8 ms·

Whatsapp daily user here. I understand the need for them to monetize but the second they add advertising and companies into the mix, they lose the sheen of thei

Whatsapp daily user here. I understand the need for them to monetize but the second they add advertising and companies into the mix, they lose the sheen of their app. whatsapp is purely for talking to people I know. That's their selling point for me. I don't want to see companies, ads, offers, sweepstakes or curated content. Just me and my family/friends.

batiudrami 8y ago
The fact is that you will likely continue to use WhatsApp as long as all your friends remain on there though. The trick is to work out how much garbage can be stuffed into the app before people will abandon it en masse. I suspect the threshold is a little lower for Whatsapp than Facebook Messenger as WhatsApp has a higher third world user base who have older, slower handsets and will see performance difficulties - hence Facebook's Lite apps for Android.
- msravi 8y ago
  That threshold is going to be very low, at least for me. If my friends decide not to move, I'll just switch back to plain old regular SMS. I already have an SMS app that has spam filters, and that'll do just fine.
  - roel_v 8y ago
    SMS can't do groups, those are a killer feature of whatsapp.
    - xbmcuser 8y ago
      The new rcs standard solves most of the problems of sms apart from end to end encryption. It might take off if mobile carriers support it.
      - r_c_a_d 8y ago
        I was not aware of RCS until today. Looking at it I can see governments also being very keen to see it take off; since many of them are worried about end-to-end encryption hindering their ability to snoop on private conversations.
      - petepete 8y ago
        It's going to be a long process. Mobile carriers, like mine (O2 UK) don't really stand to gain anything from RCS. Until companies begin to offer additional functionality for RCS users, like branding, rich media and bespoke action buttons[0] and normal people start moaning or switching to a network that does support it, I really can't see them budging on their stance. [0] https://www.openmarket.com/blog/rcs-to-eclipse-apps/ https://www.openmarket.com/blog/rcs-to-eclipse-apps/
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      > SMS can't do groups It can't? My iPhone seems to do this pretty well for SMS; what exactly is it doing to make this work?
      - roel_v 8y ago
        You can send to multiple, I guess that's what you mean? When someone replies, it doesn't neccessarily get send to everyone. It's like email with a bunch of cc's vs listserv.
        saagarjha 8y ago
        So, when I form an SMS group, do my recipients not get it as a group? I was not aware of this. I thought that if I formed a group with A and B, and sent a message to A, it would show up on their side as "saagarjha sent a message to the saagarjha, A, and B group".
        roel_v 8y ago
        Not sure, maybe your SMS client has a way of encoding it somewhere in the metadata, and if the recipient uses the same client, it does show up like that? The SMS 'protocol' (if it's called that) doesn't have it, AFAIK, and no SMS I ever used had such functionality.
      - mugsie 8y ago
        That is probably using MMS, which never really took off (at least in IE)
      - baby 8y ago
        I think this is of iMessage? It's probably not working if one of the user doesn't have an iPhone.
  - ctack 8y ago
    What about Signal or Telegram?
  - baby 8y ago
    how do you SMS your friends abroad?
product50 8y ago
No ads are coming in the messages part of Whatsapp. This is all about showing ads in the Status feature of Whatsapp. I am not sure if that will be enough for you to lose the sheen of their app..
- anilgulecha 8y ago
  Yet.
avip 8y ago
Call me naive, but I hope and believe there’ll be a paid opt out
- tomcooks 8y ago
  At its very beginning, WhatsApp was a paid app so that wouldn't surprise me
  - breakingcups 8y ago
    It would surprise me. The first thing Facebook did when it bought WhatsApp was to rollback the price on iOS and to halt the Android pricing rollout. They don't want you to pay for it, it singles the remaining (ad-served) population out as being less willing to spend money. Not a good message to your advertisers.
- chrisper 8y ago
  I already paid for this app. Why should I pay again?
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > I hope and believe there’ll be a paid opt out I don’t. This isn’t how Facebook works. Paid opt outs drain the highest-earning advertisees from the pool. That removes Facebook’s ability to charge dubious ad rates.
  - anticensor 8y ago
    Do you mean "user" by "advertisee"? If you do, it is like Stallman saying "used" for SAAS users.
- Fnoord 8y ago
  I'd rather pay than see ads, but either way I got a better alternative waiting for a network effect (Signal).
kayoone 8y ago
In some asian markets messengers are exactly the nightmare you describe and it seems to work brilliantly for them, users essentially spend all their time inside those messenger and even buy a lot of the stuff they need from there. If it's convenient enough, sadly not a lot of people will care.
- umichguy 8y ago
  China and WeChat springs to the top of my mind. You can pretty much buy anything you need using it, including giving tips, giving money to buskers etc.

