HalloApp: a digital space for people who you know and want to connect with

Recent and related:<p><i>Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix social media</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=31267218" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=31267218</a> - May 2022 (155 comments)<p>also: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;neerajarora&#x2F;status&#x2F;1521964283466113024" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;neerajarora&#x2F;status&#x2F;1521964283466113024</a>

Just let me stop you right there as I reiterate what Apple App Store has to say about HalloApp and its privacy:<p><pre><code> Data Linked to You </code></pre> The following data, which may be collected and linked to your identity, may be used for the following purposes:<p>* Contact Info<p>Phone number (your most prized privacy info). This is a FULL-STOP right there in these days and ages.<p>* Contacts<p>Contacts (your entire address book, who would want to pull down the proverbial pants and leave their derrière exposed and tangle with the wind?)<p>* Identifiers<p>User ID (probably your Apple ID, after sufficient reverse mapping).<p>* Diagnostic<p>Crash data, not hard to get even more relational mapping from this.<p>############# # Signal<p>Compare that to SignalApp:<p>* Contact Info<p>That is entire optional and can be left blank within the Settings-&gt;Contacts-&gt;My Card of which that should always be blank.<p>Nothing to see there, move along.

Just took a look at the landing page, but I didn&#x27;t see any information on how they expect to monetize the app. Are they going to charge for it?<p>I&#x27;m fine if they are charging it, but all the problems with social media are pretty much a direct result of their business model. So putting out something that is free, without an explanation of how they eventually expect to pay for it all, is not something I would trust.

While I like the idea, AFAICT there&#x27;s no actual web interface, only access through iPhone&#x2F;Android apps.<p>Which is a deal-breaker for me.<p>That said, is anyone here actually using HalloApp? If so, what are your impressions so far?

What can be done with this that can not be done with a personal WhatsApp&#x2F;Telegram&#x2F;Matrix&#x2F;XMPP group?

Its private, free, and with no ads...<p>... well until we need to make money, when we will sell all of that to someone.

And for this to be a viable thing how is this paying for itself or how will it eventually?

I &quot;trust&quot; it.

Terrible name, but good idea. However, the ecosystem for social media apps is so polluted (just open any app store and see all the &quot;social media app&quot; spam) that gaining any sort of market share is likely not possible.

No web, no thank you! I&#x27;m tired of these mobile-only apps like Snapchap and the likes! I want to be able to move from one device and another without having the phone always in my hand!

How are they going to address the problem of connection creep? (Over time the number of people you add to your friends network increase and cause context collapse)

So this is basically WhatsApp in terms of functionality?

&quot;&quot;

Tip: it&#x27;s not an official grammar rule, but in colloquial terms, scare quotes [1] are often used to indicate that the speaker is being sarcastic or that the quoted thing isn&#x27;t actually true. So a typical American reader might infer from your title that this app is not _really_ &quot;private&quot; or &quot;free&quot;.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Scare_quotes" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Scare_quotes</a>

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;knowyourmeme.com&#x2F;memes&#x2F;dr-evil-air-quotes" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;knowyourmeme.com&#x2F;memes&#x2F;dr-evil-air-quotes</a>