3 ms·
> I do wonder, though, did Mozilla ever try to convince Facebook to build a FirefoxOS build of WhatsApp? Yes, they tried. From what I know, a big difficulty i
by rickdeckard 1y ago
> I do wonder, though, did Mozilla ever try to convince Facebook to build a FirefoxOS build of WhatsApp?
Yes, they tried.
From what I know, a big difficulty in convincing them was that FFOS didn't have actual native applications, it was running everything on the Firefox Gecko Engine (on top of Linux).
WhatsApp would have had to develop their application as a WebApp in Gecko, to run on quite low-spec hardware, which would have been a huge undertaking at that time.
(FYI, the first FFOS device was launched in 2013, Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014)
- fabrice_d 1y agoDisclaimer: I was at Mozilla working on FxOS and then at KaiOS where I worked with the WhatsApp team to add some apis they needed. The problem was never technical, only business. WhatsApp was basically saying: "We'll build an app if we think we can get XY millions new users". FxOS was just not shipping enough to reach the bar. KaiOS shipped in India with Jio, Facebook saw the traffic coming from KaiOS devices using the basic FB app and decided to move forward with a WhatsApp app.
- rickdeckard 1y agoThanks for the share. I was involved in this from another direction back then. You're right, the userbase was the deciding factor, but also in context of the required effort to support the development/maintenance. To my knowledge WhatsApp did a cost-estimation for FFOS-support back then and concluded that they need to see more than just sales projections to start working...