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WhatsApp Going Entirely Free After Dropping Subscription Fees
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Yeah I wouldn't really call that "storage" -- "Buffering" is technically more accurate.
It's not really different to a router which maintains a send-buffer, only that the timeline is longer (days rather than milliseconds).
If iMessage is the courier, that storage is just its delivery pile (all in magic wax-sealed envelopes which are un-openable by anybody but the intended recipient). It can't just read your messages out of there. It doesn't maintain any history. It knows bupkis about what you send/receive - it is literally just an end-to-end encrypted courier.
That's different to most other messaging systems. If I log in to Facebook or Google from any device, I see all my history. WhatsApp works in a similar way to iMessage, but only supports one device and only supports telephone numbers to contact people with (hence no native tablet version). iMessage is way better architecturally - which is why the service itself as functional (multi-device, large attachments, contactable by telephone/email) and as secure (end-to-end encrypted) as anything out there. The one flaw is that new devices don't automatically have your message history, so iCloud backup exists to ease that for the most common case.
I know you probably understand this, but I'm writing because lots of other people don't, or get confused about it. Encryption is an important topic these days.
Anyway, it doesn't sound like WhatsApp is going to break that - it sounds like they want to integrate customer service (which is increasingly going towards live-chatting) in to WhatsApp. That sounds relatively benign, and it'd be interesting if they can improve on, say, banking support with things such as simpler authentication.
From memory I'm pretty sure if you kept the same phone number you received. "lifetime service" meaning for as long as you owned that number it was 'free' forever.
I am also pretty sure it was indeed free on iOS a good while ago; my friend has an Android phone and it was 'free' for the first year and 69p thereafter (like it is/was in later years on iOS).
Could have been, I remember getting the message about having pay from them. I deleted their app and moved on, it wasn't really great back then anyway.
It is not true. Neither Facebook nor Google sell your "personal information". They sell advertising. And based on your data, and the data of others, they target ads to you that they think are meaningful. There is no grand conspiracy here. Someone has to pay for all of these services and most people are too cheap to pay even a dollar for an app.
You can change your number as well, but many people just never bother doing that and instead create new accounts. I have used exactly three different numbers with the same account and still have the lifetime service. I actually downloaded WhatsApp while it was free for a few days, back when the app wasn’t really known.
Respectfully, do you know what 'evidence' means? Your original quote was about selling data for ads. No proof there. Now you post links about government data requests. What's the correlation? I'm not sure where you're going honestly. Let's just say you win and call it a day.
I remember paying 99 cents for a year service or an option of 3 bucks lifetime service.
Could not care less eitherway
Could not care less eitherway
Yeah. iPhone to iPhone I use iMessage and those who have the "other kind" I've always used Facebook Messenger. I don't see what's so good about WhatsApp.
Oh yeah that was the one, cheers for clearing it up!
iPhone to other…does…not…compute! Haha I'm quite lucky in the fact that everyone I know owns an apple device, phew!
First thing through my mind is, are they gonna give refunds to those who paid? (Not likely, but I can dream...)
Awesome, I knew some but not all of that about iMessage. Thanks for the information. Clearly iMessage has a lot of advantages over the other messenger protocols.
And yes, it sounds like WhatsApp wants to bring services kind of like many other 3rd world countries are doing with SMS (like banking) or Telegram with its bots (the weather bot or whatever). It's good that there's experimentation going on in this seemingly straightforward medium.
As I'm using an Android for mobile I'll have to stick with Telegram and WhatsApp. (Love my OS X devices and iPad but prefer Android, weird, I know, but it is what it is).
There is nothing good about WhatsApp, but it’s the app that most of your contacts likely will have. WhatsApp existed before iMessage and Facebook Messenger, so there wasn’t always a decent alternative.
It was $1 per year, so depending on the length of service, it would be 200% or 300% of a $1.Dream about a $1 refund? Now that's what I call dreaming big?
Almost a billion people use Whatsapp. No, they will not phase out Whatsapp because "it doesn't make sense".