batiudrami 8y ago

The fact is that you will likely continue to use WhatsApp as long as all your friends remain on there though. The trick is to work out how much garbage can be stuffed into the app before people will abandon it en masse. I suspect the threshold is a little lower for Whatsapp than Facebook Messenger as WhatsApp has a higher third world user base who have older, slower handsets and will see performance difficulties - hence Facebook's Lite apps for Android.

msravi 8y ago
That threshold is going to be very low, at least for me. If my friends decide not to move, I'll just switch back to plain old regular SMS. I already have an SMS app that has spam filters, and that'll do just fine.
- roel_v 8y ago
  SMS can't do groups, those are a killer feature of whatsapp.
  - xbmcuser 8y ago
    The new rcs standard solves most of the problems of sms apart from end to end encryption. It might take off if mobile carriers support it.
    - r_c_a_d 8y ago
      I was not aware of RCS until today. Looking at it I can see governments also being very keen to see it take off; since many of them are worried about end-to-end encryption hindering their ability to snoop on private conversations.
    - petepete 8y ago
      It's going to be a long process. Mobile carriers, like mine (O2 UK) don't really stand to gain anything from RCS. Until companies begin to offer additional functionality for RCS users, like branding, rich media and bespoke action buttons[0] and normal people start moaning or switching to a network that does support it, I really can't see them budging on their stance. [0] https://www.openmarket.com/blog/rcs-to-eclipse-apps/ https://www.openmarket.com/blog/rcs-to-eclipse-apps/
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    > SMS can't do groups It can't? My iPhone seems to do this pretty well for SMS; what exactly is it doing to make this work?
    - roel_v 8y ago
      You can send to multiple, I guess that's what you mean? When someone replies, it doesn't neccessarily get send to everyone. It's like email with a bunch of cc's vs listserv.
      - saagarjha 8y ago
        So, when I form an SMS group, do my recipients not get it as a group? I was not aware of this. I thought that if I formed a group with A and B, and sent a message to A, it would show up on their side as "saagarjha sent a message to the saagarjha, A, and B group".
        roel_v 8y ago
        Not sure, maybe your SMS client has a way of encoding it somewhere in the metadata, and if the recipient uses the same client, it does show up like that? The SMS 'protocol' (if it's called that) doesn't have it, AFAIK, and no SMS I ever used had such functionality.
    - mugsie 8y ago
      That is probably using MMS, which never really took off (at least in IE)
    - baby 8y ago
      I think this is of iMessage? It's probably not working if one of the user doesn't have an iPhone.
- ctack 8y ago
  What about Signal or Telegram?
- baby 8y ago
  how do you SMS your friends abroad?

product50 8y ago

No ads are coming in the messages part of Whatsapp. This is all about showing ads in the Status feature of Whatsapp. I am not sure if that will be enough for you to lose the sheen of their app..

anilgulecha 8y ago
Yet.

avip 8y ago

Call me naive, but I hope and believe there’ll be a paid opt out

tomcooks 8y ago
At its very beginning, WhatsApp was a paid app so that wouldn't surprise me
- breakingcups 8y ago
  It would surprise me. The first thing Facebook did when it bought WhatsApp was to rollback the price on iOS and to halt the Android pricing rollout. They don't want you to pay for it, it singles the remaining (ad-served) population out as being less willing to spend money. Not a good message to your advertisers.
chrisper 8y ago
I already paid for this app. Why should I pay again?
JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> I hope and believe there’ll be a paid opt out I don’t. This isn’t how Facebook works. Paid opt outs drain the highest-earning advertisees from the pool. That removes Facebook’s ability to charge dubious ad rates.
- anticensor 8y ago
  Do you mean "user" by "advertisee"? If you do, it is like Stallman saying "used" for SAAS users.
Fnoord 8y ago
I'd rather pay than see ads, but either way I got a better alternative waiting for a network effect (Signal).

kayoone 8y ago

In some asian markets messengers are exactly the nightmare you describe and it seems to work brilliantly for them, users essentially spend all their time inside those messenger and even buy a lot of the stuff they need from there. If it's convenient enough, sadly not a lot of people will care.

umichguy 8y ago
China and WeChat springs to the top of my mind. You can pretty much buy anything you need using it, including giving tips, giving money to buskers etc.