WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links • Hacker News Board

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#171

Post by ga2arch » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:11 PM UTC

codeshaman wrote: post #155

abc_lisper wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn, those functions are longgggg. While the code seems to be organized well, it is a hell to keep track of variables, and all the flow changes.

Spaghetti. More suitable for my plate than an app. I know that Java is a terribly verbose language, but even for Java this looks over the top. This code is written with a bulldozer ! How hard is it to refactor each of those branches into separate functions or objects ? If there's no time for that, I wonder, is there enough time to figure out the security and privacy implications of this entire codebase ? Should I tru…

DEX has a 65K methods number limit, that's probably why they keep all the code inside the least amount of functions, resulting in that monstrosity.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#172

Post by vmarsy » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:13 PM UTC

chetanahuja wrote: post #159

izacus wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MSN Messenger was one of those "regional" services simillar to WhatsApp - it was very popular in Europe, pretty much everyone used it around here, while as far as I heard it was very rare in US.

"regional" services simillar to WhatsApp The app with a billion plus installs, quite likely the largest actively used chat app in the world is a "regional" service. Just to take a wild guess, you're not an iOS user from the bay area by any chance? I haven't come across too many Android users who are not using WhatsApp in the US.

I think the parent put regional in double quotes for a reason, he/she just meant to say that it was more popular in certain part of the world than other and it's 100% right: It used to have 100 million users and was #1 in 11 countries[1]. Back in 2003 this is quite impressive!

Bashing on 'iOS users from the bay area' makes no sense, the parent also implies in his post that he is from Europe.

And as a non-iOS user, not from the bay area, I have rarely see people using WhatsApp, neither in Europe, nor in the US. The only few people I've seen using it is foreigners who want to stay in contact with relatives/friends in an country where WhatsApp is popular.

[1]http://news.microsoft.com/2003/05/12/100-million-customers-a...

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#173

Post by jhasse » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:19 PM UTC

kbart wrote: post #30

snissn wrote: post #23

Isn't telegram just a really bad version of signal?

As far as I'm concerned, Signal is superior in every way. Telegram simply has gained a lot of publicity and increased its user base (which is critical for IM) thanks to E. Snowden.

Telegram has better cloud sync. Signal doesn't have a desktop app AFAIK, only a Chrome plugin which is still in development.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#174

Post by abc_lisper » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:20 PM UTC

chc wrote: post #168

codeshaman wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spaghetti. More suitable for my plate than an app. I know that Java is a terribly verbose language, but even for Java this looks over the top. This code is written with a bulldozer ! How hard is it to refactor each of those branches into separate functions or objects ? If there's no time for that, I wonder, is there enough time to figure out the security and privacy implications of this entire codebase ? Should I tru…

I don't think Telegram is something people who need security should be using, but this kind of stylistic shaming toward open-source projects is useless at best and harmful in most cases.

Useless? I think it is a constructive criticism.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#175

Post by darklajid » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:28 PM UTC

plusquamperfekt wrote: post #66

3333z777 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A reason not to use Telegram: https://oflisback.github.io/telegram-stalking/

Given the credibility attributed to Signal - f.x. by Bruce Schneier and Edward Snowden - I don't understand why it's not more popular than Telegram.

It's .. the same thing. Now, bear with me: I don't say that it doesn't offer something over Telegram (most probably: Far better privacy/security), but it's a centralized service, hosted by a single entity, using your phone number as 'identity'. Ignore the first points, but the latter is so broken, Signal could be the most usable and glorious app ("Everything just works") on the planet and I'd still hate that idea.

Right now, Telegram suffers from the same faults (phone number = identity, closed/central server), but excels in usability and client availability. Signal is - for me, right here - worse. And I _should_ be part of Signal's target group.

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#176

Post by jhasse » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:28 PM UTC

morsch wrote: post #72

tpinto wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you even tried Telegram on the Web? It's clearly superior and yes, WhatsApp's solution feels like a nasty hack when compared to it. Also, didn't get that mention to iMessage.

Does it work when you're not storing your messages on their servers?

No

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#177

Post by cheez » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:30 PM UTC

ones_and_zeros wrote: post #165

mikek wrote: post #109

WhatsApp is not linkifying Telegram URLs, but Telegram is not even sending messages that are shared from WhatsApp. Telegram is open source, so you can see for yourself here. https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram/blob/74def22213846b1f90a26... On line 666: if (sendingText.contains("WhatsApp")) { //who needs this sent from ...? sendingText = null; }

> but Telegram is not even sending messages that are shared from WhatsApp This is wrong. If you follow the logic (which is admittedly difficult) you'll see they are stripping out the "sent from WhatsApp" tagline WhatsApp adds when you share a photo, etc from WhatsApp to Telegram. You'll still get the photo, it just won't have the tagline indicating where it came from. Still a bit shady but I also dislike the "Sent fr…

That is some horrifying code...

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#178

Post by chc » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:35 PM UTC

abc_lisper wrote: post #174

chc wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Telegram is something people who need security should be using, but this kind of stylistic shaming toward open-source projects is useless at best and harmful in most cases.

Useless? I think it is a constructive criticism.

In what way is it constructive to suggest that stylistic problems with somebody's code indicate that the program is unfit for use?

It seems to me about as constructive as walking into any software company and saying, "Ugh, these engineers are wearing t-shirts and their shoes are completely unshined! People, if these programmers care so little for their appearance, can you trust them to care about their code?"

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#179

Post by ones_and_zeros » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:35 PM UTC

cheez wrote: post #177

ones_and_zeros wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but Telegram is not even sending messages that are shared from WhatsApp This is wrong. If you follow the logic (which is admittedly difficult) you'll see they are stripping out the "sent from WhatsApp" tagline WhatsApp adds when you share a photo, etc from WhatsApp to Telegram. You'll still get the photo, it just won't have the tagline indicating where it came from. Still a bit shady but I also dislike the "Sent fr…

That is some horrifying code...

Indeed, and unsurprisingly, this results in a bug. It's not that it strips out the text, it's that it sets that variable to null which is then used for flow control.

So you will run in to issues (not sure how it would manifest itself) if you share photo or video that does have text, but just doesn't contain "WhatsApp" ("Sent from FooBar").

It looks like it'll send a text and then send the photo[0] but who knows what kind of state will be modified when you send the text first.

[0] https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram/blob/74def22213846b1f90a26...

Re: WhatsApp is blocking Telegram links

#180

Post by darklajid » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 10:37 PM UTC

mikek wrote: post #109

WhatsApp is not linkifying Telegram URLs, but Telegram is not even sending messages that are shared from WhatsApp. Telegram is open source, so you can see for yourself here. https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram/blob/74def22213846b1f90a26... On line 666: if (sendingText.contains("WhatsApp")) { //who needs this sent from ...? sendingText = null; }

That seems to be wrong. Looking at that code in context that's the text to be sent, when sharing something that is stream based (probably a video, an image).

In other words: As my (green/new) sibling ones_and_zeros states, afaik that ONLY strips the text if it contains "WhatsApp" and you send non-text content. Which .. is an improvement, I guess. Or a band-aid to grudgingly fix a 'bug' in WhatsApp.