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Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

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Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#71

Post by overheadnoise »

tasogare wrote: post #18
ThePhysicist wrote: post #9

From my experience a lot of people will not hesitate to contact you via WhatsApp even in a professional setting if they can get hold of your phone number. After this happened several times to me I made sure to have a separate phone for business where no messengers or any "social" apps are installed. The funny side of this behavior is your client messaging you via WhatsApp but forgetting their profile picture shows th…

I’ve never understood the appeal of WhatsApp: it requires a phone number (so it’s useless or hard to setup abroad, and it’s tied to a very personal data), handle very poorly wifi connection (somehow it seems to only update when connected over 4G) and force me to download pictures and videos to see them, trashing my photo folder in the process. It also has no killer features in comparison to any existing messaging app…

I got my first smart phone around 2011.

In 2011 I was a student in university and I had friends in my circle from Erasmus so they kept their phone number from their own country. In 2011 it wasn’t even free for me to send a sms to people from my own country so I couldn’t even imagine sending sms to people internationally even though they were physically in the same city as me.

Well one day a friend told me to download WhatsApp. So I did. All it wanted me to do was verify my phone number and that’s it.

Now suddenly all of my friends with smart phones could just sms me for free. And I could sms them back too. For free.

That was the value of WhatsApp. The fact that all you needed was a phone number, which you already had saved in your phone. Now instead of opening your phones messages app, you just open whatsapp.

There was no extra step of signing up for a new account or telling people “search for my name on Facebook my profile picture is blah blah.”

Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#72

Post by WanderPanda »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #44
riantogo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can change the setting for photos not be saved to your camera roll. And in my experience whatsapp has the best connectivity.

Connectivity is what your phone has. It has nothing to do with Whatsapp. Whatsapp does not add anything to your connectivity. Perhaps you mean "server availability/reliability"? The only thing Whatsapp could do, without reaching deeply into the system, is to retry sending messages over and over, until they are sent. If other messengers give up early, then perhaps that could create a false impression of improved conne…

You can do a lot with UDP packages as Mateix is proving

https://matrix.org/blog/2019/03/12/breaking-the-100-bps-barr...

Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#73

Post by overheadnoise »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #35
maltelandwehr wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The appeal of WhatsApp was free text messages, which is still not a thing in many countries. Plus free international text messages. That’s is how they grew to a billion users without being a success in either the USA or China.

> The appeal of WhatsApp was free text messages Except that this is a feature of every messaging app. It's not really a response to >> It also has no killer features in comparison to any existing messaging app, nor the defunct MSN.

It’s really simple, really.

When WhatsApp first came around sending SMS in many places like in Europe was not free. It wasn’t free to send SMS to other people from the same country, and Europeans, especially European Students going to university will typically have friends or contacts with different country codes because they didn’t get a new SIM card for various reasons. It wasn’t free to SMS people in the same country, and it was not free to SMS people from other countries.

WhatsApp changed that, without needing you to sign up for an account somewhere and telling people “my AIM is this” or “my email is that.” You were already giving people your phone number when you met them, and WhatsApp was compatible with that. So it requires no extra steps. Just download the app and go and now you can SMS people for free using the contact information you already have, using the contact information you were most likely to give to people you just met.

That was the appeal.

Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#74

Post by raverbashing »

jeltz wrote: post #34
raverbashing wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gov IT departments are a couple of years behind (average) company IT departments which are a couple of years behind what people use.

The French government uses Matrix so it does not have to be like that. And the German military is looking into moving to Matrix too.

My statement was a bit generalizing, sure, but good to know things are moving faster in times of need.

Compare with this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21435572

Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#75

Post by planb »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #35
maltelandwehr wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The appeal of WhatsApp was free text messages, which is still not a thing in many countries. Plus free international text messages. That’s is how they grew to a billion users without being a success in either the USA or China.

> The appeal of WhatsApp was free text messages Except that this is a feature of every messaging app. It's not really a response to >> It also has no killer features in comparison to any existing messaging app, nor the defunct MSN.

> > The appeal of WhatsApp was free text messages > Except that this is a feature of every messaging app.

No it isn't. WhatsApp is a replacement for sms, while other software is (or at least was) always some kind of internet messenger that now also runs on your phone.

Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#76

Post by WanderPanda »

openplatypus wrote: post #52

Let's hope that Germany and other EU countries, including EU institutions adopt or at least consider Matrix, like French did. https://matrix.org/blog/2018/04/26/matrix-and-riot-confirmed...

And they did, what governments do, they failed...

https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/19/security-flaw-in-french-go...

Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#77

Post by iso1631 »

jacquesm wrote: post #65
kxxsc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are underestimating the degree to which requires only a phone number is a killer feature: -you download the app and can immediately get started after verifying your phone number (no ID or password required) -you don't need to share any ID or connection details other than just your phone number I spend a lot of time in India, and I think this lack of complexity has contributed significantly to its virality…

It requires a phone number and a smartphone. Not just a phone number.

900 INR

https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/Indias-cheapest-Android...

And there's a fair choice for under 1500INR

Now sure you can get a non-whatsapp phone for half that price, but it's pretty cheap

Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#78

Post by read_if_gay_ »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #64
p49k wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those were not simple, seamless, cross-platform, drop-in replacements to SMS though, which is what OP was referring to by “text messaging.” Sure, clunky systems which had no chance of mass adoption existed before.

They were if you're willing to overlook the requirement -- which WhatsApp shares -- for the other person to use the same app. (Well, protocol. Gaim handled AIM and MSN fine.) The only thing SMS offered was that the other person didn't need to be running anything. WhatsApp didn't offer that, and also didn't improve on the other messengers of the day.

I haven’t used the services you mentioned but maybe WhatsApp was easier to sign up for since you just needed a phone number?

Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#79

Post by jacquesm »

iso1631 wrote: post #77
jacquesm wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It requires a phone number and a smartphone. Not just a phone number.

900 INR https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/Indias-cheapest-Android... And there's a fair choice for under 1500INR Now sure you can get a non-whatsapp phone for half that price, but it's pretty cheap

Not having whatsapp is a feature, not a bug.

Re: Germany's data chief tells ministries WhatsApp is a no-go

#80

Post by pjc50 »

mjevans wrote: post #40
kxxsc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are underestimating the degree to which requires only a phone number is a killer feature: -you download the app and can immediately get started after verifying your phone number (no ID or password required) -you don't need to share any ID or connection details other than just your phone number I spend a lot of time in India, and I think this lack of complexity has contributed significantly to its virality…

It's amazing to consider this killer feature for _normal_ people is one of the kill-worthy features in my will never touch it category.

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