6 ms·
I think you are underestimating the degree to which requires only a phone number is a killer feature: -you download the app and can immediately get started aft
by kxxsc 6y ago
I think you are underestimating the degree to which requires only a phone number is a killer feature:
-you download the app and can immediately get started after verifying your phone number (no ID or password required)
-you don't need to share any ID or connection details other than just your phone number
I spend a lot of time in India, and I think this lack of complexity has contributed significantly to its virality (I'd estimate that a pretty significant percentage of the user base does not have or regularly use an email account, which is usually a prerequisite to setting up many accounts).
- mjevans 6y agoIt's amazing to consider this killer feature for _normal_ people is one of the kill-worthy features in my will never touch it category.
- pjc50 6y agoThis is one of the very important things to remember about HN; we are not a representative audience.
- oezi 6y agoWhatsapp has replaced SMS as the defacto standard mobile messenger for 98% of users in Europe (or many other places). It doesn't matter if they do things badly, there is no way around them at the moment.
- johannes1234321 6y agoIt is even replacing SMS more in areas where Facebook pushed their internet.org / free basics program, where mobile network companies where supported by Facebook to grant free access to Facebook services while still charging for SMS (or other websites and services) There WhatsApp is/was free. (A few years since I looked into it last, not sure how the project changed)
- 1bc29b36f623ba8 6y agoI just don't see the appeal. MMS works well for things like pictures, doesn't it?
- etherealG 6y agoAn anecdote from South Africa: SMS was charged per message at very high rates. MMS even higher. Mobile data, while expensive too, was much cheaper per message. Also, free wifi was quite common in many urban areas. All this at a time when WhatsApp was much much simpler and easier to use, with good UX. The person to person advertising for WhatsApp at the time was “it’s free”, which while not 100% true factoring in mobile bandwidth, it was effectively true since mobile data and WiFi was at least 1 or 2 orders of magnitude cheaper than SMS or MMS. That stayed true for a few years, and so WhatsApp became the de facto standard for messaging. I can’t speak for other countries but in South Africa that’s why. And the rest is just networking effects.
- 1bc29b36f623ba8 6y agoAh, that makes sense. I'm fortunate enough to live where we have unmetered SMS/calls/data so I've never had that issue (at least not while WhatApp's been around).
- jacquesm 6y agoIt requires a phone number and a smartphone. Not just a phone number.
- Arnt 6y agoWeren't there lots of featurephones with whatsapp in the past? And that helped a lot with getting widely deployed? It seems to be available on cheap feature phones now anyway: https://www.gizbot.com/mobile/features/fnord-047499.html https://www.gizbot.com/mobile/features/fnord-047499.html
- jacquesm 6y agoI'm sure there were but not on mine and that's just fine by me. The last thing I need in my life is Mark Zuckerberg reading over my shoulder.
- Arnt 6y agoAs I've heard it, the alternative that drove the first hundred million users was the telco reading over your shoulder and/or randomly dropping your messages on the floor. Whatsapp grew big with customers of telcos like Vodafone, which may be less capable than Mark Zuckerberg's snoopshop but I wouldn't bet on their being nicer. See https://toroid.org/vodafone-smtp-mitm https://toroid.org/vodafone-smtp-mitm for example.
- jacquesm 6y agoI have less of a problem with EU telcos than with American multinationals.
- iso1631 6y ago900 INR https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/Indias-cheapest-Android-phone-now-costs-Rs-888/articleshow/52010825.cms https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/Indias-cheapest-Android... And there's a fair choice for under 1500INR Now sure you can get a non-whatsapp phone for half that price, but it's pretty cheap
- greggman3 6y ago> you don't need to share any ID My phone number is an ID. An ID I don't want to share. An ID that can be stolen by calling the phone company and saying you're me and bought a new SIM.
- Hidios 6y agoThat can never ever happen in Europe. You can't just go ask Vodafone for a new sim with the same number because you lost it. You must be American.
- dividedbyzero 6y agoYou can get replacement SIMs with the same number (source: I'm in Germany and on my third SIM with my current number after first not having a micro-SIM and then a nano-SIM) – I did get notofied of this by SMS, though, and no idea what other anti abuse measures may be in place. I can order one for 10 Euro via the website anytime and I suppose I could do it via phone as well.
- 1bc29b36f623ba8 6y agoThere was actually a scandal about that in Denmark recently. Some journalists managed to get new SIM cards for other people without proper authentication. Repeatedly and from different providers.
- overheadnoise 6y agoThen you need to realize that you are a special case and not representative of the general public. Most people who meet each other in real life and want to exchange contact information exchange… you guessed it… a phone number. Maybe you exchange email or twitter handle, but again you are an exception here. So imagine we meet for the first time and we exchange phone numbers. Now I can WhatsApp you, just like that no other account info needed.