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BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

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

#101

Post by arter45 »

pipo234 wrote: post #56
arter45 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social networks and chat apps are mostly dominated by the network effect. Since the purpose of these apps is literally putting you in contact with other people, you tend to use the same app/social network most of your friends and family are using. This is not necessarily true for platforms you use to find new people, but even then, you're going to use the websites/apps people with your interests are using.

I don't think his rant is against social networks or instant messaging perse, but about vendor lock in. The way I read it is along the lines of Mike Masnick's protocols not platforms . https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a...

I understand, but in this specific arena, because of the network effect, interoperability is important so you can hope to make a competitive product.

More in general,standard protocols are important but they don't necessarily avoid lock-in.

For example, imagine a Dropbox equivalent with a public API specification.

At some point you want to leave. You are ready to use Postman or even curl and download everything to upload it somewhere else... but download is capped at 10 files/day per user. And you uploaded 100,000 files over years.

The API is public but good luck leaving with all your files!

In other words, standard protocols help avoiding client lock-in, but when the value is on the server side (data,...), they are not enough.

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

#102

Post by jorvi »

Bratmon wrote: post #85
kubb wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see a second round of legislation might be needed. They'll get it right eventually.

They never got cookie popups right. What makes you so confident?

They got cookie pop-ups right, current rules:

- the default choice needs to be "strictly necessary cookies

- with other less prominent buttons for "allow all" and "deny all"

- a site is not allowed to force you to have the press a bunch of buttons or select a bunch of things to deny most/all cookies

The problem lies in enforcement. Unless you are a huge player, there is almost nil chance you're gonna get fined.

I think about the only thing missing is that they should have RFC'd a standard akin to Do Not Track, except this would have communicated to sites if your default is "strictly necessary", "allow all" or"deny all". With it being set to "strictly necessary" by default.

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

#103

Post by kubb »

Bratmon wrote: post #85
kubb wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see a second round of legislation might be needed. They'll get it right eventually.

They never got cookie popups right. What makes you so confident?

Optimistic. They've got sideloading done, browser and search choice done, ad transparency done, more choice for payments done, many dark patterns banned.

The gears are turning slowly, but they're doing really useful work.

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

#104

Post by Nextgrid »

vpShane wrote: post #88

This means nothing good, Meta and its products are a privacy nightmare, with WhatsApp having major market share outside of the U.S. People need signal. It's not perfect, but it's the best available. No source code, wait list, special compatibility with a for-profit ad based company. No thanks.

Signal still doesn't allow you to backup/export chat history on iOS into an open format? I think now they have some bullshit proprietary paid cloud storage solution (why not let me use the cloud I already pay for?), but for years they haven't had any solution for iOS at all.

Last time I had to reinstall my phone I ended up having to use & fix some Github project that simulated Signal's transfer protocol to simulate a target device to export my data.

I then deleted Signal and migrated to iMessage/WhatsApp and called it a day.

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

#106

Post by lurk2 »

input_sh wrote: post #81
lurk2 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Haiket doesn't even try to hide its connection to Meta. All you have to do is to go to their website, click on press, and see in the only press release they've ever posted that its CEO holds patents in use by Meta. […] Alex holds over 10 patents in voice and communication technologies, assigned to and used by Google and Facebook. How does this imply he has any connection to Meta? Companies license patents all the t…

Okay, what about three sentences above that one? > Before Haiket, Alex founded a number of technology start-ups and helped develop innovative voice solutions for Facebook and Google. At the very least, I think it's safe to say he has some connections within Meta that he utilised for this purpose. He's definitely not a complete outsider whose startup (with no actual product) just happened to be picked by Meta.

> what about three sentences above that one?

My bad. I searched for “Meta” instead of “Facebook.” Quite a few other red flags in that press release.

> Haiket is launching the Beta trial from today, with a pipeline of future innovation for early adopters, including a pioneering silencing technology that will allow users to speak privately in public, with voice communication that only your device can hear.

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

#108

Post by my_throwaway23 »

While not a commercial offering, which is what this is saying in reality - closed source, commercial alternative with (limited) interoperability, I've been running my own chat server for a while now with (limited) interoperability with both Whatsapp and Messenger.

I suspect a good number of people here don't care for any of this - FOSS, chat, voice, and video is where it's at. Interoperability for those last two don't exist yet AFAIK, and they're truly game-changers. Will that change? Does the DMA mention anything other than chat? Perhaps someone could enlighten me.

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

#109

Post by AgharaShyam »

This is really amazing. I hope some regulation like DMA comes to India as well.

Does WhatsApp charge money for this? If not, why would a business use their API? They could simply create an app to directly talk to their customers, or am I missing something?

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

#110

Post by LexiMax »

kelnos wrote: post #48
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? "WhatsApp" sounds pretty dumb to me, too, but it's entrenched in the social consciousness, so we don't really think about it. (The name even has nothing to do with chat; originally WhatsApp was a way to share your "current status"; "WhatsApp" sounds like "what's up?".)

Complaining about names seems like a surefire way to induce endless bikeshedding conversations that go nowhere. It's also often cited as a too-convenient excuse for why a service fails that doesn't really account for the market realities or whatever systemic failures were at play.

The truth is that 15 years ago, "tweet" was seen as a joke by those who weren't extremely online. It didn't stop Twitter from becoming a desirable place to socialize, at least for a time. If the internet made "tweet" happen, people can get used to any weird nomenclature.

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