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on ios if one does not grant addressbook permission for the app: * telegram uses an "internal" contact list for which one can add contacts via the desktop clie
by hansel_der 6y ago
on ios if one does not grant addressbook permission for the app:
* telegram uses an "internal" contact list for which one can add contacts via the desktop client and then works as expected.
* whatsapp let's the user freely initiate contact by phone numbers, but then only shows the number (no name).
don't know about signal.
- strogonoff 6y agoWhatsApp on iOS cripples user experience without access to OS contact list. You cannot create groups, and cannot initiate a chat with anyone, even by phone number. It works if someone else messages you first or adds you to a group.
- vbezhenar 6y agohttps://wa.me/phonenumber https://wa.me/phonenumber Very intuitive, I know.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoFor people as confused as I was about the above link - after spending 5 minutes trying to figure out why visiting it gives me a 404 page, I eventually got out my phone and tried pushing that link to Android activity system, and then I discovered: it's meant to be wa.me/[an actual phone number goes here] - like wa.me/12345678912345. Not great indeed.
- ratww 6y agoIf you type https://wa.me/your_own_phone_number https://wa.me/your_own_phone_number (replace your_own_phone_number with your number) you can get into a chat with yourself. Useful for misanthropes, introverts, or for having a place to store information.
- MauranKilom 6y ago404 for me.
- sneak 6y agoI can't imagine the use case where you want to keep your contacts from WhatsApp for privacy, but continue using a Facebook service.
- strogonoff 6y agoBecause WhatsApp has a sound e2e implementation enabled by default, is more trustworthy than Telegram and less liable to be influenced by Russian government? Keeping contacts out of it is just hygienic.
- hansel_der 6y ago> cannot initiate a chat with anyone, even by phone number as stated before, i can initiate convo by number just fine. it's just that i can't edit the identifier/handle and so it's always shown by number. thankfully most ppl have set their profile pic public, but it gets messy pretty fast.
- strogonoff 6y agoI can’t, care to share the way you do that purely within WhatsApp for iOS without a jailbreak?
- hansel_der 6y agoin the "Chats" tab there is an "edit" icon in the top right (rectangle with a pen in it).
- strogonoff 6y agoWell I’ll be darned. They must have changed that recently or I didn’t update WhatsApp for a while, it definitely used to lead to a non-ideal state screen fairly recently. Props for the pointer!
- eythian 6y agoAs far as I can tell, on Android, whatsapp requires adding a person to your contacts before you can message them at all. I find this very annoying when I'm going to be messaging someone for a brief period only. If there's a way to not do this, I'd like to know it.
- ffpip 6y agoYou can message a person without adding them to your contacts, if you know their phone number. https://wa.me/their-phone-number-in-international-format https://wa.me/their-phone-number-in-international-format . Type this link in the browser or in some chat. Long press, click open and it will open in whatsapp by default. You can start a chat with yourself in whatsapp, to send these links to yourself and easily click on them. (type wa.me/your-phone-number-in-international-format , click and send any message )
- eythian 6y agoThanks, I'll remember that. It's an awkward workaround compared to pasting their number from an email into the app, but it'll have to do I guess. Here it's pretty common for people to, for example, put a notice up in my apartment foyer "does anyone have xyz that I can borrow, please app me at +123456789" and having to create a contact is an annoying bit of overhead.