this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 237 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Am I the only one who doesn’t want any, “do everything,” apps? I’d rather have 10 apps that each do one thing really well than have one app that haphazardly attempts to do 10 things.

[–] [email protected] 120 points 10 months ago (1 children)

At some point we're just back to building web browsers with spyware built in.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago

Sooner or later there will be an API to build your own apps and systems. Then we just rebuild a webbrower, but made it worse

[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I see you are rebelling against Web 2.0, where you only need 3-4 apps or sites to do everything! Don't be afraid. The old days of dozens of sites is gone and now the oligarchy of megacorps will take care of you with your 2-3 apps. You'll have fewer apps that could go wrong and you'll ever need to keep up with your 1-2 apps! Eventually the FTC will see the error of their ways and your One App will truly simplify your life!

[–] WhiteOakBayou 22 points 10 months ago

Verification cans :(

[–] afunkysongaday 31 points 10 months ago

Make each program do one thing well. To do a new job, build afresh rather than complicate old programs by adding new "features".

Unix philosophy. 50 years old idea. Imo devs would love to work that way but they are never the ones making decisions. And every CEO wants to have the new everything app ala wechat.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

I already have a "do everything" app.

It is called the Operating System.

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[–] juniorneptune 67 points 10 months ago (4 children)

WhatsApp is a shithole. Communities, Channels, Payments, Avatars all these destroyed the simple chat app. Meta is aiming for a monopoly here.

Signal and Telegram pretty much useless if you don't have your needful people on the platform.

[–] lattenwald 13 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Thankfully I don't have people I need on WhatsApp, but it took some convincing.

Nowadays I only have dentist and barbershop on WhatsApp, all my folks are on Telegram, including all work communications.

WhatsApp was always lacking features; WhatsApp web can't replace a full featured desktop client which is a must have for me; and its mobile client is inconvenient in every possible way.

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[–] synapse1278 64 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Great, I can't wait for Whatsapp to be the only way to reach customer support and make payments. I always felt the confused look of people when I tell them I don't have Whatsapp wasn't enough.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

always felt the confused look of people when I tell them I don’t have Whatsapp wasn’t enough.

the worst part is that most people cannot fathom that you don't have Whatsapp and you want to continue not having. The confused look is because their way of thinking is "ok you don't have, so what, open an account, it's taking 10 seconds".

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[–] Jackthelad 47 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Today, on "Features No One Asked For".

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago

“Features board members demanded because they increase value for shareholders”

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Whatsapp turning into WeChat should make Signal and Threema look even better.

[–] PlutoniumAcid 29 points 10 months ago (4 children)

If only people cared. Sadly, they don't.

Source: am one of probably three people in the country that refuse to use Meta CRAPWARE. And thus, very lonely.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I feel like FOSS apps keep getting more viable while closed source apps keep getting worse. I feel like the next version of the internet is the one few know about. Even Mastodon is getting better, and Lemmy is pretty much a reddit equivalent now.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

Because with nonlibre/nonfree/closed apps, user interest is never at the front. It is only considered at the beginning when apps need to gain userbase, then they can exploit it.

Every app that take away user ability to inspect, modify or share it is creating a path for abuse.

[–] dyathinkhesaurus 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago (12 children)

The maturity of decentralized communication cannot come soon enough

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[–] shotgun_crab 31 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Meta adding the same features to all their apps, for whatever reason

[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Everybody wants to be We Chat.

[–] dustyData 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And WeChat sucks. The only reason it dominates in China is because the government mandated a bunch of social control stuff to run there making it virtually mandatory just to exist in China.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Western VCs wished they could have their shitty app being mandatory.

Look at El Musk and his "X app" obsession. He wants it so bad he burned the brand he paid BILLIONS to acquire just to chase his everything app.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (8 children)

It’s a little hard to imagine for us Americans, but internationally WhatsApp has a thriving unofficial ecosystem of businesses operating solely out of the chat app.

I love to hate on Meta as much as the next guy on Lemmy, but this is probably one of the sounder business decisions Meta has made in awhile.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (3 children)

During the peak of Whatsapp Controversy, I had 50 out 450+ contacts on Signal. Now it is just 5 people.

[–] KillSwitch10 13 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Signal shot it's self in the foot removing sms capabilities. Tragic.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is US defaultism. People doesn't care about sms capabilities outside the US. The US isn't a huge market for Signal.

[–] Acamon 10 points 10 months ago

I think it did effect things. SMS is weirdly popular in the US (i think it's might be cause they didn't use it much in the 90s?) but people I know in France and UK still use texts for some things, even if messaging apps are where most of communication happens (French people even use mms which is insane).

I know that I managed to convince a number of tech-shy people (including parents) to get Signal by telling them replaced their sms app, so it wasn't a whole extra app / network they needed to use. It was great for me because I could ditch WhatsApp completely. But when signal stopped supporting sms they went back to just whatsapping and texting, so I cracked and reinstalled WhatsApp to keep in touch with them.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Don't use WhatsApp or Telegram. There are better things to use. (Signal, Session and simplex chat)

[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago (4 children)

lol. "Don't use the messaging apps used by all your friends and family. Use another app so you cant contact them. "

[–] baropithecus 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Man, messaging is a nightmare. I use signal with a few of my closest contacts, whatsapp with most other people, sms as a fallback and for work I have to occasionally use Teams and fucking Viber (ugh). At least I managed to liberate myself from the clutches of Slack.

If only there was some standard way to get these apps to talk to each other so everybody could use what they want. Oh wait, there was, it was called XMPP, it worked perfectly and big tech fucking killed it and replaced it with the irritating clusterfuck that is the current status quo.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Sure, I use Signal with some. But I will have to use WhatsApp to interact with most people. They won't switch just because I tell them to.

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[–] Gingerlegs 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I want out but no one in my group chats will leave. 😭

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago

Good. Keep cluttering the app until people move to simpler alternatives. Preferably libre.

[–] DocMcStuffin 14 points 10 months ago

At the company’s global Conversations event in Mumbai, WhatsApp introduced an in-app shopping feature for merchants and customers. Dubbed ”Flows,” [...]

That name sounds more like a feminine hygiene product than a shopping platform.

[–] CitizenKong 13 points 10 months ago

The software enshittification cycle continues.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Are there any WhatsApp clients without all the crap noone asking for?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 months ago (6 children)

There soon will be because EUR turned their arm into opening the chat protocol. As soon as that happens expect other chats to be able to talk to whatsapp without the oficial app. So hopefully... Soon.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

I was recently in Brazil and it amazes me how the country adopted the platform. You can do everything in it. And it’s not that you’re always talking to someone on the other side. It’s all automated. Remember those gigantic labyrinths of menus you had to listen when calling a business? Now it’s all in WhatsApp, but with the advantage of being much faster to read. I asked for a service in a company, they gave me a protocol number. When I wanted to check on it, I just had to type the number on WhatsApp and it would tell me if it was ready. So, no need to develop GUI, sites, and so on. Everything is accessible through WhatsApp.

So, I understand why Meta rolled this out and started with Brazil.

In the end, it feels like we made full circle and we’re coming back to the Telnet era of doing business.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is far more likely to become the Do Everything App for the Western World than X/Twitter is.

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