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Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper

windowslatest.com

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Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper

#91

Post by calmingsolitude »

maplethorpe wrote: post #70
ZeroConcerns wrote: post #39

Well, the reason for the replacement seems pretty obvious: they're shipping new features on the web that aren't matched by the native client, and apparently that was just too hard to update for a multibillion AI-powered behemoth. So, a wrapper it is! You may not like that from a 'native look and feel' point of view, but the question 'what is a native Windows app these days anyway' is very much unanswerable, and you c…

Windows doesn't even feel like a native Windows app anymore.

This is because many of the "native" windows components like the start menu are written in react native.

Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper

#92

Post by brap »

ZeroConcerns wrote: post #39

Well, the reason for the replacement seems pretty obvious: they're shipping new features on the web that aren't matched by the native client, and apparently that was just too hard to update for a multibillion AI-powered behemoth. So, a wrapper it is! You may not like that from a 'native look and feel' point of view, but the question 'what is a native Windows app these days anyway' is very much unanswerable, and you c…

Yeah, I kinda agree with that reluctantly.

As much as I like super snappy and efficient native apps, we just gotta accept that no sane company is going to invest significant resources in something that isn’t used 99%+ of the time. WhatsApp (and the world) is almost exclusively mobile + web.

So it’s either feature lag, or something like this. And these days most users won’t even feel the 1GB waste.

I think we’re not far away from shipping native compiled to Wasm running on Electron in a Docker container inside a full blown VM with the virtualization software bundled in, all compiled once more to Wasm and running in the browser of your washing machine just to display the time. And honestly when things are cheap, who cares.

Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper

#93

Post by blitzar »

tcfhgj wrote: post #84
drivebyhooting wrote: post #73

Off topic but I hate being forced to use Facebook properties like WhatsApp. I’m forced to be in parent group chats in this accursed ecosystem and give Zuck another DAU.

Why are you forced to be in parent group chats?

Well ... when a mummy and a daddy love each other very much

Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper

#94

Post by alex1138 »

kakacik wrote: post #63

Ah yes the high quality engineering FB is famous for. Remember when their mobile app was snooping on users (probably microphone but who knows what else) some years ago so it was 'mysteriously' draining the battery when not used? Either unacceptable level of crap engineering consistently across quite a few updates from such a big wealthy company or... worse. I don't believe engineers there would be so bad consistently…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1692122

Re: Meta replaces WhatsApp for Windows with web wrapper

#97

Post by brap »

tcfhgj wrote: post #89

If companies needed to pay ressource usage of their apps, the digital world would look nothing like today

When I buy a refrigerator, if a model has insane power consumption that makes me think about my electric bill, I’d be less inclined to buy it. The refrigerator manufacturer is going to sell less. So in a way, you can say that they’re definitely paying for those wasted resources.

For software companies it’s the same, in a way. They pay whatever the consumers deem appropriate. It’s just that consumers don’t really care for the most part, so the cost is basically $0. RAM is cheap, and if a company prioritizes shipping features over optimizing RAM, that’s almost always going to be the deciding factor.

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