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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

#431

Post by stasomatic »

jordemort wrote: post #170

I'm pretty resentful that people in the US are stuck using worse/less featureful versions of products from US companies, while the government in Europe can get these kinds of concessions for their people. If a company is legally obligated to offer a feature to people in other parts of the world, they should be forced to offer it at back home in the US as well, since we can't be bothered otherwise to pass any of these…

Surely you are aware that WhatsApp is a product of a tiny US co. Meta? Funny how the world sans the US is so in love with it. Shouldn’t the EU be out on the streets boycotting it?

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

#432

Post by nozzlegear »

B1FIDO wrote: post #375
nozzlegear wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SMS isn't widespread in the US, iMessage is.

SMS is very widespread in the United States. All the B2C services I work with are sending SMS to my phone. Not RCS, not iMessage: they are sending SMS messages. All the MFA providers, such as Twilio and Okta, are sending SMS. All the political campaign spammers are sending SMS. All the reminders for appointments and bills are sending SMS. All the notifications for apps where Push isn't good enough: they're sending SM…

That's all automated bullshit that almost everyone would opt out of if given the chance. Nobody is using that by choice.

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

#433

Post by pnt12 »

Etheryte wrote: post #418
marcocastignoli wrote: post #366

Data BirdyChat collects: > Messages, attachments and other materials that you send through BirdyChat to your contacts; No thanks

How do you think they would offer a messaging service if they didn't store the messages and attachments? The content has to live somewhere.

With ToS, we can assume that everything that is not laid down explicitly tends to err in favor of the company, not the user.

"we store all messages": they store everything and ther s no guarantee of processing, sharing or selling that data

"we store all messages encrypted end to end for sole the purposes of communication and can never access its contents" would provide many more guarantees.

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

#434

Post by temp8830 »

nozzlegear wrote: post #432
B1FIDO wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SMS is very widespread in the United States. All the B2C services I work with are sending SMS to my phone. Not RCS, not iMessage: they are sending SMS messages. All the MFA providers, such as Twilio and Okta, are sending SMS. All the political campaign spammers are sending SMS. All the reminders for appointments and bills are sending SMS. All the notifications for apps where Push isn't good enough: they're sending SM…

That's all automated bullshit that almost everyone would opt out of if given the chance. Nobody is using that by choice.

But you see, in other countries automated bullshit often talks to you over WhatsApp or Telegram instead.

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

#435

Post by patrickmcnamara »

Etheryte wrote: post #418
marcocastignoli wrote: post #366

Data BirdyChat collects: > Messages, attachments and other materials that you send through BirdyChat to your contacts; No thanks

How do you think they would offer a messaging service if they didn't store the messages and attachments? The content has to live somewhere.

This happens a lot on HN. I remember there was a court order for OpenAI to release ChatGPT chat history, and many of the comments were simply "why are they even storing chat history in the first place? ridiculous" as if that isn't a core feature of ChatGPT.

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

#436

Post by Nextgrid »

fph wrote: post #347
pseudalopex wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The Signal developers opted out of iOS's backup and export features.

I have no idea why, but I would bet it's because it was sending stuff to Apple unencrypted.

It's because Signal has some unhealthy obsession with "security" and does not want to recipient of the communication to ever be able to export messages in plain text.

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

#437

Post by dmitrygr »

jodrellblank wrote: post #416
dmitrygr wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you also wish you could only get telephone calls from people using American made handsets, and that your email client asked you before receiving emails from other email clients, and that you couldn’t get SMS’s from other smartphone manufacturers without opting in one at a time? Being able to reject spam , regions, specific people, specific topics, all makes sense. Wanting to approve/reject the program used to make…

I actually would love a mode on my phone that blocks all calls not coming from iPhones just like I have a mode to ignore all messages not coming from iPhones. It has blocked so much spam that it is worth it.

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

#438

Post by abustamam »

thevillagechief wrote: post #205
hei-lima wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In countries where SMS isn't as widespread as it is in the US, the use of WhatsApp is much more common. I live in one of those countries, and I don't think I've ever had to use it to communicate with someone on another continent. I think most of its use is simply local, for your community or friend group. The downside for me is basically the lack of appeal for a non-tech user (like my parents) to voluntarily want to…

Whatsapp is more popular in the US than you'd think. Probably due to a large immigrant population. I'm in several groups that use the channels feature to organize things like soccer, game nights etc. Most people with family abroad use Whatsapp, and that's a huge portion of the US.

I belong to two Toastmasters groups. One is majority non-immigrant American/caucasian, one is majority immigrant (from India, Pakistan, etc). The first one does club communication primarily via email. The second does club communication exclusively thru WhatsApp.

It's an interesting divide.

I do have some Caucasian friends who use WhatsApp. One stopped using it when FB purchased it, which I can respect. Most people I know in the states though just use iMessage or signal.

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

#439

Post by wohoef »

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.

Just opened my Whatsapp settings and "Third-party chat requests" is on by default (From the Netherlands). Although to actually receive messages you do have to activate this feature.

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

#440

Post by yosito »

rbbydotdev wrote: post #393

USA, which prides itself on freedoms, seems to have conceded a great deal of them when it comes to life online. From Apple apps, GPDR, now this. It sucks to see what we are missing out on.

US "freedom" is more propaganda than reality, and that's becoming more and more apparent.
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