No WhatsApp? No Problem – Guest Chats Are Coming

[ThomasJL]

so apple should have bought what's app just so Facebook could not?

is that what you are saying?

I’m saying that’s a secondary reason. The primary reason is because WhatsApp had much better functionality than iMessage, and was the dominant smartphone messaging platform worldwide at the time, and was still growing rapidly worldwide. Apple could’ve made WhatsApp far better than Facebook ever did. Apple could’ve made WhatsApp a way to draw millions of Android users to Apple, in a similar way that Steve Jobs made the iPhone a way to draw millions of Windows users to Apple.

 

[814MB]

My non-American friends/family use LINE which is even worst that Whatsapp. My American friends insist on using FB Messenger which is worst than both. Signal is great but no one I know uses it.

I love Signal, but my Signal is a sad and barren desert since no one else I know uses it either.

 

[Powerbooky]

There is zero privacy in WhatsApp. I joined recently as I am involved in evaluating some equipment for a manufacturer. Since then, I have received several text messages from businesses on WhatsApp trying to sell me something.

But it is a Meta product, so I guess I should have expected that sort of action.

Meta will use all information they can get their digital paws on. That's where the money is and they will never give that up. My advice to every business IT department: abolish the use of WhatsApp and block it from the company network.

 

[tim_apple]

What platform is Whatsapp not available on?

It's available on: Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, FairOS, OxygenOS.

So tell me which platform is Whatsapp not available for?

Doesn’t matter. It’s still up to Facebook.

 

[svish]

This will be very useful. However would like to have the ability to send media too. Might happen in the future.

 

[mpuk]

Id like to think that it's to expand it's utility. In reality it's probably a stealth applet designed for more Meta data collection.

Zuckerberg at his best.

 

[_barat_]

And how about an native Apple Watch app maybe?

 

[adrianlondon]

The thing that I hate most about WhatsApp is how they manipulate people into thinking that end-to-end encryption ticks all the privacy boxes. Yes, Meta might not be able to read your actual messages but they know who you are, who you message, how often, what groups you're a member of and most active in, what groups your most messaged contacts are members of - all that information is gold.

And when you click the OK button to allow WhatsApp access to your Contacts, are you sure your contacts are happy that you've just shared all of their contact info with Meta? Remember that potentially includes where they work, their job title, their date of birth etc.

Do people not wonder why Meta, a company whose very purpose is to farm and sell user data, would offer a service like WhatsApp if they weren't getting marketable personal data out of it?

I agree with the above, but still use WhatsApp.

I have a Feedback Suggestion open (not looked at by Apple yet/ever) saying we should be able to share contact name and (one) phone number only, just for name/number lookup.

I know (knew - as in I told them to stop, not that I stopped knowing them 😁) people who created a contact to store credit-card PINs, passswords, account numbers etc which of course all get sent over to any app that has contacts access.

 

[Powerbooky]

THIS.

I love Whatsapp (Apple Messages is a proprietary joke), but there absolutely better be a way to block all guest accounts. I don't want anyone contacting me that isn't on my list.

Well... proprietary or not... Apple Messages still is more safe and not full of holes that are exploited by scammers (yet). All the phishing attempts I get over SMS, come from phones compromised by WhatsApp. Sometimes even from spoofed phone numbers of people that had WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger installed. Usually within the same week as they had freshly (re)installed it. The dedicated iPhone of in my department at work was compromised by WhatsApp. Somehow a "community" got itself installed on that phone, with multiple group chats pushing lots of phishing messages. Fortunately a department full of engineers are not fooled that easy. But somehow all the settings that should have blocked automatically adding that "community" were "magically" deleted... probably deliberately by Meta.