It's Apples platform. Obviously the privacy rules will be worded in a way, that make Apple's own apps look good.
Showing screenshots from the app store privacy section does not prove a lot, in my opinion.
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WhatsApp Reaches 100 Million Monthly Users in the United States
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Showing screenshots from the app store privacy section does not prove a lot, in my opinion.
One of the reasons I've always preferred WhatsApp to other apps like Signal is that its desktop app was pretty good.
Now they've replaced their Electron app for macOS with a SwiftUI rewrite that is quite terrible (but admittedly uses half the RAM). All that effort could have been spent on the iPad app instead.
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Too little too late for iMessage. Still no desktop client for windows either. As much as I hate Meta unfortunately everyone I contact uses WhatsApp so that’s the universal messaging app for me.
Sure, Meta can't see your actual messages, but they can see what groups you're a member of, which ones you're more actively engaged in, who you regularly IM with, who they IM with, which of those people you also IM with... Plus it gives Meta access to your contacts and their phone numbers without requiring any consent from them.
That's all gold to marketers.
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Honestly Apple QA is getting worse and worseand they treat users as their QA (just the other day I got update from the feedback assistant 'check latest beta OS...ffs... the case was easily reproducible..)
A for WhatsApp -good development IMHO but it would have been better if FB were never allowed to buy it (nor Instagram for that matter) -it would have been fum watching FB whining about cross platform compat
Except that SMS is a very limited and archaic option in 2024 and your operator will still charge you if you happen to send your text across the border of your country.
WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Viber, etc. exist just because two major players on the market (Google and Apple) could not agree on a common modern cross-platform messaging standard. In addition, WhatsApp gives you cross platform video chats to boot.
RCS is a very welcome step in the right direction and I do hope both Google and Apple can make it work well for all.
It costs the recipient. My friends in Europe have to pay for each SMS text they receive because some providers there are stuck in the early 90s…
Actually didn’t know you could do that, thanks I’ll take a look later.
iMessage only works for Apple, so WhatApp is just the defacto standard app every single person I know has for cross-platform comms if you want it encrypted and pictures/groups. Signal/Telegram are noticeably newer and half the world isn't going to move on to that without a massively good kick (people like my mum, dad, sister and all my non-techy friends won't move for seemingly no reason they can tell).
So WhatApp is ony going to get bigger until the point RCS becomes ubiquitous. So ironically it's partly Apple's fault for not supporting RCS sooner that a lot of us have to share metadata with Meta if we want modern cross-platform group comms. I'll be interested to see how much its user base gets decimated when RCS is everywhere and cross-platform.
So WhatApp is ony going to get bigger until the point RCS becomes ubiquitous. So ironically it's partly Apple's fault for not supporting RCS sooner that a lot of us have to share metadata with Meta if we want modern cross-platform group comms. I'll be interested to see how much its user base gets decimated when RCS is everywhere and cross-platform.
I like the iOS 18 beta because I can now just text my friends in Europe who use Android using RCS and they incur any extra charges.
It’s nice to just use the iOS Messages app for everything, and not have to have any third party apps like Signal or WhatsApp.
It’s nice to just use the iOS Messages app for everything, and not have to have any third party apps like Signal or WhatsApp.
FOI requests are for reports on what the US federal government agencies has on has, not private companies. I've done a FOI request on myself before and it came back empty.
You can either trust Apple knowing that if they lied and it came out that they are lying it would be a gigantic disaster for them, or you can believe baseless conspiracy theories.
I trust the fact that Apple fought the FBI for user privacy, that iPhones are the least hackable phones with Cellebrite, that iMessage uses contact key verification and Apple just introduced quantum-computing-resistant encryption to iMessage.
But sure, you are free to ignore all that as well as regular independent security audits and believe that Apple are lying about it all and can access user data nonetheless. Not sure it’s the most intelligent thing to do though.
Great info but at the same time not so surprising.
I must say that I have nothing against companies collecting data. What I ferociously object to is the fact that they monetize this data. As long as companies () collect some data to better their product, provide me the right services etc.. I am all for it. Just don't be a creep by selling my data to the highest bidder, unfortunately 99% of the web is creepy (this website included)
It’s a bit hard to claim that iMessage is a monopoly when that has not prevented competing messaging apps from gaining traction in the US.
Me too. I have never really heard of anyone in the US using it and I run in geeky circles that would yap about this. I wonder if it's bigger around immigrant populations or something because if 1/3 of the population is using it I would expect it to be everywhere. Pretty wild growth.
But my point, iMessage is not a lock in. People may prefer to stay with Apple because of iMessage, but there isn’t anything that needs to be done with iMessage if someone goes to Android. Their friends will see green instead of blue, that’s it.
I never said anything else about the other stuff you mentioned.
Anecdotal. I find the beta of iOS 18 and also with iOS 17 to be among the most bug-free releases in years, so would disagree with that statement.
Fact: WhatsApp provides all metadata - as well as your contact list - to Facebook.
That includes who you talk to, when, how often, etc
Very unfortunate because Meta is well Meta. Wish Apple had not held out and gone with RCS with Google a long time ago. I still prefer iMessage, and most of my social circle is iMessage so this doesn’t change anything much for me. Just hate to see Meta gain any great numbers for their products. A security nightmare.
I think WhatsApp is still a long way away from taking a foothold in North America, but Apple is gonna have to really sure up RCS with iOS 18 for it not to start losing some ground.