and was most sceptical :D
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for the cynics who will invariably pile on with "survivorship bias," would you mind sharing what choices you consciously made that were different from other messaging apps?
there were a few and i probably won't be able to list all of them, but here are some: - build for multiple platforms. most of our competitors did iOS and Android only and called it a day. - keep the app simple. most of our competitors complicated not only the sign up flow but also the in-app experience - look native. our thinking was that hundreds of millions of people use native apps thousands times a day and if we…
Do you feel that it helped to have started there? Do you feel at this point that you can build a successful company "where you are," given modern tools (AWS, etc.), or does it still help to do your time in SV first?