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WhatsApp has always done this (to my knowledge). Phone numbers -> name resolution is done using your contact list. At least last time I checked. Usernames are

WhatsApp has always done this (to my knowledge). Phone numbers -> name resolution is done using your contact list. At least last time I checked. Usernames are not given much weight in the UI--there's no guarantee that my username reflects who I really am. Feels rightly more suspicious IMO to see a message from an unknown number than from "~Elon Musk". I believe this happens regardless of whether the app has contact permissions or not.

Wicher 3y ago
The Whatsapp app could easily let you assign your own locally saved aliases to those phone numbers, when you're not sharing your address book. "Frankie" is a more usable moniker to me than "+12822745113". They could give us that ability in an afternoon. But they just won't. Because they want your address book. ALL OF IT. I wish there were some kind of "modern tech" technical review panel on board in, say, EU and US regulatory institutions. Not to impose or forbid certain changes, but to curate an evilness score. Publicly. And then if a monopolistic company consistently enshittifies things, when the time comes to apply a penalty (for some anti-competitive legal reason), the regulators will apply the reputation ("evilness") score as a multiplier (or divider, if you will) on the sum of the fine. Evilness can't be measured and expressed fully objectively. So citizens should be able to override a reputation score mutation (remember, they're public) through a referendum. An advantage of this approach would be that it could increase citizen awareness that things don't have to be this shitty. I'm occasionally amazed by how friends and colleagues put up with being pushed around by their OSes, their apps, their phones, sometimes to the point that cognitive dissonance makes them into apostate apologists.
rollcat 3y ago
> Phone numbers -> name resolution is done using your contact list. At least last time I checked. Nope. With contacts permission granted, unknown numbers turn into ~names (per user's own profile) automatically. When you revoke the permission, the ~name is hidden to punish you. > [...] there's no guarantee that my username reflects who I really am. Feels rightly more suspicious IMO to see a message from an unknown number than from "~Elon Musk". It's an entirely separate problem, and as old as mail itself (which predates computers by many millenia). Would you know whether to trust elonmusk@twitter.io, without looking it up?
- riwsky 3y ago
  > Would you know whether to trust elonmusk@twitter.io, without looking it up? I would hate to dismiss someone for a troll only to realize they are not the real elon musk
thombles 3y ago
I discovered the other day that WhatsApp (on Android at least) will not let you start a conversation with someone without selecting them from your contacts.

Wicher 3y ago

The Whatsapp app could easily let you assign your own locally saved aliases to those phone numbers, when you're not sharing your address book. "Frankie" is a more usable moniker to me than "+12822745113". They could give us that ability in an afternoon. But they just won't. Because they want your address book. ALL OF IT. I wish there were some kind of "modern tech" technical review panel on board in, say, EU and US regulatory institutions. Not to impose or forbid certain changes, but to curate an evilness score. Publicly. And then if a monopolistic company consistently enshittifies things, when the time comes to apply a penalty (for some anti-competitive legal reason), the regulators will apply the reputation ("evilness") score as a multiplier (or divider, if you will) on the sum of the fine. Evilness can't be measured and expressed fully objectively. So citizens should be able to override a reputation score mutation (remember, they're public) through a referendum. An advantage of this approach would be that it could increase citizen awareness that things don't have to be this shitty. I'm occasionally amazed by how friends and colleagues put up with being pushed around by their OSes, their apps, their phones, sometimes to the point that cognitive dissonance makes them into apostate apologists.

rollcat 3y ago

> Phone numbers -> name resolution is done using your contact list. At least last time I checked. Nope. With contacts permission granted, unknown numbers turn into ~names (per user's own profile) automatically. When you revoke the permission, the ~name is hidden to punish you. > [...] there's no guarantee that my username reflects who I really am. Feels rightly more suspicious IMO to see a message from an unknown number than from "~Elon Musk". It's an entirely separate problem, and as old as mail itself (which predates computers by many millenia). Would you know whether to trust elonmusk@twitter.io, without looking it up?

riwsky 3y ago
> Would you know whether to trust elonmusk@twitter.io, without looking it up? I would hate to dismiss someone for a troll only to realize they are not the real elon musk

thombles 3y ago

I discovered the other day that WhatsApp (on Android at least) will not let you start a conversation with someone without selecting them from your contacts.