If WhatsApp does this, Telegram will not be far behind in rolling this out.
Telegram has ads in channels for a long time. They can be removed with Premium subscription.
WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
701–710 of 1001 posts
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#702Earlier 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…
Option 1 mostly. I think it's also worth taking into consideration one thing.
People on Signal tend to have much less volume of overall messages and groups. For someone on WhatsApp to forward you the invite is a hassle for them, sure, but it is an infinitesimal unnoticeable increment on how many in/out messages they deal with in a day.
As I mention in another thread, people will complain that they "have too many apps" if you pitch Signal as a privacy app. They would install it instantly if you told them the emojis are funnier or whatever. Because they already installed 300+ apps and one more is actually .3% increment ; whereas for your typical GrapheneOS F-droid person, adding whatsapp would be a +15% increase of apps on their homepage.
It's kind of the same with those WhatsApp groups. There will be 1,000 messages in the group this week/month. 3 of those are the actual invite you need, and if you have actual human connections with folks, someone will send you those.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#703WhatsApp 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…
It can be used in the desktop (web) with the phone turned off since a few months (years?) ago.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#704Can 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…
Easy, expand SMTP. If the target doesn't have smtp messenger, send as email.
No need to reinvent the wheel. But who are we kidding, of course we will
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#705Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
The fact that this didn’t work seamlessly for my chat history is why I stopped using Signal
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#706Alice Newton-Rex, head of product at WhatsApp: “Alongside of private messaging, people were saying they wanted to hear more about topics, teams and organizations across WhatsApp.” - I am pretty sure NO ONE asked to hear about more topics and organizations across whatsapp.
Translation: After going through a far too large number of focus groups that didn't want it we finally found one that phrased a reply in such a way, that after removing context and playing Chinese whispers up the management chain, can be interpreted as them wanting ads.
Australian?
We're one of only a few countries[1] who call the game Chinese Whispers.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#707Earlier quoted context omitted.
Had the same happen with WhatsApp. Turns out you get one chance to get the local file backup right or you're screwed.
Just out of interest, why are you keeping your chat history? What for? All my chats are set to burn after 6 months as standard but most are shorter than this.
just curious.. why you are deleting your chats? what if you want to search them for something from a while ago?
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#708My wish is to have Telegram clients and user experience (both mobile and in Linux desktop versions) with Signal security and whatsapp adoption.
Signal is a cool 2nd alternative to WhatsApp, but their desktop client is absolute garbage, their videocall echo cancelling is non-existent and sending media over slow connections absolutely sucks (it keeps on resending and resending the files)
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#709Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found the solution by convincing all my friends and family, one by one, to move to Signal. I still use Whatsapp for people who did not migrate, but it's surprisingly possible (if not easy) to convince people to use another app
That's amazing, I'm still trying to move our family group chat to Signal... I've moved exact zero family members.
Are you still on WhatsApp? If yes, then that's the reason. Trying to move a whole group over when you're willing to compromise is a recipe for failure because everybody would get inconvenienced for something that's only somewhat important to you.
It's like: should we all go to a vegan restaurant instead of the usual steakhouse because you decided you want to "try" being vegan this Friday night, of all nights. Just try it out another day and let us have our fun, Fred.
If you were not on WhatsApp at all, then it becomes a balance of : tiny per-person inconvenience versus 100% clear-cut decision on your part. Oh you've converted to whatever religion and can't have pork anymore? Now we have a choice between not inviting you at all, or trying the restaurant next door.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#710Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.)…
> 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, This is wildly untrue on iOS. Perhaps people have 100+ apps. But the rest, not so much.
You're saying that having all the apps open at the same time won't drain the iPhone's battery?
Because normal people just never close apps. Are they silently shut down/paused after a while?