Seems global outage: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/25/whatsapp-is-down-globally.ht... Each time this happens I try to recruit more people to use Signal.
Call me old fashioned. I email.
Why not IRC? That's old fashion, and amazing :)
Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
81–90 of 132 posts
Re: Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Much better in that it is open source (so you can audit the e2ee), and it does a lot about metadata. It is actually better at protecting metadata than many decentralized alternatives. Nobody said it was perfect. It's just better.
WhatsApp actually uses signal protocol for e2ee
Can I see the source to make sure?
Re: Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
#83This is the time when people search for alternate messaging apps like Signal, Telegram :) Totally forgot that I have installed both those apps and opened them today after more than a year.
Is it also the time to remind about the fact that Telegram is not end-to-end encrypted? I mean, the "secret chats" are end-to-end encrypted, but if you use Telegram that's the last thing you want to use.
If you use Telegram with only the secret chats, then Signal is better. If you use all the cool features of Telegram, then your communications are not end-to-end encrypted (i.e. the Telegram server and whoever can hack them can read everything).
Re: Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
#84UK Government shuts down
So no change then
Re: Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s generally bad etiquette to send SMS because it forces the other side to potentially have to pay money to reply. And if it’s cross-border then just forget it. Unless you are both on iPhones.
Yeah, but it's not considered bad etiquette to give in to WhatsApp's nagging to send your complete contacts so they can build their fscking social graph, thereby grossly violating EU GDPR in that phone numbers are personally identifiable information? And yes, it's you who's violating that law by handing out PII others shared with you under an implied assumption of confidentiality unless you've written consent by ever…
If you use SMS then you are sending not just your metadata, but the content of your messages in cleartext to your provider and the recipient’s, and depending on where you/your recipient lives, potentially the authorities too.
I’m all for living under a privacy rock, but WhatsApp is a much better rock than SMS.
Re: Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
They can still text regularly though, so it isn't that much of an issue if there's a real need to communicate. Edit: I feel like every response I'm getting is: 'but texting is expensive, especially with foreign contacts'. Sure, but do you really need to send 100 texts in the odd hour that Whatsapp is offline sometimes, or can they wait? Parent wrote 'This is a big issue in Europe', which is what I'm responding to. I…
This is slightly impractical for non-critical communication for me because many of my friends are foreigners like me. Example issues: - many people I talk to have phone numbers from different countries. Making such communication expensive. - also, I suspect many people around me have not updated their WhatsApp number for a while (or have multiple SIMs) - no one here optimises for SMS or call minutes. Some people will…
So, do you need to be in touch with these people instantly 24/7? Because if that's the case it's useful to have some sort of back-up. If it isn't, then the usual Whatsapp outage isn't actually an issue for you, since it takes a couple of hours in the absolute worst case scenario. And if you really need to get in touch, you won't care that calling them is a bit expensive.
Re: Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Much better in that it is open source (so you can audit the e2ee), and it does a lot about metadata. It is actually better at protecting metadata than many decentralized alternatives. Nobody said it was perfect. It's just better.
WhatsApp actually uses signal protocol for e2ee
Signal doesn't press you to setup (by default) unencrypted cloud backups.
Re: Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
#88In Europe it's used a lot by small businesses etc. it's pretty bad if it's not reliable. The metaverse better be real good, else Meta will be in serious decline.
If it's not decentralized like the internet itself, it will never work. Over and over again we learn that centralization doesn't not work.
What does "doesn't work" mean here, and who learns that lesson?
E-mail is decentralized, but every now and then a hn post pops up, complaining about how you can't run your own email server these days. Billions of people don't use email for personal communication, but use centralized apps like WhatsApp and many businesses do the same with WhatsApp, Slack and similar apps.
To me it looks like running a centralized service works really well for companies like Meta and Google and the fast majority of people pick those services over something else. I don't think many people will change their mind about this because of one outage.
Re: Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
#89Anything to do with the unusually large message and photo spike of Diwali messages globally?
Mine got delivered though
Re: Tell HN: WhatsApp Is Down
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
They can still text regularly though, so it isn't that much of an issue if there's a real need to communicate. Edit: I feel like every response I'm getting is: 'but texting is expensive, especially with foreign contacts'. Sure, but do you really need to send 100 texts in the odd hour that Whatsapp is offline sometimes, or can they wait? Parent wrote 'This is a big issue in Europe', which is what I'm responding to. I…
In Europe you're degrading all the way to basic SMS because as far as i know MMS never worked properly. So basic text only, no emoji's or media attachments.
If not being able to send emoji or media attachments for a couple of hours is a 'big issue' for you, then I really feel for you, honestly. I have no idea what that would be like, but for me it's pretty trivial, Like I think it would be for most.