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I have always thought about what it would take for Whatsapp to lose their place as the dominant chat app and you finally nailed it. If I ever start getting ads

I have always thought about what it would take for Whatsapp to lose their place as the dominant chat app and you finally nailed it. If I ever start getting ads or requests for reviews or anything remotely related to someone selling something to me, as a personal message because of automated Facebook tools, I'd get myself and everyone I know off the platform in a matter of seconds. On the other hand, for information requests they already have Whatsapp for businesses and it works fine, several luddites I know use it.

oblio 6y ago
> I have always thought about what it would take for Whatsapp to lose their place as the dominant chat app and you finally nailed it. Unfortunately, that's not how these things work. I don't know of any mainstream platform that died because of ads. You have to keep in mind the fact that the average person on this site has a total different attitude to technology and its warts than most other people.
- DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
  > I don't know of any mainstream platform that died because of ads. * Traditional television. * Online websites of traditional newspapers - they wouldn’t have moved to paywalling if advertising was working. * MySpace (not directly, but a contributory factor).
  - CraneWorm 6y ago
    > they wouldn’t have moved to paywalling if advertising was working they surely make something on advertising because the ads are present even behind the paywalls.
    - DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
      I subscribe to the NYT - and I don’t like the fact there’s ads behind the paywall either - but at least they’re static ads for boring things like ING Bank. Comparing that to my local TV news’ website with Adblock disabled is night-and-day: auto-playing video ads embedded in content, clickbait “one weird trick”-ads, and no end of Share buttons either.
  - brabel 6y ago
    Traditional TV died? Not in the countries I've visited recently, as far as I know this may be a US-only thing.
- 72deluxe 6y ago
  Tangentially, I know they mentioned the "adpocolypse" for YouTube but recently it's insane the amount of adverts being shown. It's really putting me off using it. But as you say, mainstream platforms with no competitors seem to get away with it.
  - JSavageOne 6y ago
    Why not just use an adblocker?
    - tdrgabi 6y ago
      Harder to do in the youtube app. You need a pihole server.
      - 72deluxe 6y ago
        I have one of those but I can't seem to block them effectively. I think the advert URLs are not specific to adverts, ie they're the same as normal YouTube videos. Any tips??
        andrewl-hn 6y ago
        On Android there are third-party apps that are not available on Market but are very popular. Most wrap YT's website, add an Adblocker, and block certain APIs that prevent Picture-in-Picture, background playback, etc. The small downside is that these apps can't use play services and thus you can't login to leave likes, comments, etc. Though you can use "Share" to open the same video in browser where you can login normally. Google creates a shadow profile for you in that 3rd-party app, and after a few videos you watch the quickly associate you with your other profiles / shadow profiles. So, in a matter of hours or days YouTube will start recommend you content tailored to you, even though you are not logged it. Works remarkably well.
        72deluxe 6y ago
        Thanks! Do you have the name of one of these popular YouTube alternative apps? I don't want to download SpyWareYouTube.APK
- mtberatwork 6y ago
  My understanding (from a comment I heard on GCN) is that Strava expanding their subscription model (vs transitioning to an ad-based model) is in part due to their fear of losing users due to ads. But then again, cyclists that use Strava probably have the same attitudes toward technology as HN readers (myself included).
- Etheryte 6y ago
  Personally I would argue that regular TV has largely died both because better alternatives have come along but also because of ads. Last time I tried watching a movie on the telly, there were nearly more ads than actual content. That alone may not have been the reason for younger generations migrating away from it, but I'm sure it played a big part.
- dalore 6y ago
  ICQ?
wastedhours 6y ago
When we were in Vietnam we organised all of our transport over WhatsApp, except for the billing which we then had to go to a (it felt sketchy, but probably wasn't) online payment form. If that had been baked into the conversations it would have been one of the best customer experiences we could have hoped for. Appreciate feature creep would then be a concern, but depending on how they could limit it, it could be absolutely fantastic. (We then also got "personalised" follow up messages asking us to review, which is somewhat inevitable - but that had to be done on a case by case basis. I agree, we could only put with with a small amount of automation before things turn south quickly).

oblio 6y ago

> I have always thought about what it would take for Whatsapp to lose their place as the dominant chat app and you finally nailed it. Unfortunately, that's not how these things work. I don't know of any mainstream platform that died because of ads. You have to keep in mind the fact that the average person on this site has a total different attitude to technology and its warts than most other people.

DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
> I don't know of any mainstream platform that died because of ads. * Traditional television. * Online websites of traditional newspapers - they wouldn’t have moved to paywalling if advertising was working. * MySpace (not directly, but a contributory factor).
- CraneWorm 6y ago
  > they wouldn’t have moved to paywalling if advertising was working they surely make something on advertising because the ads are present even behind the paywalls.
  - DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
    I subscribe to the NYT - and I don’t like the fact there’s ads behind the paywall either - but at least they’re static ads for boring things like ING Bank. Comparing that to my local TV news’ website with Adblock disabled is night-and-day: auto-playing video ads embedded in content, clickbait “one weird trick”-ads, and no end of Share buttons either.
- brabel 6y ago
  Traditional TV died? Not in the countries I've visited recently, as far as I know this may be a US-only thing.
72deluxe 6y ago
Tangentially, I know they mentioned the "adpocolypse" for YouTube but recently it's insane the amount of adverts being shown. It's really putting me off using it. But as you say, mainstream platforms with no competitors seem to get away with it.
- JSavageOne 6y ago
  Why not just use an adblocker?
  - tdrgabi 6y ago
    Harder to do in the youtube app. You need a pihole server.
    - 72deluxe 6y ago
      I have one of those but I can't seem to block them effectively. I think the advert URLs are not specific to adverts, ie they're the same as normal YouTube videos. Any tips??
      - andrewl-hn 6y ago
        On Android there are third-party apps that are not available on Market but are very popular. Most wrap YT's website, add an Adblocker, and block certain APIs that prevent Picture-in-Picture, background playback, etc. The small downside is that these apps can't use play services and thus you can't login to leave likes, comments, etc. Though you can use "Share" to open the same video in browser where you can login normally. Google creates a shadow profile for you in that 3rd-party app, and after a few videos you watch the quickly associate you with your other profiles / shadow profiles. So, in a matter of hours or days YouTube will start recommend you content tailored to you, even though you are not logged it. Works remarkably well.
        72deluxe 6y ago
        Thanks! Do you have the name of one of these popular YouTube alternative apps? I don't want to download SpyWareYouTube.APK
mtberatwork 6y ago
My understanding (from a comment I heard on GCN) is that Strava expanding their subscription model (vs transitioning to an ad-based model) is in part due to their fear of losing users due to ads. But then again, cyclists that use Strava probably have the same attitudes toward technology as HN readers (myself included).
Etheryte 6y ago
Personally I would argue that regular TV has largely died both because better alternatives have come along but also because of ads. Last time I tried watching a movie on the telly, there were nearly more ads than actual content. That alone may not have been the reason for younger generations migrating away from it, but I'm sure it played a big part.
dalore 6y ago
ICQ?

wastedhours 6y ago

When we were in Vietnam we organised all of our transport over WhatsApp, except for the billing which we then had to go to a (it felt sketchy, but probably wasn't) online payment form. If that had been baked into the conversations it would have been one of the best customer experiences we could have hoped for. Appreciate feature creep would then be a concern, but depending on how they could limit it, it could be absolutely fantastic. (We then also got "personalised" follow up messages asking us to review, which is somewhat inevitable - but that had to be done on a case by case basis. I agree, we could only put with with a small amount of automation before things turn south quickly).