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Introducing Hello

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Re: Introducing Hello

#81

Post by smackfu »

wiremine wrote: post #67
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…

Two thoughts: a. Regarding millennials: If they can younger users to use their dialer in 2015, they might stay with them for life. b. The average age for facebook is 40.5 [1]. I'm a Gen Xer myself, and I'm 50/50 with calls vs. messaging. I order pizza, call my mechanic, etc. all via the phone. [1] http://smallbusiness.chron.com/breakdown-facebook-users-age-...

>I order pizza, call my mechanic, etc. all via the phone

By choice, or by necessity?

Re: Introducing Hello

#82

Post by r00fus »

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!

Exactly my thoughts... except this app is exactly in Facebook's wheelhouse. Who else could do this?

When Facebook introduced their phone (well, just their android launcher) a couple of years ago, I thought this kind of feature would be a major selling point.

While I would never use it, I know many many people who would be thrilled for something like this.

I wonder if the WhatsApp acquisition price just got validated.

Re: Introducing Hello

#83

Post by [deleted] »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #80
smackfu wrote: post #50

In my circle, using Facebook to connect through anything other than Facebook itself seems futile. No one has emails or phone numbers posted, even for friends. So this app seems like it would basically do nothing.

>> "So this app seems like it would basically do nothing." For you. Today I had to email someone. I looked through my address book and because I'd previously add their name/number Facebook had retrieved their email (which I didn't yet have) through their profile and put it right in my address book. This happens quite often for me.

[deleted]

Re: Introducing Hello

#85

Post by jgautsch »

I think this is really smart. I've always thought it strange that we still trade 10 digit IDs, and then write them to our own personal database.

Someone else posed the question, but it's worth repeating- who else could pull this off?

Will future generations still ask "what's your number?"

Re: Introducing Hello

#86

Post by smellf »

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/

Thanks for pointing this out! My volume of spam robocalls and SMS has gone through the roof this year, and I knew there had to be some app that did like a collaborative blacklist for these numbers. This TrueCaller appears to do the trick.

Play store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.truecaller

Re: Introducing Hello

#87

Post by MichaelGG »

Spearchucker wrote: post #71
MichaelGG wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy an SSL certificate. Enjoy Comodo calling you 3 times a week, sometimes waking you up, to try to sell security. Even after telling them to stop. (Yeah, I should take it up with the FCC...) Even more fun: point out Comodo's lapses as a CA and say they're the last CA you'd ever deal with. Then the rep smoothly segues into pitching antivirus/"security" software.

Surprised that you give them your real number. Any data I provide online is only ever enough for the specific service I want to function. The rest is invented. Fiction. Myth.

I'm pretty sure they just look at our website or other contact information. I'm not sure it's just the WHOIS info.

Re: Introducing Hello

#88

Post by _lce0 »

MichaelGG wrote: post #41
untog wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Almost all Android apps can do this in realtime, because to get the IMEI/device ID (a questionable thing in itself), Google decided you should also be required to have permissions to see who is calling/called . It's a major privacy violation, with Google directly encouraging it for no good reason. (Getting device ID should be a very rare, high-security permission; instead each app should get a unique app+deviceID. An…

..plus knowing which apps are you running.

I can't think of a valid reason why an app should require such permissions besides information gathering.. there are API for making you app talk, or discover other apps

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