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

WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

andregarzia.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 132 posts

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#21

Post by soapdog »

sumitgt wrote: post #10

This web client, even in it's current horrific form, is something I really needed. Many a times I find myself working on my laptop, with the phone carelessly lying somewhere else in the room. It's a pain to go find it when a new message arrives. The bottomline is, I guess WhatsApp doesn't need a Web Client to compete with other services. If you've been to India, you will realize how pervasive WhatsApp is, with or wit…

They didn't needed to go these route. Telegram for example has clients for most platforms and a web client that works in every browser and doesn't require your phone to be connected to the internet for it to work.

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#22

Post by pekk »

nickik wrote: post #12

If all of this is true, its worse then I expected and I did not expect much. Why do all these companys wage a war against third party, even from a buissness perspective I don't get it. It creates innovation that you can copy for the offical app and its a perfect to test new features.

The same reason Apple has consistently waged war against clones?

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#24

Post by nostrademons »

andrewbarba wrote: post #17
dmix wrote: post #14

> Your phone needs to stay connected to the internet for our web client to work... What? Is this true? I can't think of a reason why their devs would ever need the users phone to be online.

WhatsApp does not store messages on their servers. It's a clean passthrough from one device to the next. They only hold onto message until all clients in the group text or one-on-one text have received the sent message. So, if you have two clients using the same phone number, the system wouldn't know when it is able to delete the message. Right now the single phone receives the message and simply passes it up to the…

Heh, so WhatsApp is the real SnapChat? The one that actually deletes your messages once read?

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#25

Post by soapdog »

markive wrote: post #11
soapdog wrote: post #2

Author here, will monitor this thread waiting for feedback and general comments.

Hate the gifs.. Made the article almost unreadable.. Just have them loop once or twice when I scroll to that part of the article.

Thanks for the feedback. The gifs are the way I use to express my sentiments without reverting to cursing in all languages I know. I am aware that they are not every ones cup of tea but I liked them. I will consider not abusing gifs in the future (even though I love them and will probably use).

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#28

Post by andrewchambers »

jshevek wrote: post #13

Apple has ushered in a new era in which a high level of centralized control is considered acceptable to consumers. WhatsApp is obviously trying to keep total control, like apple. This doesn't explain all of their failings here. For example, I'm sure they will eventually find ways to address their control issues and still be usable in other browsers. They might never do a web interface that runs in iOS, due to apple's…

Its the opposite - Whats App is storing nothing which limits what they can do.

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#29

Post by wodenokoto »

myth_buster wrote: post #19

Wasn't Whatsapp's success attributed to their policy of inclusion (all major mobile platform/devices). This seems like coming from a different company altogether.

Not at all.

First of, these modern messaging/social/mobile-first messaging apps we see getting popular have a fundamentally different model than what most of us desktop-first are used to.

They are not centred around an account, but around a device.

If you delete your Line app, all messages are gone. Hell, even if you log into Line from a new device, messages on the old one will be deleted. A friend of mine recently lost her phone and she saw no other way than to create a new account. Another friend had Docomo help her in-store to transfer all her Line messages when she upgraded her phone.

I don't use WhatsApp, but reading other post here, it seems that they use a similar model (but not as extreme). Your phone is your account, and all your stuff is stored only locally on your phone (or at least only accessible locally).

This explains why the web-app works so poorly.

Yes, WhatsApp got big by being on all devices, but they provide the software and the software model is a "one device per user"-model. This works great in a mobile-first (or should I say mobile-only) fashion.

This is SMS on steroids, not messenger for your phone.

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#30

Post by rtpg »

soapdog wrote: post #21
sumitgt wrote: post #10

This web client, even in it's current horrific form, is something I really needed. Many a times I find myself working on my laptop, with the phone carelessly lying somewhere else in the room. It's a pain to go find it when a new message arrives. The bottomline is, I guess WhatsApp doesn't need a Web Client to compete with other services. If you've been to India, you will realize how pervasive WhatsApp is, with or wit…

They didn't needed to go these route. Telegram for example has clients for most platforms and a web client that works in every browser and doesn't require your phone to be connected to the internet for it to work.

Telegram is a bad counter-example for various reasons. LINE has a desktop client that works well though
Post reply on HN