Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger • Hacker News Board

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

#391

Post by realityking » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:50 PM UTC

aorth wrote: post #224

simonswords82 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big companies have got a Facebook/Twitter etc presence because their competitors have one. It's almost certainly a pain in the ass for them because as you mention customers will use it as a public platform to beat the company with when they're pissed off. There was a period about 5 years ago when every company in the world thought they needed to have Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. It was a seriou…

Indeed! Though one example of a big company who has (notoriously) zero presence on any social networks would be Apple.

Not quite zero, a couple of months ago they launched a support channel on Twitter. https://twitter.com/AppleSupport

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

#392

Post by alexland » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:50 PM UTC

pikachu_is_cool wrote: post #388

gcr wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it the opposite way. Using Messenge could give you a great way to use facebook without subjecting yourself to the News Feed Giant Tentacled Monster. Why not use Messenger without Facebook? My reason not to use Facebook was because it trivializes friendships. With Facebook, I wouldn't have to go out of my way to be "friends" with someone, so the relationship would be less meaningful. But Messenger doesn't share…

There's a ton of reasons to not use Messenger. 1. The mandatory "seen" indicator 2. All of your messages are beholden to a private company, permanently stored in plaintext 3. They analyze said messages to deliver advertisements. Seriously, one time I mentioned buying a Samsung SSD to my friend in chat, and all of a sudden I got a ton of SSD advertisements on the sidebar. Same thing when I mentioned Rick and Morty. 4.…

Most of these sound like reasons not to use Facebook in general.

While the seen indicator is a legitimate annoyance, it's been commonplace for some years now. I don't know of a modern chat app that doesn't have it.

As for the rest of your points, Facebook's money comes from ads. These concerns are not limited to chat, but using Facebook in general. As you browse the web, Facebook is tracking you and using the data to deliver more relevant ads. As you comment and make posts, Facebook uses the data to deliver more relevant ads.

Every part of the service is designed to help them do this, saying that these are reasons to "not use Messenger" is missing the point. The point of using Messenger is that you're not tied to any other portion of Facebook. You just get to message friends, plain and simple. The benefit is you're not being enticed into scrolling your news feed, spammed with notifications about upcoming events etc.

Plus, there are rumours they're going to bring e2e encryption in a la Whatsapp, which would pretty much squash points 2 and 3.

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

#393

Post by pomber » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

Where I live, messaging using Facebook is the most effective way to communicate with my phone company, my ISP, etcetera.

That is the only reason I use Facebook messaging (I communicate with friends using other services) and one of the few reasons I still have a Facebook account.

Installing Facebook messenger app is too much just for this.

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

#394

Post by kobayashi » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

pikachu_is_cool wrote: post #388

gcr wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it the opposite way. Using Messenge could give you a great way to use facebook without subjecting yourself to the News Feed Giant Tentacled Monster. Why not use Messenger without Facebook? My reason not to use Facebook was because it trivializes friendships. With Facebook, I wouldn't have to go out of my way to be "friends" with someone, so the relationship would be less meaningful. But Messenger doesn't share…

There's a ton of reasons to not use Messenger. 1. The mandatory "seen" indicator 2. All of your messages are beholden to a private company, permanently stored in plaintext 3. They analyze said messages to deliver advertisements. Seriously, one time I mentioned buying a Samsung SSD to my friend in chat, and all of a sudden I got a ton of SSD advertisements on the sidebar. Same thing when I mentioned Rick and Morty. 4.…

I'm interested as to why someone like yourself, a likely tech-savvy HN user, the kind of person who notices how their chats effect ad serving, does not block ads on facebook. Care to share?

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

#395

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

pikachu_is_cool wrote: post #388

gcr wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it the opposite way. Using Messenge could give you a great way to use facebook without subjecting yourself to the News Feed Giant Tentacled Monster. Why not use Messenger without Facebook? My reason not to use Facebook was because it trivializes friendships. With Facebook, I wouldn't have to go out of my way to be "friends" with someone, so the relationship would be less meaningful. But Messenger doesn't share…

There's a ton of reasons to not use Messenger. 1. The mandatory "seen" indicator 2. All of your messages are beholden to a private company, permanently stored in plaintext 3. They analyze said messages to deliver advertisements. Seriously, one time I mentioned buying a Samsung SSD to my friend in chat, and all of a sudden I got a ton of SSD advertisements on the sidebar. Same thing when I mentioned Rick and Morty. 4.…

[deleted]

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

#396

Post by Lxr » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 6:11 PM UTC

gcr wrote: post #351

galdosdi wrote: post #295

This is kind of convenient; it gives me one more excuse not to use facebook. A few days ago I got the usual notification email that somebody had sent me a message on FB. Clicking is a low barrier so I clicked, curiously. Then I instead got the "No, now you have to install Messenger app" screen. That was enough of a barrier that I said "oh forget it, who cares, anybody who knows me would know better than to send me an…

I see it the opposite way. Using Messenge could give you a great way to use facebook without subjecting yourself to the News Feed Giant Tentacled Monster. Why not use Messenger without Facebook? My reason not to use Facebook was because it trivializes friendships. With Facebook, I wouldn't have to go out of my way to be "friends" with someone, so the relationship would be less meaningful. But Messenger doesn't share…

> you have to bother to think up a good message to send them

Soon you may not have to! https://googleblog.blogspot.sg/2016/05/allo-duo-apps-messagi...

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

#397

Post by Jaruzel » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 6:18 PM UTC

I have a blackberry (BB10 based Q5) as my personal phone. The reasons for this are manyfold, and I migrated from Android. I love my Q5 it does everything I need really well... except for FB and Messenger - there's no native apps. So I am now in the situation of trying to convert my friends to something else for chat, or change my phone.

It will probably be the latter.

(Written via my Blackberry)

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

#398

Post by intrasight » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 6:19 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #366

intrasight wrote: post #364

Previous long-time Facebook user here, but forgive my ignorance - what is Messenger? An instant message app I assume? How does this differ/improve upon the instant messaging built into every phone?

Messenger is a facebook instant message app. It improves on what is already built into your phone because it hooks into all of your facebook contacts, which means full names, and pictures.

Not much of an improvement, IMHO, to warrant all this grief.

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

#399

Post by draw_down » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 6:24 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #205

marme wrote: post #103

i refuse to install the mobile app because there is no way to stop people from calling you on messenger. There is no way to turn it off or have some kind of do not disturb. If someone wants to mess with you they can just keep calling you and your only choice is to block them and remove them from your friends list

>> "If someone wants to mess with you they can just keep calling you and your only choice is to block them and remove them from your friends list" This seems like either a made up scenario or you have weird friends. Who would keep calling someone to 'mess with them'???

You know people harass others, right? It's not "made up". Come on.

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

#400

Post by e12e » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 6:36 PM UTC

webvictim wrote: post #249

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…

The Facebook app on Android actually works fine without any special permissions. If you disable them all via the new methods in Marshmallow, it just continues trucking on. Of course they'll never stop asking for the extra permissions, but its functionality is pretty equivalent to the mobile site even with no intrusive permissions.

Good to know. I've yet gotten around to trying this out (just recently upgraded to a Marshmellow phone), I feared it was install > grant permssions > optionally revoke permissions. And I wasn't ready to try that with an app that came out of fb, given their track record.

Maybe that's an idea for an open source Android demo app - one that requests a certain set of (or all possible) permissions, and then simply displays the status of those permissions (granted/blocked).