Mark Zuckerberg Plans to Make Facebook Messenger, Instagram Messaging, and WhatsApp Interoperable

[genovelle]

I wish:
- USG would force FB to divest these apps.
- Apple would make iMessage universally available.

They allowed them to purchase them in the first place. Reducing competition. They are following their plan just making it a customer feature.

Apple originally wanted to make iMessages cross platform but received no interest from the others, so they did their own thing and then had no interest in doing it. Now might be a good way if they allow Apple Pay to send money to non Apple devices.

 

[timber]

Why not use Telegram?

I try to spread Telegram use among the people I know but it is as expected an uphill battle.

People even try to use Facebook Messenger which is awful at some many levels. It doesn't even manage to be a friendly and nice app to use.

 

[KPandian1]

They already have access to the information. They own both of the other companies. You don’t sell your soul then complain about how it’s being used.

They (FB) had access to the "information" I gave them; I use it as little as possible, no Birthday wishes for me in it. No photo sharing or stalking.

FB does not have my phone number. The merger will compromise that. A phone number gives too much info. I'll try to not link the accounts.

I use iMessage as much as possible - but some countries count those in text billing. WhatsApp is how the college group are communicating - so stuck there. Nothing else.

Is some patent preventing Apple from going multi-platform with iMessage and FaceTime? VOiP costs nothing extra.

Can the various governments reverse the permission and breakup this group.

 

[RickDEGH]

Why not use Telegram?

In one of my research groups, for example, everyone uses an iPhone. However, the natural gravitation is towards WhatsApp. Yesterday I tried to send a 48mins voice memo, which I recorded on my XS Max, to my colleagues using iMessage. The send button wouldn’t even move. There was no way to start the message from iMessage and then choose a voice memo. I tried WhatsApp and voila!

 

[KPandian1]

Why not use Telegram?

Is that (Telegram) an app or are we talking Morse-code?

 

[timber]

Is that (Telegram) an app or are we talking Morse-code?

There you go

Q: What is Telegram? What do I do here?
Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security, it’s super-fast, simple and free. You can use Telegram on all your devices at the same time — your messages sync seamlessly across any number of your phones, tablets or computers.

With Telegram, you can send messages, photos, videos and files of any type (doc, zip, mp3, etc), as well as create groups for up to 200,000 people or channels for broadcasting to unlimited audiences. You can write to your phone contacts and find people by their usernames. As a result, Telegram is like SMS and email combined — and can take care of all your personal or business messaging needs. In addition to this, we support end-to-end encrypted voice calls.

 

[lewchenko]

I wish I could get everyone I know to abandon the Zucker-goat-killer app empire.

Perhaps this will be enough to convince people to finally do it. Despise everything he stands for (especially Facebook) , and his recent showing at congress (and absence in the UK equivalent panel) show his utter contempt for the people.

 

[sunapple]

Why not use Telegram?

I don't know the ins and outs of Telegram, but right now everyone's on WhatsApp so there's not really a choice. But if the new WhatsApp sucks, who knows what they'll pick up.

Why did we all choose WhatsApp in the first place? Its always was the messaging app with the least features, the least exciting.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

If *uckerberg wants people to use his apps more, maybe instead of crossbreeding all of them, he should concentrate on their efficiency. FB is still the largest battery hog out there, even more than Maps (which has a legitimate reason to be using juice).

Oh, and stop hoovering up any scrap of data he can get.

 

[NomadicTy]

Wipe phone clean.
Don't install FB, FB Messenger, nor Instagram. Access those via web browsers.
Use WhatsApp app since there is no option

Would the above work in keeping those profiles "separate" in Zuckie's systems?

 

[cableguy84]

Wish i could leave whatsapp but literally everyone uses it.

 

[chabig]

In FaceBook’s dictionary, “end-to-end encryption” means between you and their servers!

Further, there have been calls to break up FaceBook. Tightly integrating the messaging components permits them to argue that such a breakup is technically not possible. This was Microsoft’s antitrust defense—arguing that it wasn’t technically possible to separate IE from Windows.

 

[Pepe4life]

Here’s the funny thing, so many clueless people are boycotting Facebook while they continue to spend hours everyday using Instagram and whatsapp, being ignorant to the fact that both services are also owned by scumbag Zuck.

 

[QCassidy352]

I don’t know how anyone could trust anything even remotely sensitive to Facebook.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Like? iMessage is a non-starter till Apple opens it up to non-Apple systems.
[doublepost=1548431004][/doublepost]

It's what a majority of the population use. As much as I love iMessage, there are those that don't want to fork over the cost for an Apple device. As such, I've relied on WhatsApp just as much as iMessage to communicate with people.

There are literally dozens of chat apps out there which pretty solid user populations. Viber, Hangouts, Skype, Wechat, Telegram, and Signal.

