21 ms·

WhatsApp status could also work

by neillyons 12d ago

Jemaclus 12d ago
Not sure I understand. Can you elaborate?
- Huppie 12d ago
  Not the person who wrote that reply but their reply immediately clicked for me. Here in Europe basically everyone uses WhatsApp. So you might as well just place a WhatsApp status update writing something like "We're doing X this afternoon? Wanna join? We'll leave from [location] at [time.]" and basically everybody in your contacts can see that update. It's not perfect (different privacy model, a lot more people can see the update unless you have a very curated contacts list) but no friction of getting people to install another app. Edit: Also no notification for status update, so slightly different model that could solve the same need.
  - Jemaclus 12d ago
    Ah, yes, that makes sense! I think that's a great solution. I think perhaps one sort of semantic/slight difference is that Holler is hyper-local. If you live in LA and your friend lives in London, they obviously aren't going to the local farmer's market with you. I'd say the vast majority of my WhatsApp friends aren't local (I'm based in the States.) BUT I can totally see that being an easy way to do things if your local friend group is on WhatsApp! One of my questions would be whether anyone (strangers?) can see that or not. And again this is a US-centric concern, but one of the things I think a lot about is ICE and the government tracking non-white people, and so if there's any semblance of a public "I'll be at X place at Y time," then I'd rather not make that public. So Holler solves that. But yeah, that's a creative use case for WhatsApp I hadn't considered! Very neat. Thank you for explaining.
    - Huppie 12d ago
      I do recognize your use case and think it is a better solution than a WhatsApp status update. However (at least in my friend group) the friction of getting people to install yet another app is also very high. Having said that, once there's an Android version too I'm definitely going to try if I can get a bunch of friends to try it.

WhatsApp status could also work

Jemaclus 12d ago

Not sure I understand. Can you elaborate?

Huppie 12d ago
Not the person who wrote that reply but their reply immediately clicked for me. Here in Europe basically everyone uses WhatsApp. So you might as well just place a WhatsApp status update writing something like "We're doing X this afternoon? Wanna join? We'll leave from [location] at [time.]" and basically everybody in your contacts can see that update. It's not perfect (different privacy model, a lot more people can see the update unless you have a very curated contacts list) but no friction of getting people to install another app. Edit: Also no notification for status update, so slightly different model that could solve the same need.
- Jemaclus 12d ago
  Ah, yes, that makes sense! I think that's a great solution. I think perhaps one sort of semantic/slight difference is that Holler is hyper-local. If you live in LA and your friend lives in London, they obviously aren't going to the local farmer's market with you. I'd say the vast majority of my WhatsApp friends aren't local (I'm based in the States.) BUT I can totally see that being an easy way to do things if your local friend group is on WhatsApp! One of my questions would be whether anyone (strangers?) can see that or not. And again this is a US-centric concern, but one of the things I think a lot about is ICE and the government tracking non-white people, and so if there's any semblance of a public "I'll be at X place at Y time," then I'd rather not make that public. So Holler solves that. But yeah, that's a creative use case for WhatsApp I hadn't considered! Very neat. Thank you for explaining.
  - Huppie 12d ago
    I do recognize your use case and think it is a better solution than a WhatsApp status update. However (at least in my friend group) the friction of getting people to install yet another app is also very high. Having said that, once there's an Android version too I'm definitely going to try if I can get a bunch of friends to try it.