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What about security? Do you feeel that meta’s security rhetoric (recent commercials saying they can’t read messages etc) is true or hollow speak?…
What about it?

The fact that they don't store all of the messages in the cloud and force you to sync messages between devices offline or on a third party storage provider is technically secure but at the cost of UX.
 
  1. WhatsApp became popular before Telegram or Signal, notably after the death of BlackBerry.
  2. People use WhatsApp because other people use WhatsApp - it's the network effect.
  3. Meta owns WhatsApp (and Instagram and Facebook), hence there's synergy among them.
My point is the UX is so terribly bad that it doesn't make sense as to why people still put up with this app.
 
An iPad App as a new feature in 2025... just pathetic... less pathetic than no iPad app, but the bar is very very low at this point. In particular because it's 99% sure not gonna be a standalone app but depending on the iPhone App. If you want that, you can just open it in the iPad browser already.
 
Why would anyone in 2025 want to put a Meta product on any device? What kind of glutton for punishment are these people? Do you like being a sheep? A product? Do you not care about your privacy or the privacy of your entire contact list, what you do, where you go? I don't get why someone would give themselves over to a company as evil as Facebook. There is no excuses unless you're just a slave to shiny products, when, much as someone is going to try to make excuses, there are alternatives right down to just SMS/MMS.
WhatsApp is the standard for social Messaging across most of the world. For most people it's their most critical app. It's certainly not iMessage or anything else.
 
Why people use WhatsApp over Telegram is beyond me. The worst and most annoying messenger app in the world. Classic example of security and privacy negatively impacting UX
Telegram is no better than WhatsApp when Apple & Google dictate what groups are censored on Telegram for it to remain available in Apple & Google App Stores.

Certain channels I was following now only display "Unfortunately this channel couldn't be displayed on your device" due to censorship. I can view them when I login to Telegram web app, but Apple & Google forced censorship on devices. Rendered Telegram useless in lots of ways as they caved in.

Signal is the last remaining privacy focussed messaging app, but hardly anyone uses it apart from criminals & Government officials, which is the same thing really.
 
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Why people use WhatsApp over Telegram is beyond me. The worst and most annoying messenger app in the world. Classic example of security and privacy negatively impacting UX
I use Telegram primarily and resist installing the WhatsApp for various reasons. Yet, lot of my friends insists that Telegram is popular with the far-right extremist, conspiracy theorists, criminals, and such due to its refusal to screen the conversations and suspend the users for "violating the guidelines" as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and others do in the past. I was "eh?" So, I have chosen the friends and associates carefully based on whether they use Telegram or not.
 


The popular messaging app WhatsApp has teased a long-awaited iPad app, which would be offered alongside its existing iPhone and Mac apps.

Whatsapp-Feature.jpg

The official WhatsApp account on X today reacted with an eyes emoji to a post saying that WhatsApp should release an iPad app. This could be a hint that Meta is gearing up to release WhatsApp for iPad, which has already been available for beta testing via TestFlight for nearly two years. File this news under "finally."

With an Instagram app for the iPad also reportedly in the works, it appears that Meta is at last embracing the iPad for more of its most popular apps.

In addition to WhatsApp and Instagram, Meta owns Facebook and Threads. There is an iPad app for Facebook, but the Threads app remains iPhone only.

Article Link: WhatsApp Teases Long-Awaited iPad App
Great news! Using WhatsApp on the iPad has been a pain through workarounds. Hope the native app delivers a solid experience.
 
