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> Can’t Talk‘s premise is simple. All it does is automatically reply to people when you aren’t around, making use of the quick reply (RemoteInput) API native to

> Can’t Talk‘s premise is simple. All it does is automatically reply to people when you aren’t around, making use of the quick reply (RemoteInput) API native to Android. […] It’s a paid application if you want to support more than SMS and calls, such as WhatsApp, Slack, and a lot more. > DirectChat is another useful application. It works just like Facebook Messenger’s chat bubbles but it supports a lot of different applications too. It feeds your chats into another window where you can then reply back as well. Its most popular usage was probably with WhatsApp. I think the "Cease and Desist" letters are being sent because these two specific apps, unless there are others not mentioned by these article, are making use of APIs that are not directly part of WhatsApp but interact with it in a kind of direct way. I wonder if the letters were sent directly to the developers or via Google Play.

thecatspaw 8y ago
You are right, they dont interact with whatsapp directly, but indirectly through a android API. The android API cannot be covered by the whatsapp terms (which the developers never agreed to according to the title)
- bodas 8y ago
  I don't believe that. They never installed Whatsapp? The intersection of people who build chat accessory apps and people who have never installed Whatsapp is surely empty.
  - gmueckl 8y ago
    Doesn't WhatsApp have separate terms for users and APIs? Would be weird if these were the same terms.
  - rpeden 8y ago
    I think it depends on where in the world the user is from. Where I'm located, it doesn't seem like WhatsApp is used much, or at all. I don't think I've ever met anyone in my personal or professional lives who uses it. So if I were building an app using these APIs, it probably wouldn't even occur to me to test it with WhatsApp. I'd test it with Messenger, sure, and SMS. Maybe even Hangouts, or whatever the newest Google chat app is. I don't think it's farfetched to think that someone could have received one of these notices even though they've never used WhatsApp.

thecatspaw 8y ago

You are right, they dont interact with whatsapp directly, but indirectly through a android API. The android API cannot be covered by the whatsapp terms (which the developers never agreed to according to the title)

bodas 8y ago
I don't believe that. They never installed Whatsapp? The intersection of people who build chat accessory apps and people who have never installed Whatsapp is surely empty.
- gmueckl 8y ago
  Doesn't WhatsApp have separate terms for users and APIs? Would be weird if these were the same terms.
- rpeden 8y ago
  I think it depends on where in the world the user is from. Where I'm located, it doesn't seem like WhatsApp is used much, or at all. I don't think I've ever met anyone in my personal or professional lives who uses it. So if I were building an app using these APIs, it probably wouldn't even occur to me to test it with WhatsApp. I'd test it with Messenger, sure, and SMS. Maybe even Hangouts, or whatever the newest Google chat app is. I don't think it's farfetched to think that someone could have received one of these notices even though they've never used WhatsApp.