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As someone who’s stuck with Whatsapp and no way out (friends and family won’t switch), I dearly hope for a split. I do struggle to understand how we here casua

As someone who’s stuck with Whatsapp and no way out (friends and family won’t switch), I dearly hope for a split. I do struggle to understand how we here casually lump tohether totally different platforms as comptetitors. It’s not like I can use Youtube or Tiktok instead of Whatsapp with my family for direct and group discussion. Even X and Instagram would be a stretch, as their raison d’être is public social media and not instant messaging. Sure the platforms have overlapping features, but you ain’t gonna use a knife insted of a spoon.

Spivak 1y ago
YouTube, X, and Tiktok compete with Meta's products in different verticals so it's not really a fair comparison. But at the same time WhatsApp is drowning in competition from a thousand different messengers so I'm not sure if this point really matters. Like X isn't competing with FB Marketplace but Craigslist sure is. TikTok isn't competing with FB Events but Apple Events and Eventbrite are.
- skydhash 1y ago
  As long as WhatsApp have a strong backer like Meta, then using the term competition is meaningless. In many countries, WA is the de facto IM platform, but I can bet that it hasn't received a dim from those users. So how do they pay their developers, infrastructure, and surrounding resources?
spacebanana7 1y ago
Use email. Everyone has an email address and it's socially awkward for them if they don't respond. Also has all the benefits of being an open protocol rather than a corporate garden.
- rreichman 1y ago
  using an email for chat like people use whatsapp is not practical
  - sudahtigabulan 1y ago
    it's a matter of UI. https://delta.chat/ https://delta.chat/ It even has E2EE, as long as people use the same client (or a compatible one).
- rpgbr 1y ago
  >[…] it's socially awkward for them if they don't respond Out of corporate contexts, email is only used to register for services, newsletters, and recover passwords. It's a shame, I prefer email over messaging for anything non-urgent.
emsign 1y ago
You're srewed either way if you live in the USA.
fransje26 1y ago
> It’s not like I can use Youtube or Tiktok instead of Whatsapp with my family for direct and group discussion. What's wrong with Signal? Or, worst-case scenario, Telegram?
- emblaegh 1y ago
  It’s hard to overstate the pervasiveness of WhatsApp in some some countries. Where I’m from work, service hiring, costumer service, etc are all conducted through (and specially for small businesses only though) WhatsApp.
  - fransje26 1y ago
    That's very true, in the same way that some countries seem to prefer using Facebook as "websites" for small businesses. But this doesn't stop people from migrating their private interactions away from WhatsApp/Meta, by using using -as an example- Signal as their replacement app of choice where they can. The frictional cost of keeping WhatsApp for business interaction, and Signal for private interaction is fairly close to zero.
- Gasp0de 1y ago
  What's the use case for using Telegram over Whatsapp? At least the latter has proper end-to-end encryption of content?
  - fsflover 1y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43563574 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43563574 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43562320 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43562320 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32950204 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32950204
- _fat_santa 1y ago
  > What's wrong with Signal? Or, worst-case scenario, Telegram? IMO from a technical perspective nothing but more of how do you get your entire network to migrate from one chat app to another. Everyone here says just get your parents, siblings, friends to switch but it's far more complicated than that. My wife is from Brazil and uses WA all the time. Getting her to switch would mean getting her entire network of family and friends to switch and you would have to make that pitch to everyone in the "network". All of a sudden it goes from getting a few people to switch to getting literally thousands to switch which is next to impossible.
BrtByte 1y ago
Yeah, 100% agree - calling all these platforms "competitors" just because they exist on the same internet feels like tech company lawyer logic, not reality.
yodsanklai 1y ago
> As someone who’s stuck with Whatsapp and no way out (friends and family won’t switch), I dearly hope for a split. But what will it change for users? you'll still be stuck with What's app, except that it won't be owned by Meta.

Spivak 1y ago

YouTube, X, and Tiktok compete with Meta's products in different verticals so it's not really a fair comparison. But at the same time WhatsApp is drowning in competition from a thousand different messengers so I'm not sure if this point really matters. Like X isn't competing with FB Marketplace but Craigslist sure is. TikTok isn't competing with FB Events but Apple Events and Eventbrite are.

skydhash 1y ago
As long as WhatsApp have a strong backer like Meta, then using the term competition is meaningless. In many countries, WA is the de facto IM platform, but I can bet that it hasn't received a dim from those users. So how do they pay their developers, infrastructure, and surrounding resources?

spacebanana7 1y ago

Use email. Everyone has an email address and it's socially awkward for them if they don't respond. Also has all the benefits of being an open protocol rather than a corporate garden.

rreichman 1y ago
using an email for chat like people use whatsapp is not practical
- sudahtigabulan 1y ago
  it's a matter of UI. https://delta.chat/ https://delta.chat/ It even has E2EE, as long as people use the same client (or a compatible one).
rpgbr 1y ago
>[…] it's socially awkward for them if they don't respond Out of corporate contexts, email is only used to register for services, newsletters, and recover passwords. It's a shame, I prefer email over messaging for anything non-urgent.

emsign 1y ago

You're srewed either way if you live in the USA.

fransje26 1y ago

> It’s not like I can use Youtube or Tiktok instead of Whatsapp with my family for direct and group discussion. What's wrong with Signal? Or, worst-case scenario, Telegram?

emblaegh 1y ago
It’s hard to overstate the pervasiveness of WhatsApp in some some countries. Where I’m from work, service hiring, costumer service, etc are all conducted through (and specially for small businesses only though) WhatsApp.
- fransje26 1y ago
  That's very true, in the same way that some countries seem to prefer using Facebook as "websites" for small businesses. But this doesn't stop people from migrating their private interactions away from WhatsApp/Meta, by using using -as an example- Signal as their replacement app of choice where they can. The frictional cost of keeping WhatsApp for business interaction, and Signal for private interaction is fairly close to zero.
Gasp0de 1y ago
What's the use case for using Telegram over Whatsapp? At least the latter has proper end-to-end encryption of content?
- fsflover 1y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43563574 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43563574 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43562320 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43562320 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32950204 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32950204
_fat_santa 1y ago
> What's wrong with Signal? Or, worst-case scenario, Telegram? IMO from a technical perspective nothing but more of how do you get your entire network to migrate from one chat app to another. Everyone here says just get your parents, siblings, friends to switch but it's far more complicated than that. My wife is from Brazil and uses WA all the time. Getting her to switch would mean getting her entire network of family and friends to switch and you would have to make that pitch to everyone in the "network". All of a sudden it goes from getting a few people to switch to getting literally thousands to switch which is next to impossible.

BrtByte 1y ago

Yeah, 100% agree - calling all these platforms "competitors" just because they exist on the same internet feels like tech company lawyer logic, not reality.

yodsanklai 1y ago

> As someone who’s stuck with Whatsapp and no way out (friends and family won’t switch), I dearly hope for a split. But what will it change for users? you'll still be stuck with What's app, except that it won't be owned by Meta.