Why would anyone in 2025 want to put a Meta product on any device? What kind of glutton for punishment are these people? Do you like being a sheep? A product? Do you not care about your privacy or the privacy of your entire contact list, what you do, where you go? I don't get why someone would give themselves over to a company as evil as Facebook. There is no excuses unless you're just a slave to shiny products, when, much as someone is going to try to make excuses, there are alternatives right down to just SMS/MMS.
I live somewhere where *everyone* uses WhatsApp and SMS is rarely, if ever, used. Just to give you a short, non-exhaustive list of who in my life uses WhatsApp:
- My friends and family
- My coworkers
- My kid’s school
- My ISP
- My vet
- My bank
- My doctor
- My insurance agent
- My kid’s after-school activity’s parent group
- My neighborhood group

People in the USA have no idea of the reach and grasp that WhatsApp has had in other parts of the world even before Meta acquired it, so comments like @ImageWrangler ’s are incredibly ignorant. Do I wish people used *anything* other than a Meta product? Absolutely. Is it feasible? Not at all, unfortunately.
 
There are many decentralised messaging apps out there (I recommend Matrix https://matrix.org) we just need critical mass to make the shift.

Perhaps RCS might win by default now Apple finally pulled their finger out.

The whole reason WhatsApp and Telegram got popular in the first place is because SMS stagnated because Apple and Google couldn’t see past their walled garden strategies until now. Yet another reason why relying on big companies to build good infrastructure is a bad idea.
 
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Let’s be realistic: It’s likely they already have access to many, if not all, of your contacts through other people who did share their full contact list. For the vast majority of people it’s gonna be impossible to keep track of who shared what via-via with whom. At least that’s gonna be the scenario for most out there.

He/They've had access to mind for 18 years now and guess what - nothing has happened.

Probably another of your friends has already uploaded you anyway.
This is a sad way to think about things. People just give up and think well. I don’t have privacy anyway so you can have all my information. In a way I understand it, but if you just completely lay down and give up then it’s going to get worse.
 
Why people use WhatsApp over Telegram is beyond me. The worst and most annoying messenger app in the world. Classic example of security and privacy negatively impacting UX
WhatsApp is very popular on some countries. I use telegram for my family but still using WhatsApp for others.
 
Uh, no. I expect Apple to allow an app written for iOS to be run on an iOS device (iPadOS is iOS with some tweaks as we all know). There's something called "windowed mode."

Just more proof that iOS is inferior to the competition, I guess.
Apple does allow iPhone apps to run on the iPad, always has. The iPad also has a “windowed” mode.
Meta, however, chose to opt out of letting the iPhone app running on the iPad.
Also, how would you know if it’s better or worse than the competition, this comment here literally tells me that you have never used an iPad.
 
Telegram is no better than WhatsApp when Apple & Google dictate what groups are censored on Telegram for it to remain available in Apple & Google App Stores.

Certain channels I was following now only display "Unfortunately this channel couldn't be displayed on your device" due to censorship. I can view them when I login to Telegram web app, but Apple & Google forced censorship on devices. Rendered Telegram useless in lots of ways as they caved in.

Signal is the last remaining privacy focussed messaging app, but hardly anyone uses it apart from criminals & Government officials, which is the same thing really.
You can disable the censorship in Desktop or Web Telegram which will propagate to the iOS app.
 
The iPad app has been in beta forever, as well as multiple accounts. I don’t care how much they tease a release, I’ll believe it when it’s actually released
 
Uh, no. I expect Apple to allow an app written for iOS to be run on an iOS device (iPadOS is iOS with some tweaks as we all know). There's something called "windowed mode."

Just more proof that iOS is inferior to the competition, I guess.
Ah, well in that I agree.
 
It's a messaging app, what do you expect?
On iOS you can run Whatsapp without access to contacts, photos, mic, cam, gps. Thats my configuration. I would never give zuck ( or any other app like telegram etc) access to my contact list or photos lib. In case of restricting access to contacts you see the phone no. and the avataor. Btw there are messaging apps with integrated contact management like signal.
 
This is a sad way to think about things. People just give up and think well. I don’t have privacy anyway so you can have all my information. In a way I understand it, but if you just completely lay down and give up then it’s going to get worse.
I’m not saying you should start using WhatsApp by any means. There are many valid reasons why. However to think you’re actually protecting anyone’s contact information by not doing so is a bit ridiculous at this point. That’s all.
 
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