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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

#321

Post by UserMark »

ivm wrote: post #125
vpShane wrote: post #88

This means nothing good, Meta and its products are a privacy nightmare, with WhatsApp having major market share outside of the U.S. People need signal. It's not perfect, but it's the best available. No source code, wait list, special compatibility with a for-profit ad based company. No thanks.

Signal's UX is years behind even modern WhatsApp, let alone Telegram, which is closer to a blogging or social platform. We can't expect mass adoption of such a clunky app simply because it's more private – it has never worked that way.

I've been beta testing https://www.joinmorse.com lately it's in very early stages, but it's promising (if you don't care about the "social" features).

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

#323

Post by Semaphor »

srikanthdotch wrote: post #322

The thing I hate most about WhatsApp is the number of ad messages from businesses. It’s almost unusable for me. I have no option to use anything else, as all my contacts use WhatsApp and the network effects lock me in.

As someone who never got any of those, is that like cold spam messages for businesses you don’t have as contacts? And can’t you just disable messages from unknown contacts?

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

#324

Post by rippeltippel »

bruce343434 wrote: post #243

Never heard of this before. Why would I use this? I am assuming the messages are not actually encrypted, because on their own privacy page they state that they "process" messages and attachments sent through birdychat. So are they processing the raw unencrypted data on their servers or what? From a cursory glance of their CSAE policy, combined with the above, it seems they would be very eager to comply with the dread…

It is very possible that they process messages in the client app, before sending them.

WhatsApp does the same: have you noticed how the photos you receive have a debatable quality? Presumably (and hopefully) the sender's app downscaled them before e2e encryption.

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

#327

Post by zjaffee »

prmoustache wrote: post #180
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.

> 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.

I'm originally from the US, but where I live now, whatsapp functionally replaced email for a lot of different types of communication (that would be an email in the US). Recruiters text me on whatsapp about jobs, I can ask for a prescription renewal through it, and I get support from everything ranging from a government agency to customer support for things from businesses, ect.

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

#328

Post by nottorp »

hocuspocus wrote: post #191
blell wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, through MMS or RCS.

So, no. MMS is increasingly being discontinued in several regions, and RCS support is extremely patchy worldwide, especially on iOS.

Let's rephrase: can you send a photo hassle free?

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

#329

Post by globular-toast »

Why would I use this closed source program instead of another closed source program. I don't trust some random company from Latvia any more than I trust Meta. We need this interop to be available for free software clients. I want something like Pidgin.

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

#330

Post by velocity3230 »

palata wrote: post #143
zenmac wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with you, and there should more diverse members than just the people from Element. What I do like about them is the zero server trust stand they are taking on their clients which makes migration a pain in the butt, but that is what one would expect from a true e2ee chat app. And now they have two stable servers in rust. The French and German government including military are using the protocol to make t…

> What I do like about them is the zero server trust stand they are taking Last time I checked, the Matrix servers had access to a lot of metadata. Did they fundamentally change it?

Encrypted metadata is in the works.
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