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I believe whatsapp is so popular exactly because it did not evolve. People love wa as-is, why break it?

by avip 8y ago

realusername 8y ago
They don't necessarily need to "break it" but to evolve it a bit into a service. I'm sure you have people who would be happy to pay for bots, larger groups and business features (including myself). In some countries, WhatsApp is larger than a chat app, it's a social network but without any features, there's a gap somewhere here.
- msravi 8y ago
  That gap is the feature, and I'm willing to pay to keep it that way. The moment bots start spamming my WA feeds/groups I'll be gone. I'll move to Signal and if my contacts don't do the same, I'll just switch back to SMS with spam filters.
  - realusername 8y ago
    When I meant "bots" I meant only manually. I can't subscribe manually to a bot right now and I can't add a bot to a group I own.
    - acqq 8y ago
      I agree with you: if the subscription has to be by the user, the subscribed entity is managed like other contacts and I never get unsubscribed messsges/requests I would surely like to subscribe to the info that actually matters to me directly (conceptually opposite to “following feeds” on twitter). Completely personalized information and without installing one more app for every subscribed entity.
  - Marsymars 8y ago
    Exactly same situation here wrt ads. I'm willing to pay for E2E encryption with my money. I'm not willing to pay with my time/attention/battery life/everything else ads entail.
- mtgx 8y ago
  Bots will likely mean that the end to end encryption will be gone, so WhatsApp as we know it will be broken.
  - klagermkii 8y ago
    Nope, it just needs a more complicated way of handling the API where you run a Docker container with the client that does the E2E encryption, and you interact with that. https://smooch.io/whatsapp/ https://smooch.io/whatsapp/
    - icebraining 8y ago
      Or, you know, a simple library you import.
      - gsich 8y ago
        It's not a simple library if you want E2E.
  - realusername 8y ago
    Why exactly would it be the end of encryption? Bots are just like any other client.
twelvechairs 8y ago
Money is the obvious answer
dingaling 8y ago
It evolved hugely in its early years; it was originally a one-line status-broadcasting app, hence the name. And after the pivot to messaging they added embedded media, voice calling and now video calling.

I believe whatsapp is so popular exactly because it did not evolve. People love wa as-is, why break it?

by avip 8y ago

I believe whatsapp is so popular exactly because it did not evolve. People love wa as-is, why break it?

They don't necessarily need to "break it" but to evolve it a bit into a service. I'm sure you have people who would be happy to pay for bots, larger groups and business features (including myself). In some countries, WhatsApp is larger than a chat app, it's a social network but without any features, there's a gap somewhere here.

msravi 8y ago
That gap is the feature, and I'm willing to pay to keep it that way. The moment bots start spamming my WA feeds/groups I'll be gone. I'll move to Signal and if my contacts don't do the same, I'll just switch back to SMS with spam filters.
- realusername 8y ago
  When I meant "bots" I meant only manually. I can't subscribe manually to a bot right now and I can't add a bot to a group I own.
  - acqq 8y ago
    I agree with you: if the subscription has to be by the user, the subscribed entity is managed like other contacts and I never get unsubscribed messsges/requests I would surely like to subscribe to the info that actually matters to me directly (conceptually opposite to “following feeds” on twitter). Completely personalized information and without installing one more app for every subscribed entity.
- Marsymars 8y ago
  Exactly same situation here wrt ads. I'm willing to pay for E2E encryption with my money. I'm not willing to pay with my time/attention/battery life/everything else ads entail.
mtgx 8y ago
Bots will likely mean that the end to end encryption will be gone, so WhatsApp as we know it will be broken.
- klagermkii 8y ago
  Nope, it just needs a more complicated way of handling the API where you run a Docker container with the client that does the E2E encryption, and you interact with that. https://smooch.io/whatsapp/ https://smooch.io/whatsapp/
  - icebraining 8y ago
    Or, you know, a simple library you import.
    - gsich 8y ago
      It's not a simple library if you want E2E.
- realusername 8y ago
  Why exactly would it be the end of encryption? Bots are just like any other client.

twelvechairs 8y ago

Money is the obvious answer

dingaling 8y ago

It evolved hugely in its early years; it was originally a one-line status-broadcasting app, hence the name. And after the pivot to messaging they added embedded media, voice calling and now video calling.