Introducing Hello • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing Hello

#11

Post by dawson » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:01 PM UTC

pluma wrote: post #10

jonstokes wrote: post #7

Oh yeah, that's what I really want: for FB to know everything about who I call and who calls me!

Got Facebook on your phone? They already do.

No, they don't.

EDIT: I was wrong, this is one of the permissions they require on Android, however, not on iOS as Apple doesn't make it available to third-party developers.

Re: Introducing Hello

#12

Post by taneem » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:01 PM UTC

I think the biggest challenge to this is Facebook itself (and other messaging/social apps). How many millennials make phone calls frequently to more than 5-10 close people any more? Everyone just uses messaging or social apps to stay in touch.

I don't need this to give me social context to my wife or my parents etc. calling me. The value of this is really to people that are not that close, where Facebook can surface relevant data that I don't have at the top of my mind - but I rarely communicate with those people via phone calls any more.

Re: Introducing Hello

#13

Post by pluma » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:03 PM UTC

hywel wrote: post #8

This is a really interesting and logical move for FB, to integrate as a tangential add-on with something transactional like phone calls, (instead of just being a destination website / app).

Especially now that WhatsApp (recently acquired by Facebook) tries to hijack voice calling already. Even if you press the phone number in the WhatsApp contact details.

This was a major annoyance for me because I was used to abusing WhatsApp as my address book and the voice call quality with WhatsApp is often atrocious (plus it uses up my phone's very limited data plan).

Re: Introducing Hello

#14

Post by untog » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:04 PM UTC

dawson wrote: post #11

pluma wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got Facebook on your phone? They already do.

No, they don't. EDIT: I was wrong, this is one of the permissions they require on Android, however, not on iOS as Apple doesn't make it available to third-party developers.

On Android their app asks for "read call log" permissions.

Luckily, I am running on root and can disable that access, but it's certainly possible.

Re: Introducing Hello

#15

Post by tegeek » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:04 PM UTC

Here in Sweden we use TrueCaller [1] which is almost the same as FB Hello. It is available for Android, iOS, and WP. And pretty much cover the entire world. It will be interesting to see how TrueCaller can compete with FB Hello.

1. http://www.truecaller.com/

Re: Introducing Hello

#16

Post by pluma » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:04 PM UTC

dawson wrote: post #11

pluma wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got Facebook on your phone? They already do.

No, they don't. EDIT: I was wrong, this is one of the permissions they require on Android, however, not on iOS as Apple doesn't make it available to third-party developers.

Are the permissions different on iOS? Because I'm pretty sure they ask to see your call status and caller information on Android.

Re: Introducing Hello

#17

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:06 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Introducing Hello

#18

Post by GVRV » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:06 PM UTC

tegeek wrote: post #15

Here in Sweden we use TrueCaller [1] which is almost the same as FB Hello. It is available for Android, iOS, and WP. And pretty much cover the entire world. It will be interesting to see how TrueCaller can compete with FB Hello. 1. http://www.truecaller.com/

Pretty much everyone I know in India uses this too! It's one of the very essential apps here cause of call abuse. Will be very interesting to see how this plays out, indeed.

Re: Introducing Hello

#19

Post by Jemaclus » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:06 PM UTC

What I think is fascinating about this is how front-and-center the whole "block unwanted calls" feature is. They mention it several times on this one page, when they could mention a bunch of other features instead. It goes to show how concerned people are with potentially allowing frictionless contact from mere acquaintances.

Re: Introducing Hello

#20

Post by vmarsy » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 7:08 PM UTC

taneem wrote: post #12

I think the biggest challenge to this is Facebook itself (and other messaging/social apps). How many millennials make phone calls frequently to more than 5-10 close people any more? Everyone just uses messaging or social apps to stay in touch. I don't need this to give me social context to my wife or my parents etc. calling me. The value of this is really to people that are not that close, where Facebook can surface…

I would see the use for getting quickly restaurants/businesses hours, my solution right now is to query " hours" in google and hope that google provides the small information box with the hours. However this Hello is on Android, if I had an android phone I could just ask OK Google and expect the information to come even faster.