4 ms·

Wasn't Whatsapp's success attributed to their policy of inclusion (all major mobile platform/devices). This seems like coming from a different company altogethe

• wodenokoto 12y ago
  Not at all. First of, these modern messaging/social/mobile-first messaging apps we see getting popular have a fundamentally different model than what most of us desktop-first are used to. They are not centred around an account, but around a device. If you delete your Line app, all messages are gone. Hell, even if you log into Line from a new device, messages on the old one will be deleted. A friend of mine recently lost her phone and she saw no other way than to create a new account. Another friend had Docomo help her in-store to transfer all her Line messages when she upgraded her phone. I don't use WhatsApp, but reading other post here, it seems that they use a similar model (but not as extreme). Your phone is your account, and all your stuff is stored only locally on your phone (or at least only accessible locally). This explains why the web-app works so poorly. Yes, WhatsApp got big by being on all devices, but they provide the software and the software model is a "one device per user"-model. This works great in a mobile-first (or should I say mobile-only) fashion. This is SMS on steroids, not messenger for your phone.
  • azakai 12y ago
    I don't see how this explains the poor functionality of the web client? All a web client needs is persistent, large storage - which is provided by IndexedDB - and to access the network to reach the service's servers. WhatsApp should be able to make a fully-functional web client.