Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#61

Post by stavros » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 12:47 PM UTC

Aachen wrote: post #46

stavros wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think their concern was? I can't see any other issues someone might have.

Energy usage is another. What would happen to world power consumption if 1% of WhatsApp chats would be fed to ChatGPT? A third reason besides privacy would be the purpose. Is the purpose generating automatic replies? Or automatic summaries because the recipient can't be bothered to read what I wrote? That would be a dick move and a good reason to object as well, in my opinion

> What would happen to world power consumption if 1% of WhatsApp chats would be fed to ChatGPT?

The same thing that happens now, when 100% of power consumption is fed to other purposes. What's the problem with that?

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#62

Post by charlie-83 » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 12:49 PM UTC

ideashower wrote: post #50

charlie-83 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All messages are e2e encrypted though right?

Messages are. I do not believe that metadata about the messages are, however. So they know who you're speaking to, at what frequency, and from where.

Fair enough. That's not a problem to me but I can see it being an issue for people requiring complete anonymity. Are there any alternatives to WhatsApp that would fix this problem?

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#63

Post by Mystery-Machine » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 12:54 PM UTC

Thank you! I live in Latin America and here WhatsApp group chats are through the roof. I easily receive several hundreds of messages across various group chats. It's not possible nor healthy to read every single message. It would be great if the tool could summarize all the unread messages from the given group chat. I played around a bit with the MCP server and it was having problems to even get the correct group chat. The group chat name could be stored together with the ID in SQLite and, if matched, it should immediately query for messages from that group chat, skipping the need to listing chats and trying to find the correct group chat and, worst of all, failing.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#64

Post by worldsavior » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 1:01 PM UTC

Aachen wrote: post #42

sbkg0002 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since Meta is a big AI investor, I suggest you skip WhatsApp altogether.

You think they (plan to) decrypt messages and then upload them again in plain text to a server? Since on-device processing is neither as objectionable nor could be very large I don't use WhatsApp myself because of who runs it and there are plenty of better options out there, so I certainly agree with the sentiment of steering clear, but this claim does seem pretty far out there

They don't plan it because they have no use for it. They only care about the metadata. When you talked to this person; your wife; at what time of day; was it at night; how long is the message; was there a product mentioned in the message; was the message about sports; etc.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#65

Post by cirego » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 1:05 PM UTC

tuananh wrote: post #57

echoangle wrote: post #49

As others have already said, think about what you're doing when you use this. If you connect a not-selhosted LLM to this, you're effectively uploading chat message with other people to a third-party server. The people you chat with have an expectation of privacy so this would probably be illegal in many jurisdictions.

removed. my bad.

I believe echoangle’s concern is about the security and privacy of the LLM using the data, not the MCP server itself.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#66

Post by tuananh » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 1:08 PM UTC

cirego wrote: post #65

tuananh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

removed. my bad.

I believe echoangle’s concern is about the security and privacy of the LLM using the data, not the MCP server itself.

ah right. my bad.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#67

Post by sunshine-o » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 1:10 PM UTC

By the way, I was just searching for a way not to have the WhatsApp app on my phone while limiting the risk of third party software and/or have my number banned.

Is there a way to login on WhatsApp Web on a server and then proxy or scrape the messages to send them to my phone?

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#68

Post by Explore4526 » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 1:15 PM UTC

samastur wrote: post #6

Cool work, but I'm more fascinated by your claim "99% of your life is stored in WhatsApp...". Not even remotely true for me even if it would encompass all messaging apps I use. I guess I'm just an old introvert, but it makes me wonder how life looks like for those for whom it is true.

WhatsApp is a mandatory app in India

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#69

Post by idiotsecant » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 1:19 PM UTC

echoangle wrote: post #49

As others have already said, think about what you're doing when you use this. If you connect a not-selhosted LLM to this, you're effectively uploading chat message with other people to a third-party server. The people you chat with have an expectation of privacy so this would probably be illegal in many jurisdictions.

I would argue that there is no expectation of privacy for messaging apps without end to end encryption. There is always the man in the middle listening.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#70

Post by greenavocado » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

echoangle wrote: post #49

As others have already said, think about what you're doing when you use this. If you connect a not-selhosted LLM to this, you're effectively uploading chat message with other people to a third-party server. The people you chat with have an expectation of privacy so this would probably be illegal in many jurisdictions.

> The people you chat with have an expectation of privacy so this would probably be illegal in many jurisdictions.

Name one