> Newton-Rex said privacy is “in the DNA” of WhatsApp and that the company is trying to clearly communicate with users about what privacy protections WhatsApp offers and where.<p>This is bunk. If someone is added to a Group Chat they get everyone's phone number. There's near zero privacy for Groups and Communities.<p>This sort of article is a puff-piece for WhatsApp.
Interesting article and I must say I am quite surprised having used Whatsapp religiously for now over a decade that I had never heard about _WhatsApp for Business_. Makes me wonder when I will get to interact with this part of the app too... Not that I want to though.
Due to WhatsApp for Business, my inbox is constantly flooded with spam and scams. Companies register hundreds of numbers, and no matter how many I block, they always find new ones to message me. The worst part is that reporting and blocking seem completely ineffective on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp after that Facebook acquisition has simply become worse.<p>More buggy, more clunky, lists of useless features like "communities", Facebook like pages.<p>I will soon be leaving it and being exclusively on signal.
In the US, while many I know use iMessage or Android send via SMS/RCS, most all my friends and family also have Facebook Messenger and most all seem to end up sending there since one doesn't have to worry about if Apple/Android, or which features are supported etc. The only big downside is Facebook Messenger strips all meta data, so unlike say Apple Messages, not good for sending photos to friends family since won't have the correct date, location, etc (which you can turn on/off on Apple Messages), and with messages can send as large or as many as I want in one message so they can easily add to their Photo library with a click. With Facebook Messenger, even with the new HD feature (you annoying have to click each time), you still have limitations on how many and size you can send. Hoping Messenger or or WhatsApp eventually seamlessly support that. Some apps say they do but you have to add photo as a "file" which ends up with lots of down sides from a user experience. Also if WhatsApp is so popular hopefully eventually they let you merge your Messenger data into What's App since can't imagine starting in a new app and losing a lifetime of messages history. Was excited for RCS, but so far, has been problematic where sometimes RCS is enabled for a contact other times for same contact its not. Or slow to send, though is preserving meta data it seem now. But no support for replies, which is a deal breaker and of course not encrypted at all.
Even without WhatsApp for business, it's changed the world. I'm an American in the US and have multiple messaging apps on my phone, but have recently taken recruiter calls via WhatsApp from overseas headhunters. It was surprising, and I'm still a bit befuddled when my phone rings and it's an app that isn't indicating a POTS call, especially if I haven't received a text message in advance to let me know it's coming.
I was thinking about the same yesterday, if there is something that can be done to tell people why it is so bad to do business on whatsapp. I don't know why so many love it other than convenience. The replies get lost and they are lazy to scroll and ask for the same information again. Many professionals like accountants want to share all confidential information on whatsapp and don't even care for sending an email. That mixed with a new style of writing short hand, 'S' for a yes and one word reply instead of an answer that requires a sentence at the least. All manners have died, just the damn text and pictures instead of a proper communication.
It‘s worth noting that they are doing all of this expansion on top of (or parallel to?) the Signal protocol.<p>Does anyone have specifics on how they do it, what compromises they‘re making? Because they are doing it on a whole different scale than Signal and any other e2ee messenger I’m aware of (take note, Matrix folks)
> These users send more than 100 billion messages every day in 60 languages<p>How do they know what language the messages are in? Isn’t WhatsApp “end to end encrypted, for real, trust your pals at Facebook”(tm)?
Somewhat related, every time I open the web client of WhatsApp I see the side widget animating through my history. What is going on here? As a programmer, this looks like some very lazy work, but I wonder if there is more to it (?)
whatsapp should be divested from fb(meta). and yeah the business api has a lot of potential.<p>I don't know whether a fb account is required though to use the api.