Personally, I don't find any of these apps, including WhatsApp, to be super useful above and beyond basic SMS. I only use them when I have a friend that insists on it, or when communicating across country lines.

 

[KPandian1]

There you go

Thank you.

I wish I could get everyone I know to abandon the Zucker-goat-killer app empire.
Despise everything he stands for (especially Facebook) , and his recent showing at congress shows his utter contempt for the people.

Don't down-sell goat killing! Somebody has to do it. Not this freak, though. Creepy and perverted; delegation of work is there as a thing for a reason.

What else do we expect from the top 100 or so richest, too young, too powerful, geek with a definite antisocial streak as his foundation.

No one I know will leave WhatsApp - most are still in Yahoo Groups for keeping the conversation going, even now.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

Wipe phone clean.
Don't install FB, FB Messenger, nor Instagram. Access those via web browsers.
Use WhatsApp app since there is no option

Would the above work in keeping those profiles "separate" in Zuckie's systems?

It might only if there was never any duplication of data in one app/web-site login; once they see duplication the accounts will be linked. So you would need different real names, usernames, passwords, photos, contacts, email address etc in each one of Facebooks products.

But you would be wasting your time; instead of harvesting data from one big pile of data they will harvest it from three smaller piles of data. (and plus at some point you'll slip-up with the duplication business).

 

[69Mustang]

FB does not have my phone number. The merger will compromise that. A phone number gives too much info. I'll try to not link the accounts.

If they don't have your phone number, how will this compromise that?

Is some patent preventing Apple from going multi-platform with iMessage and FaceTime? VOiP costs nothing extra.

Afaik, VirnetX patents are the big hold up. Microsoft already lost their case, settled and licensed the patents. Hence Skype not having the same issues.

Can the various governments reverse the permission and breakup this group.

Technically yes. The hurdle would be extremely high. Plus, with all the lobbying money FB (and the tech industry in general) spends... you know, money talks.
Google $21B
Amazon $14B
Facebook $13B
Microsoft $9B
Apple $6B

 

[prasand]

I guess I’m in the minority ... but I honestly like this idea. Stopped using FB years ago, but minimizing the number of communication apps to manage is efficient.

Would be great if I could disable DMs in IG and have them only sent through WhatsApp for example. So that I could use IG for image browsing but WhatsApp for secure messaging. Or, maybe i’ll go full on with IG and delete WhatsApp.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

All the money in the world doesn’t buy morals.

 

[KPandian1]

If they don't have your phone number, how will this compromise that?

If they force a merger of the WhatsApp account to Facebook, FB gets my phone number.

Not that my info is not out there, but I try not to hand it over for silly SM.

Afaik, VirnetX patents are the big hold up. Microsoft already lost their case, settled and licensed the patents. Hence Skype not having the same issues.

Doesn't FRAND apply here?

 

[C DM]

If they force a merger of the WhatsApp account to Facebook, FB gets my phone number.

Not that my info is not out there, but I try not to hand it over for silly SM.




Doesn't FRAND apply here?

Realistically speaking, FB already has it since they own WhatsApp. They might not perhaps expose it somewhere in the FB UI or something like that, but as far as data that FB as a company has on you as a user, it's basically a combination of what they have from FB, Instagram, WhatsApp, and likely some other sources.

 

[TwoBytes]

And this is a good reason why iMessage will fail.... come on Apple, release iMessage for Android users and sort out proper grouping so every new conversation doesn't create a new group!

 

[0970373]

I don't know the ins and outs of Telegram, but right now everyone's on WhatsApp so there's not really a choice. But if the new WhatsApp sucks, who knows what they'll pick up.

Why did we all choose WhatsApp in the first place? Its always was the messaging app with the least features, the least exciting.

There's a choice, it just makes things a little more difficult. I have told the small number of people I have left that use WhatsApp that I am no longer on WhatsApp but please use Telegram if they want to contact me. Otherwise, send a costly international text or use iMessage. They opened a Telegram account eventually or started using iMessage. Wasn't easy and not everyone did but those ppl email me if they need something. You just gotta put your foot down and be prepared to lose a few folks. Most everyone understands if you tell them it's because of Facebook privacy concerns.

And as for why we started using WhatsApp, well, they didn't start out as being owned by FB. When everyone started to move to iPhones, these apps were born out of trying to find an alternative to BB Messenger (pre-iMessage). And there were a few but WhatsApp was the best one and it won. Probably because it wasn't filed w/ crap from day 1.

 

[nburwell]

Wish i could leave whatsapp but literally everyone uses it.

Agreed. I'd love to move to Telegram for all of the group chats I'm part of on WhatsApp. But that will most likely never happen.

This is definitely a response to Apple's iMessage. Zuck hopes to somehow convince Apple users to ditch iMessage in favor of his apps. Not going to happen, dude.