Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

birdy.chat

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 517 posts

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#21

Post by serial_dev »

zer0zzz wrote: post #4
1a527dd5 wrote: post #3

I wonder if this will force Apple to open up iMessage.

Last I heard iMessage was not deemed an eu “gatekeeper” so no

I don’t know anyone in Europe who uses iMessage, everyone is on WhatsApp though.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#23

Post by otterley »

B1FIDO wrote: post #6

I must protest that this kind of announcement belies the stupidity of proprietary chat protocols. Remember when IRC was king, and basically, anyone could write an IRC client? Anyone could write a MUD client, or even a Telnet client. Those are open protocols. When Pidgin came out, it was like a breath of fresh air for me. In the early 90s I had multiple IM accounts (starting with ICQ!) and unifying them, especially un…

We had XMPP, and even Google Chat used that in the early days.

It's not like users haven't had choice over the decades to choose software that runs on open standards. It's that the features and UX provided by closed software has been more compelling to them. Open standards and interoperability generally aren't features most people value when it comes to chat. They care mostly about what their friends and family are using.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#24

Post by snowmobile »

altern8 wrote: post #7

This is pretty amazing, but I wish they picked a better name for it. I have a feeling that a good amount of people will dismiss it just because of the name.

What's wrong with the name? Some cultural reference I'm not getting?

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#25

Post by Nextgrid »

PEe9bB7D wrote: post #16
B1FIDO wrote: post #6

I must protest that this kind of announcement belies the stupidity of proprietary chat protocols. Remember when IRC was king, and basically, anyone could write an IRC client? Anyone could write a MUD client, or even a Telnet client. Those are open protocols. When Pidgin came out, it was like a breath of fresh air for me. In the early 90s I had multiple IM accounts (starting with ICQ!) and unifying them, especially un…

Matrix is getting traction though...

Matrix is a lost cause. The protocol is too complex/ambitious and the company behind it doesn't have the resources to actually produce a good server nor client implementation. I was hopeful for it at first but at some point you have to be realistic.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#27

Post by john61 »

B1FIDO wrote: post #6

I must protest that this kind of announcement belies the stupidity of proprietary chat protocols. Remember when IRC was king, and basically, anyone could write an IRC client? Anyone could write a MUD client, or even a Telnet client. Those are open protocols. When Pidgin came out, it was like a breath of fresh air for me. In the early 90s I had multiple IM accounts (starting with ICQ!) and unifying them, especially un…

WhatsApp uses the open Signal Protocol.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#28

Post by Hamuko »

thevillagechief wrote: post #11
thisislife2 wrote: post #5

Exciting news! Can't wait for iMessage to open up too. Any idea if this (or other future messengers) will work outside of Europe too or does WhatsApp use some kind of geofencing, like Apple, to prevent non-EU citizens from enjoying the same rights too?

iMessage will not be opening up. They lobbied hard in the EU and got an exemption for not being popular enough there I guess.

iMessage really isn't popular in Europe. Although the fact that any SMS sent between two iPhones automatically converts into an iMessage message means that there are definitely (accidental) users.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#29

Post by Nextgrid »

otterley wrote: post #23
B1FIDO wrote: post #6

I must protest that this kind of announcement belies the stupidity of proprietary chat protocols. Remember when IRC was king, and basically, anyone could write an IRC client? Anyone could write a MUD client, or even a Telnet client. Those are open protocols. When Pidgin came out, it was like a breath of fresh air for me. In the early 90s I had multiple IM accounts (starting with ICQ!) and unifying them, especially un…

We had XMPP, and even Google Chat used that in the early days. It's not like users haven't had choice over the decades to choose software that runs on open standards. It's that the features and UX provided by closed software has been more compelling to them. Open standards and interoperability generally aren't features most people value when it comes to chat. They care mostly about what their friends and family are u…

The issue isn't closed vs open but business models. The reason most services don't support third-party clients is that their business model is based on advertising (aka wasting the user's time) and a third-party client would reduce said wasted time.

A proprietary/for-profit messenger can very well use open protocols and embrace third-party clients if their business model wasn't explicitly based on anti-productivity.

Post reply on HN