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As I stated in a reply, so many people on some countries and communities rely on Whatsapp for essential comms. This role used to be filled by SMS, but now peopl
by Thorentis 6y ago
As I stated in a reply, so many people on some countries and communities rely on Whatsapp for essential comms. This role used to be filled by SMS, but now people expect a better experience. Why hasn't an alternative to SMS been created yet? We should not be relying on private tech giants to provide this essential service. There should be a fully end-to-end encrypted messaging service, supported by all Telecom providers, that is available by default with all cell plans. Data is now king, and almost all cell towers now have a data connection. We hasn't this problem been solved yet? We've essentially outsourced the creation of this critical infrastructure to companies that want to sell our data.
- ColinWright 6y agoI don't think many people will be disagreeing with you, but for now, and for those of us who don't have the skills to solve the problem, we are left to look for the best option that is available. You've correctly identified all the problems and what should be done ... are you going to work on it? If not, why not? Perhaps the answer to that will tell you why, as far as we know, nobody is working on it. Sure as heckfire none of the big telecoms providers are going to bother.
- Thorentis 6y agoUnfortunately I think it's one of those situations where the existing tech is "good enough" and there is not profit incentive to make it better. There is an incentive to amass a large user base (with associated network graph) so you can achieve a high valuation, but there is no incentive to create a new messaging protocol that can sit on top of the cell network. If anything, this is a task for non-profit orgs like the IEEE, IETF, EFF, etc. to be working on and funding.