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I feel like I am missing something. It is a chat app, one of many, with some features like communities (which feel like extremely large groups) and status updat
by elAhmo 2y ago
I feel like I am missing something. It is a chat app, one of many, with some features like communities (which feel like extremely large groups) and status updates (which almost every other app does).
- danpalmer 2y agoThe thing you’re missing is network effects. I use WhatsApp because all my family and friends are on it. We’re all on it because it’s the dominant chat network in the UK. It might seem like SMS must be an option because everyone has it, because if you have WA then you’ve got a number and can receive SMS, but that’s not how people view it. SMS is an app like every other (to most people), but it’s an app that doesn’t have their other chats in (only 2FA codes and spam), and one that mostly doesn’t sync to their other devices as well.
- elAhmo 2y agoMaybe I wasn't clear. I do use WhatsApp for friends, family, coworkers and even some business chats. That was my point, it is not a everything app, it is just a chat app.
- danpalmer 2y agoAh apologies, yeah I think there were multiple definitions of that floating around. Some people here are clearly using it to mean "everything" chat, i.e. having no other networks of any significance (which I think WhatsApp is in many places). Others are suggesting it's got aspects of an everything app, with businesses doing support over it, etc, but that's perhaps a naive interpretation of what a WeChat-style everything app is, which in my opinion is the true definition of an everything app, and certainly something that WhatsApp is not.