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BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

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

#251

Post by ivm »

jeroenhd wrote: post #248
ivm wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Various group features like communities and group voice chats, public channels, voice message transcription, only three sticker packs and no obvious way to add my own, backup is still marked as beta in 2026, no business features while all business here use WhatsApp in one way or another…

I don't use any of the other features (in fact, I actively avoid them and would disable them if they ever came to Signal), but: > only three sticker packs and no obvious way to add my own https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360031836512-St... > backup is still marked as beta Also, local backups haven't been beta for ages. The free cloud backups are the ones that are new.

But we're talking about mass adoption, not Hacker News users' preferences. Signal simply doesn't offer anything attractive to most people.

As someone who spends a dozen hours on WhatsApp and Telegram each week, I don't see any real benefits either.

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

#252

Post by tonyhart7 »

zarzavat wrote: post #238
xmcp123 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You literally mention 2 of the biggest whatsapp competitor and you have audacity to says "Nobody has even bothered to make an app that stands toe-to-toe with WhatsApp"

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

#253

Post by tonyhart7 »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #177
mcjiggerlog wrote: post #2

> With the new WhatsApp interface mandated by the DMA, any BirdyChat user in the EEA will be able to start a chat with any WhatsApp user in the region simply by knowing their phone number. Unfortunately, as it's been implemented as opt-in on WhatsApp's side, this isn't really true. Honestly that decision alone means it's kinda dead in the water.

How the opt-in is considered acceptable, that's a toothless resolution

because its EU only ????? you want it to be enabled by default while only certain amount of people want to use it

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

#254

Post by kelvinjps10 »

joe_mamba wrote: post #190
prmoustache wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> any WhatsApp user in the region The regional limit makes it pretty much useless. The only reason I keep a whatsapp account is to stay in touch with my family in law and a few relatives who live in another continent.

>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.

It's not really about that but more that other countries start regulating the same way as WhatsApp and that way not all people would switch to these apps but they would have the opportunity to use it and keep talking with their friends and family

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

#255

Post by pastage »

reedciccio wrote: post #188
gf000 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get some really hefty fines for not playing by the rules. It's taken extremely seriously in basically every aspect of life in Europe. It's not enforced hard enough against US company empires like meta and the like unfortunately, but it absolutely works.

Yeah... Ask Schrems about the hefty fines and all that pretty things bright to Europeans by the GDPR. Come on! The GDPR is at best a pretty face to a rotten nothing-burger.

Not full filling your wishes can still mean useful. Be very specific when you critize the only set of laws that has done anything for users.

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

#256

Post by circuit10 »

dmitrygr wrote: post #215
amelius wrote: post #199

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

It’s already possible to make WhatsApp bots, if the API was official they could moderate it better if anything so I don’t see how it would help with spam

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

#257

Post by drnick1 »

reedciccio wrote: post #189
drnick1 wrote: post #175

It would have been more effective to require Meta (and all other messaging companies) to implement an open protocol or open source theirs, so that people can freely write alternative clients free of malware.

Doesn't Whatsapp already use an open source protocol? https://signal.org/blog/whatsapp-complete/

AFAIK it's Signal with proprietary extensions, so it's effectively closed.

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

#258

Post by Nextgrid »

jolmg wrote: post #244
Nextgrid wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal still doesn't allow you to backup/export chat history on iOS into an open format? I think now they have some bullshit proprietary paid cloud storage solution (why not let me use the cloud I already pay for?), but for years they haven't had any solution for iOS at all. Last time I had to reinstall my phone I ended up having to use & fix some Github project that simulated Signal's transfer protocol to simulate a…

> Signal still doesn't allow you to backup/export chat history on iOS into an open format? > I then deleted Signal and migrated to iMessage/WhatsApp and called it a day. That doesn't fix anything, does it? Last time I tried to export a years-long WhatsApp chat, I was only able to export a few-weeks-worth, IIRC. WhatsApp chat exports also don't include media. It's just a txt file. The backup is limited to using Google…

> That doesn't fix anything, does it?

But moving to Signal doesn't either. You're moving from one walled garden to another. If you're going to burn the resources and "political points" encouraging people to move it's better be worth it - right now for the casual user Signal is worse than WhatsApp or even Telegram.

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

#259

Post by jeroenhd »

ivm wrote: post #251
jeroenhd wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use any of the other features (in fact, I actively avoid them and would disable them if they ever came to Signal), but: > only three sticker packs and no obvious way to add my own https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360031836512-St... > backup is still marked as beta Also, local backups haven't been beta for ages. The free cloud backups are the ones that are new.

But we're talking about mass adoption, not Hacker News users' preferences. Signal simply doesn't offer anything attractive to most people. As someone who spends a dozen hours on WhatsApp and Telegram each week, I don't see any real benefits either.

Signal offers a chat app that works fine and is not owned by Meta. That's enough for a significant amount of people to switch already. I'd love some quality of life updates to some of the niche features, like the desktop app, but the mobile app does everything it needs to do.

Community chats aren't what keep people on WhatsApp, the network effect does.

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

#260

Post by ivm »

jeroenhd wrote: post #259
ivm wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we're talking about mass adoption, not Hacker News users' preferences. Signal simply doesn't offer anything attractive to most people. As someone who spends a dozen hours on WhatsApp and Telegram each week, I don't see any real benefits either.

Signal offers a chat app that works fine and is not owned by Meta. That's enough for a significant amount of people to switch already. I'd love some quality of life updates to some of the niche features, like the desktop app, but the mobile app does everything it needs to do. Community chats aren't what keep people on WhatsApp, the network effect does.

Yeah, and to overcome the network effect, you need something compelling enough to justify the effort in the first place. I have hundreds of local contacts on WhatsApp, many of whom have joined Telegram on their own because of its benefits (for example, a local firefighter feed is shared through a channel there). But I only have about 20 contacts on Signal, even IT guys aren’t there. It simply doesn’t offer anything appealing to at least 95% of the people around me.
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