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BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

birdy.chat

231–240 of 517 posts

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#231
From their page

"Built for better conversations Reach people with their email, not their phone number. Designed for focused, meaningful exchanges between managers, builders, and collaborators."

Is it using email protocols to send messages or is it using email addresses as a proxy for usernames?

The claim of a drive for better conversations is not really that accurate because better conversations rely on a more universally used app/system than presently exists. Ie, a replacement that would have to grow internationally extraordinarily quickly.

Apple figured that out... iMessage was basically a cheat code to a vast userbase almost instantly. What Apple didn't figure, however, was that iMessage's green/blue thingy that went on for so long didn't really give android/sms users fomo, but really, it just created an unneeded communication barrier. Such barriers are the exact opposite of what is needed for a communication platform to be excellent. Unfortunately, decisions counter to what may be perceived as income generating are difficult to reverse.

These sorts of apps may not be revolutionary enough I fear. I would love to adopt something like this, but Meta continue to make too many billions to let their monopoly on human communication management to be taken away that easily.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#232
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because until today that IS what it meant! Are you claiming that "pray i do not change the deal further" is a sane approach?

I just don’t think that’s a reasonable expectation of a telecommunications tool, so yeah, I think it’s a fair change well within the norms and expectations of an instant messenger. You should get to control how/ to whom your data is distributed, but also requiring these recipients to only use software and services of your choosing seems excessive. Platform lock-in at this point seems like the much greater harm. I cou…

i did not ask for green bubbles, nor did whatsapp implement that. they let me opt-in to communicate with questionable clients and i am here for it.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The regional limit makes it pretty much useless. Sounds like an easy fix. Europe just has to convince the rest of the world to ditch the 15 year old popular US apps ingrained in pop culture and with network effects, and have them switch to their own EU made apps, this way we can all communicate together. :hugs: Until then, let's keep chatting on $US_APP so we can debate on how we're gonna achieve that switch.

Shouldnt be hard to convince folks. Everyone i know hates facebook / meta and is just waiting for an agreed upon alternative.

Everybody says this until there’s an alternative.

There have been several alternatives, and people didn’t switch.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#234
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a strange way to think about a telecommunications service. By the same logic, shouldn’t there be a privacy policy for regular old phone lines? Who knows which third parties are between you and the person on the other end! And speaking about the other end: I have bad news about all the data you share with untrustworthy contacts on WhatsApp… Quite practically, anyone that enables backups (which WhatsApp heavily nu…

old telephone lines did not disclose info about me with merely my phone number. whataspp discloses name, picture, status As for your second comment, updated first comment with: I am not even sure how this is GDPR-compliant if that app is European. They do not have my permission to have my private data, and GDPR does not allow whatAspp to hand it over without my permission either...

Old telephones had caller ID. They would send your name and company.

You did have to initiate the call, but you still didn’t have any kind of agreement about it.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely it's very similar, companies can't - AFAIK - be registered in USA, they're registered in a state. USA's States have different tax and legislative climates, just like EU states do.

Sure, but the U.S. are a single country, while Europe is many different countries that are completely different. I'm in Poland and can drive 2 hours and stop understanding what people are saying to me (in German and Czech). That was my point.

> while Europe is many different countries that are completely different.

I've always found this a weird take. European (EU) countries are more similar to each other than any country outside of Europe is to any European country.

In your example, if you drive two hours to Germany or Czechia, your car will still be insured, all your bank cards will still work, the price of your mobile phone service stays the same, you'll have a good idea how health and employment systems work, and the chances are you'll be able to talk to people in English.

It remains true that the barriers the businesses face are higher, but that's not what your example was about.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#236
post #130
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They got cookie pop-ups right, current rules: - the default choice needs to be "strictly necessary cookies - with other less prominent buttons for "allow all" and "deny all" - a site is not allowed to force you to have the press a bunch of buttons or select a bunch of things to deny most/all cookies The problem lies in enforcement. Unless you are a huge player, there is almost nil chance you're gonna get fined. I thi…

> The problem lies in enforcement. Unless you are a huge player, there is almost nil chance you're gonna get fined. I am curious: why is that difficult? Define the fine as a percentage of the revenue of the company, have users report links, and pay someone to check the link and send the fine. Sounds like easy money... I mean it's very profitable to pay people to check parking lots and fine drivers who don't follow th…

If I am business outside Europe, why would I send Europe what my revenue is?

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right-wing populist parties are very popular in Europe, including in France and Germany, the two most important EU countries. There is a significant possibility that people with Trump-like ideologies will come to power there before too long.

Trump is so incompetent he has killed any chance for far right politicians to be elected for the next decades. And even them hate him now due to Greenland.

I really don't think the first part of that is true. All significant recent polls in Germany have AfD at around 25% of vote intentions, which would probably give them the biggest fraction in the Bundestag, or second behind the CDU/CSU (but very close).

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldnt be hard to convince folks. Everyone i know hates facebook / meta and is just waiting for an agreed upon alternative.

Everybody says this until there’s an alternative. There have been several alternatives, and people didn’t switch.

The alternatives suck.

WhatsApp strikes a good balance of usability and security. Telegram is too insecure (no E2E by default). Signal is too secure (no chat exports).

Nobody has even bothered to make an app that stands toe-to-toe with WhatsApp, even without the network effects.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#239

When can I send messages from a PC running Python?

Hopefully - never ever ever ever ever. I do not want spam. This is why iMessage is much better than SMS - there is an implicit cost to send. This is why there is 100x (my experience) iMessage spam than SMS spam. Easy to send messages -> spam

> better than SMS - there is an implicit cost to send

Funnily enough, people being charged per SMS but being allowed to send as much messages as they need on apps like WhatsApp is exactly why SMS/MMS is barely used on a large scale outside of North America.

I rarely receive any spam on my phone. WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal do have the occasional obvious bot, but all apps make it trivial to block and get rid of any of them.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The regional limit makes it pretty much useless. Sounds like an easy fix. Europe just has to convince the rest of the world to ditch the 15 year old popular US apps ingrained in pop culture and with network effects, and have them switch to their own EU made apps, this way we can all communicate together. :hugs: Until then, let's keep chatting on $US_APP so we can debate on how we're gonna achieve that switch.

Shouldnt be hard to convince folks. Everyone i know hates facebook / meta and is just waiting for an agreed upon alternative.

I have lately been telling people whatsapp is from facebook (meta means nothing to them) and now they are looking for alternatives. Unfortunately, there isn't really much european/eu (never heard of birdychat though). It does show though it is not hard to get some people to switch; they have groups on whatsapp and use it for nothing else; these are people they chat with often so they only need to switch those and then whatsapp can go.

I find Telegram the best app; its faster and easier than the rest I find. The default no e2e sucks so cannot use it for everything, but having everything immediately ready and working on all devices makes it very nice. When you buy a new one, immediately all is there. Yes, obviously I am aware that can only be because no e2e, but normies and non normies alike seem to really hate the whatsapp, and even more, signal losing all your messages because backup/restore is too annoying. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but if someone manages to make more that experience... I mean turn it around; make e2e the default but allow people to create groups or 1-1 without e2e if they want (knowing then downsides and upsides of that).

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