WhatsApp doesn't understand the web • Hacker News Board

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#81

Post by rikkus » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:08 PM UTC

Smirnoff wrote: post #57

WhatsApp went from being a poster child to an ugly donkey in my country (Uzbekistan & other countries in Central Asia). Just two years ago everyone I knew was using WhatsApp, and what happened now? Most people use either Viber or Telegram, because uploading/downloading pics on WhatsApp takes forever. WhatsApp had a POTENTIALLY massive commercial use here and they blew it with paid subscriptions (which people in my co…

"uploading/downloading pics on WhatsApp takes forever"

I haven't seen this, but I'm on Windows Phone, so perhaps it's platform-specific?

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#82

Post by RIMR » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:10 PM UTC

TeeWEE wrote: post #63

While i agree whatsapp web should work in every browser the auther is forgetting one IMPORTANT gotcha: Whatsapp, is a messaging-routing platform. It doesnt store any messages. Thats what makes whatsapp strong. Its a feature. Thats why you need your phone. Its like SMS. They are not storing all your sensitive message. If you dont care about storing sensitive messages on servers. Use Telegram/Facebook Messaging, etc...…

But why not just store the messages in the browser memory?

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#83

Post by Smirnoff » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:12 PM UTC

rikkus wrote: post #81

Smirnoff wrote: post #57

WhatsApp went from being a poster child to an ugly donkey in my country (Uzbekistan & other countries in Central Asia). Just two years ago everyone I knew was using WhatsApp, and what happened now? Most people use either Viber or Telegram, because uploading/downloading pics on WhatsApp takes forever. WhatsApp had a POTENTIALLY massive commercial use here and they blew it with paid subscriptions (which people in my co…

"uploading/downloading pics on WhatsApp takes forever" I haven't seen this, but I'm on Windows Phone, so perhaps it's platform-specific?

Most likely it is geography-specific

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#84

Post by venomsnake » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:13 PM UTC

ponyous wrote: post #50

venomsnake wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook made the "Brilliant" move to remove the chat functionality from their app. So I am forced to use the mobile site of facebook ...

On what platform are you? Is there no Messenger for it? (Maybe I'm missing the point)

Why should I have 2 crippled apps than one functional. Also one that has degraded functionality. And until android has fake permissions I won't install messenger.

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#85

Post by mataug » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

I disagree with most of the things in this blog post. The web UI works and quite well that too. Whatsapp has been known to build things that work and that too fast.

I don't care if it works only on chrome and doesn't work on the iPhone. They'll most probably fix it soon.

I can think of one good reason why not having official APIs has been in whatsapp's favour. Almost no spam.

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#86

Post by wjnc » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

Smirnoff wrote: post #57

WhatsApp went from being a poster child to an ugly donkey in my country (Uzbekistan & other countries in Central Asia). Just two years ago everyone I knew was using WhatsApp, and what happened now? Most people use either Viber or Telegram, because uploading/downloading pics on WhatsApp takes forever. WhatsApp had a POTENTIALLY massive commercial use here and they blew it with paid subscriptions (which people in my co…

It's awesome to read about use cases in countries I know little about. Viber, Telegram for direct marketing? Wow. How do people decide to join? How do you do ad's?

Just like in Argentina in '11 I was amazed that all SME had Facebooks, and were just skipping the website-part I was used to.

Funny how local circumstances (might your Whatsapp problem just be an upload-to-US problem?) create different business environments. It reminds me that country-specific network and adoption effect exist and matter.

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#87

Post by blcArmadillo » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:16 PM UTC

TeeWEE wrote: post #63

While i agree whatsapp web should work in every browser the auther is forgetting one IMPORTANT gotcha: Whatsapp, is a messaging-routing platform. It doesnt store any messages. Thats what makes whatsapp strong. Its a feature. Thats why you need your phone. Its like SMS. They are not storing all your sensitive message. If you dont care about storing sensitive messages on servers. Use Telegram/Facebook Messaging, etc...…

Perhaps someone can answer this for me. I've seen several comments here saying WhatsApp doesn't store conversations. The other day someone sent me a picture on WhatsApp. Before looking at the message I was going through my photo gallery and noticed a random picture I didn't take so I deleted it. When I went to look at the message it was just a blurred out photo of the picture I had deleted and when I clicked it it said the media didn't exist on my SD card. Now, if I log into the web version that picture is fully visible. This suggests to me that they keep at least the pictures on their server. So is it only the text portion they don't keep?

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#88

Post by duckson » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:20 PM UTC

Their site seems to be down, here's a Google cache link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2VSoNL8...

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#89

Post by danellis » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:20 PM UTC

benihana wrote: post #80

NietTim wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL Hackernews has a searchbar I'm still finding my way trough this UI (Why is there no 'inbox' with replies to your comments?!)

Because it's not reddit (stop acting like it's reddit - the communities and conventions are quite different) and if you want to participate in a discussion, stay in the thread. Did you come from /r/programming? There have been a few comment threads talking about hacker news recently.

You're making excuses for poor UX in a way that makes you sound elitist. Not alerting you that you have replies is ridiculous. "Stay in the thread"? No, thanks, I'm not going to keep checking my comments for replies. Thankfully there's hnnotify.

HN just has a poorly designed interface.

Re: WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

#90

Post by frankzinger » Thu, Jan 22, 2015, 2:23 PM UTC

riquito wrote: post #55

NietTim wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL Hackernews has a searchbar I'm still finding my way trough this UI (Why is there no 'inbox' with replies to your comments?!)

> TIL Hackernews has a searchbar It does, it's at bottom of each page

On reddit 'TIL' means 'today I learned'.

P.S. TIL some people automatically downvote any post containing the word 'reddit'.