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Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

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Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#181

Post by e12e »

shawn-butler wrote: post #165
e12e wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, first they threw out xmpp, so I couldn't use my preffered messaging app, then they kill messaging in the web view, forcing me to give up messaging or move to their messaging app, with intrusive permissions. This after they've soundly established that they don't respect users, with how they mangled addressbooks with an earlier version of the fb app. At least, since they're closing access from alternative sources…

Please stop calling it google wave. It is Apache wave. And nothing is dead if a community wants it to be alive.

Apologies, I remember it as Google Wave - but you are right it has evolved, and Apache Wave captures the idea that it is indeed an open platform. And while I agree that the technology isn't dead, I don't think it (the protocol) is likely to be what ~7 billion people (or how many now has a phone number) will use to communicate across network providers, carriers, device manufactures and content silos. I think it is dead as an alternative in that sense.

Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#182

Post by maccard »

jds375 wrote: post #11

So rather than fixing the problems that result in users messaging via the mobile web app instead of the messenger app, they're just going to "solve" the problem by forcing users to use the messenger app? This is why Facebook as a company doesn't have high levels of consumer trust. This will bite them in the future. Once you lose that level of trust it is extremely difficult to gain back.

What data can yhet get from having messenger as an app rather than a website? They already have my list of contacts, all the messages I've sent, they can store my message as I type it through their website. I just don't understand!

Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#183

Post by georgemcbay »

I'm not going to claim that my experiences here are the norm because I doubt they are, but the primary impact of Facebook previously splitting Messenger off into a separate app (from the native mobile app) in the circle of people I communicate with on Facebook is that we all (organically, without ever really discussing it) just switched back to using olde timey SMS/MMS for things that would have been Facebook messages.

Not at all a spiteful/angry decision, just more of a "well, if I have to go out to another app to do this shit, I might as well just use this thing that works with all my friends including the increasing number of them that don't ever login to Facebook anymore".

Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#184

Post by shabbyrobe »

colordrops wrote: post #115

Speaking of dark patterns, Google has completely broken Gmail and Google Docs/Drive in incognito mode in Android Chrome. It purposefully loses the cookie and will not function once you switch away to another app and then back to the browser. They are trying hard to force people into using the native apps, or at least staying logged in, for GMail/Inbox and Drive. It's really lame. Instead of being passive-aggressive,…

If you're a Linux user, see the `--user-data-dir` option of the `chromium-browser` executable. Whack 'em in `/tmp` for as many pseudo-incognito cookie jars as you like!

Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#185

Post by shawn-butler »

e12e wrote: post #179
shawn-butler wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no network or linkage between users? And people are not allowed to post inane topics or messages. Pretty basic.

How do you think the voting ring detection works? Some users post contact info in their profile, so there is the possibility for messaging (email). Yes, there are policies, and structure and many good things - I'm not sure that means that HN isn't a social network of sorts? I suppose it might boil down to a technicality, but I always read "social network" as a graph that describes how a group is connected - not as so…

That is an implementation detail not a feature.

Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#186

Post by wutbrodo »

colordrops wrote: post #121
peterjuras wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very weak reason not to use the messenger. You're confirming that if you want to create a good app, you should not listen to complaining users. Judging by your comments you're not going to use the app period. You can just say so instead of creating artificial reasons which don't hold true for you anyways.

Sane defaults are a very good reason to decide to use an app. It's very common to reset user settings back to defaults during a "major" (or just marketing) upgrade of an app.

We may have very different samples but I'd be shocked to see that behavior in any app that I'd consider worth using. That would easily knock a couple stars off of my (mental or otherwise) rating of an app.

Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#187

Post by rck404 »

wrsh07 wrote: post #78
jds375 wrote: post #11

So rather than fixing the problems that result in users messaging via the mobile web app instead of the messenger app, they're just going to "solve" the problem by forcing users to use the messenger app? This is why Facebook as a company doesn't have high levels of consumer trust. This will bite them in the future. Once you lose that level of trust it is extremely difficult to gain back.

"Users were messaging via the web frontend, so we fixed the glitch."

I really wish I could fix all bugs at my workplace like that.

Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#188

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

prdonahue wrote: post #9

Facebook's forced migration of their users from basic, functional chat is, in my opinion, more frustrating than any single decision they've made to date (perhaps second to platform risk materializing to those businesses built on top of them). I once had a (protracted) debate with one of their earliest product designers who defended the decision unconditionally. His arguments were—more or less—"it's better for the use…

If FB's claim that the standalone app is "it's better for the user" is true, then there should be no need to disable the previous functionality, since users would naturally have flocked to it as FB has been gently nudging them.

So maybe the standalone app is actually NOT better for the user. :)

Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#189

Post by Manishearth »

Interestingly, it lets me use the mobile webapp messaging without asking me to do anything. Because the OS I'm on has no Messenger app, and it probably will never have one.

So if you spoof your UA string, it may stop bugging you and let you use messenger as usual.

Re: Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger

#190

Post by wutbrodo »

e12e wrote: post #155
yellowapple wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Practical enough for me. The only thing I use Facebook for is to say "Thank you" when folks wish me a happy birthday on my "wall". For literally everything else, the friends and family worth talking to have gotten the message that I'm not reliably reachable on Facebook and therefore should be reached by other means (and if they're worth talking to, they should already have my phone number and/or email address). It's…

Then why do you even have a facebook account?

I use Facebook (somewhat sparingly) but considered deleting my profile a few years ago, when I wasn't using it at all.

I decided against because it was so useful as an "every once in a while" inbox for people who wouldn't have been able to reach me otherwise: a girl I met at a party, a cousin from Australia who happened to be in town for a couple of days, etc etc. The former would either never find me (depending on how big the party was) and the latter would have to jump through the hoops of chaining phone numbers through our large extended family. Both of those are handily coopted by having an almost-universal directory, with customizable amounts of information displayed, along with photos so you know it's the right profile.

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