WeChat’s world • Hacker News Board

Re: WeChat’s world

#11

Post by catdog » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:12 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #9

thomasfl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There really should be some standards that specified how chat bubbles can have the same set of functionality as FB Messenger, WeChat, Kik, Google's Allo and others. It's becoming more common to have "interactive" chat messages with buttons inside, or messages that makes buttons appear somewhere on the bottoms of the screen.

It would be better if communication technology with more than (say) 1M users would be forced to obey open standards. This is the case for telephony, so why not enforce it for social media as well?

Would be an appropriate measure but I do not have too much hope at the moment for such a clear political move. Later there may come a point where it's too late.

Re: WeChat’s world

#12

Post by runn1ng » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:17 AM UTC

tluyben2 wrote: post #4

Bit offtopic; For me it shows more, to western apps, how you build an app that always works... with wechat I can do sync and async voice calls, chat and photo sending with any connection, even if it is very slow or intermittend. No western app I have tried, including the actual phone app, does that as well as wechat. I can call, on 2g crappy China Mobile to colleagues in the EU where Skype and Whatsapp will not even…

I have had a great experience with Telegram app with poor connections.

No wonder it's so popular in Asia, Russia and Middle East.

Re: WeChat’s world

#13

Post by tluyben2 » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:19 AM UTC

joosters wrote: post #5

tluyben2 wrote: post #4

Bit offtopic; For me it shows more, to western apps, how you build an app that always works... with wechat I can do sync and async voice calls, chat and photo sending with any connection, even if it is very slow or intermittend. No western app I have tried, including the actual phone app, does that as well as wechat. I can call, on 2g crappy China Mobile to colleagues in the EU where Skype and Whatsapp will not even…

I totally agree with your comment about apps unusable with poor connections. I've been away camping for a few days, the campsite was in a forest with a weak 2G connection; web pages would load slowly, so the link did work, but most apps gave up and timed out instead of using the connection. A chat app like Google Hangouts should be able to send and receive tiny text messages just fine over 2G, but apparently app deve…

Yep. Apps like Hotels.com app and BA apps time out while the sites work fine on 2G. App devs think everyone has big data pipes; I almost never do. At which point Wechat is great.

Re: WeChat’s world

#14

Post by Borating » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:22 AM UTC

What I am worried about is that Facebook/Google/Microsoft/Amazon/Apple are copying the same model [1]. These companies are killing the open web.

[1] How China Is Changing Your Internet (The New York Times) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAesMQ6VtK8

Re: WeChat’s world

#15

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:24 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #8

joosters wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So don't use it? I'm not sure how your comments reflect on WeChat; it's not like stores are insisting on you paying through the app, or that businesses are forcing you to use WeChat to contact them. It's an added convenience, and it seems people like that.

> So don't use it? That's an old argument which totally ignores the network effect.

[deleted]

Re: WeChat’s world

#16

Post by tluyben2 » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:26 AM UTC

runn1ng wrote: post #12

tluyben2 wrote: post #4

Bit offtopic; For me it shows more, to western apps, how you build an app that always works... with wechat I can do sync and async voice calls, chat and photo sending with any connection, even if it is very slow or intermittend. No western app I have tried, including the actual phone app, does that as well as wechat. I can call, on 2g crappy China Mobile to colleagues in the EU where Skype and Whatsapp will not even…

I have had a great experience with Telegram app with poor connections. No wonder it's so popular in Asia, Russia and Middle East.

Ah never tried it. I will now :)

Re: WeChat’s world

#17

Post by mirap » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:27 AM UTC

This seems more like 1984 future...

Re: WeChat’s world

#18

Post by joosters » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:39 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #8

joosters wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So don't use it? I'm not sure how your comments reflect on WeChat; it's not like stores are insisting on you paying through the app, or that businesses are forcing you to use WeChat to contact them. It's an added convenience, and it seems people like that.

> So don't use it? That's an old argument which totally ignores the network effect.

The original argument, and your reply, is also based on ignoring stuff - namely that people are using and liking these apps & services. The network effect that WeChat has is because it is popular.

Would you prefer I use the other old argument, which is 'so build your own app then'? Equally frustrating and annoying, yet at the same time is probably the only other way to fight these walled garden apps. Short of banning popular apps & services that you disapprove of, I'm not sure what else there is to do...

Re: WeChat’s world

#19

Post by wineisfine » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:39 AM UTC

Soon, all the internet we hackers like will be called the darkweb

Re: WeChat’s world

#20

Post by hiisukun » Mon, Oct 03, 2016, 11:48 AM UTC

joosters wrote: post #6

delegate wrote: post #3

.. which is terrible. Apps like these (including Facebook) are breaking the Internet. Now it's up to the social network to decide how resources are located (what standards?), who can access them, and for how long, etc. Saw a good video in your Facebook timeline ? Good luck finding it again after you refresh the page. It's a pity how 'the crowd' is now dictating the direction in which technology evolves. By trying to…

So don't use it? I'm not sure how your comments reflect on WeChat; it's not like stores are insisting on you paying through the app, or that businesses are forcing you to use WeChat to contact them. It's an added convenience, and it seems people like that.

I only agree in theory.

In practice, many small businesses in my area only have a Facebook homepage now (and no other website). Many friends and colleagues solely organise get togethers (farewells, engagement parties, birthdays) on Facebook. There have been quite a few web services I would have tried around the place, but they only supported 'Log in with Facebook' or 'Log in with Google+' or similar.

Luckily I have an understanding peer group, who will send me a message outside of Facebook to let me know when stuff is going on. Of course to them I'm spoken of as "... oh hiisukun doesn't use Facebook because of some weird nerd reasons ..."

Not everyone is so lucky as me, and more importantly - there are certainly enough alternatives that I don't -really- miss that particular social network. But if I was in China on WeChat, would I feel the same way?