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WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

nytimes.com

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Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#621

Post by aleph_minus_one »

whiplash451 wrote: post #582
bootsmann wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most people won't switch because of network effects, so meta can keep tightening the screws Network effects are much much smaller for messaging apps vis-a-vis social networks because there is no problem in incrementally moving your DMs from one place to another.

There is a massive barrier to switching. In order to switch, you also need to convince your acquaintances to switch. Good luck with that.

> In order to switch, you also need to convince your acquaintances to switch.

Rather: you have to to convince yourself to be willing to make it a little bit harder, if necessary, for these acquaintances to contact you. :-)

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#622

Post by swarnie »

bootsmann wrote: post #586
whiplash451 wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a massive barrier to switching. In order to switch, you also need to convince your acquaintances to switch. Good luck with that.

There is no switching involved, you can have two apps installed at the same time. It's not a social network where posting to one means the people posting on the other won't see your stuff.

You're always going to send the message on the app with 100% coverage.

I'm not switching apps to send the same message to 50% of people and then again to 100% resulting in some switchers getting it twice.

And lets be honest, people dont walk around recommending chat apps to each other. It hasn't been 2010 for at least five years.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#623

Post by volemo »

tialaramex wrote: post #596
mrweasel wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's amazing, I'm still trying to move our family group chat to Signal... I've moved exact zero family members.

I was pleasantly surprised one evening, out with friends, as for some reason the entire group decided they ought to mutually verify on Signal. I'm not certain that "Very drunk people" are the best possible to perform the verification step in Signal, but it's certainly true that you'd have to be a very determined and skilled imposter to show up to somebody's birthday, drink and smoke for several hours in that company…

Is there no way to transfer verification in Signal when changing devices?

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#624

Post by alias_neo »

leokennis wrote: post #607
alias_neo wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved my family over to Signal years ago. Anyone new who wants to message me, I simply say "I'm on Signal" and if it's important enough, they go and install it; it's been fairly frictionless, after all how hard is it to download an app and go through the fairly minimal registration process; and for someone already using WhatsApp, "one more account" probably isn't a major concern. I tried various steps in the past t…

> I simply say "I'm on Signal" and if it's important enough, they go and install it; it's been fairly frictionless, after all how hard is it to download an app and go through the fairly minimal registration process Genuinely curious. I am in WhatsApp groups for my kids soccer teams (who will be there at the game, can my kid drive together with you to the match), my kids school classes (Johnny lost his headphones did…

It's scenario 1. My children are still young, pre-school and reception so no such groups have come up yet. The odd parent that wanted to contact me has installed Signal or sent me SMS (RCS). For anything else, my wife is still on WhatsApp so she relays messages if/when they come up.

EDIT: re: Work, my colleagues are all on Signal, we have lots of Signal groups to communicate.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#625

Post by ajconway »

elric wrote: post #605

Can we get a federated messenger already? Sure, we have email, but the MS/Google duopoloy has effectively unfederated that, with their inscrutable block lists and nonexistent appeals processes, allegedly in order to protect you from spam. Sure, XMPP is a thing, which has been mostly dead for well over a decade. Sure, Matrix is a thing, but every time I look at it, all I see is criticism of its specifications and poor…

Building complex apps is hard. User-facing, feature-rich apps--especially so. It takes a lot of engineering effort, but also management (which implies some kind of a corporate structure). Coincidentally, it also doesn't align well with open (or any) standards.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#626

Post by johannes1234321 »

mrtksn wrote: post #8

Does anybody have stats on how many people are O.K. paying for their core services, i.e. how many people pay for paid personal e-mail services? I just don't want to believe that our services have to be paid for through proxy by giving huge cut to 3rd parties. The quality goes down both as UX and as core content, our attention span is destroyed, our privacy is violated and our political power is being stolen as conten…

It's extremely hard to compete in a commodity market where a large corp can do a free product to drive competition away.

Gmail's promise of 1GB free storage was an incredible offer at those times, where many people used "paid" mailers. Paid as part of the Internet subscription with a worse Webmailer and less storage than Google provided.

It is especially complicated with Mail, where Anti-Spam measures make operating an own server work (on one side for filtering incoming mail, on the other side to prevent being blocked for spamming)

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#628

Post by codedokode »

WhatsApp cannot even be used from desktop without a smartphone. I think they took "mobile-first" approach too literally.

But to be fair, competitors like Telegram also do not allow registering an account from desktop app, only from a smartphone. This seems to be the new trend: you cannot sign up for Gmail and Vk without a smartphone too: for Gmail, you need to scan the QR code, and for Vk you need to install a mobile app.

Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

#630

Post by tialaramex »

HenryBemis wrote: post #597
sebastiennight wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. The trick is to never mention "privacy", "no ads", or anything similar (which has negative perceived value). If you talk about that stuff, people will dilly-dally with the usual "well I already have too many apps, I'm not sure I want to install one more" I tell people that the video calls are better (which was true in my experience, back when I still used WA). Instant install

The fun fact is that those people have 100+ apps on their phones, which run in the background, draining their batteries, tracking the sh*t out of them, never actually use them (get value out of them) and they think zero about their privacy (probably use gmail or the sorts). Someone asked me to install Viber and it had 30 pages of advertisers/data brokers. I won't share a bowl of poop with them (WhatsApp, Viber, etc.)…

I don't know about iOS but a modern Android will periodically delete permissions from apps you aren't using, the app stays installed but it's now just a harmless icon and wasted storage space as I understand it.
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