WhatsApp Ads, Coffin Nails

4 points by zahirbmirza 14 hours ago

10 comments

Now that Whatsapp is becoming more like a social media feed, and will proceed to progress deeper into such a pit, what will we use to communicate better?

iMessages is great for iOS, but lacks the cross platform appeal and group chat creation ease. Telegram is spammy, and I do not want to download another messaging app. I mean, how annoying is it that your friends and family didn't download that last three apps you told them were better than WhatsApp?

bruce511 17 minutes ago

>> I do not want to download another messaging app. I mean, how annoying is it that your friends and family didn't download that last three apps you told them were better than WhatsApp

Um, you want to communicate better, but you exclude apps to download? I'm getting mixed messages here.

However you identify the core of your "problem". You can't really pick anything in isolation since network effects dominate.

Plus, it seems like you're a jumper, always looking for the next shiny thing. You've offered 3 apps, which is apparently 3 more than your social group need.

I also notice you're ready to jump shop based on an announcement, not on any actual harm or inconvenience to your group. This is a hard sell.

I say none of this to criticize you, but rather so you can see a bigger picture. Social Media is about Social, not Media.

theGeatZhopa 6 hours ago

as long they don't show adds in my messages, I can't care less. Don't use the status or channel-features while figureing what to use instead. I think, signal is a good alternative and its been used by steadily more and more people.

bitpush 13 hours ago

I didnt dive super deep into it, but it looks like ads are going to be in status (the disappearing snapchatty things) and in Explore page.

I dont think ads are showing up when you chat in 1:1 or in group chats, which should be OK?

  • zahirbmirza 13 hours ago

    Apparently there is an entire team in WhatsApp that is there to maintain the ancient user interface. And I can see you're correct, chat will be similar. However, I think, one of the reasons for the demise of x/Twitter is that the clutter makes it hard to separate useful from junk. The appearance of ads in the status view will probably just make me less likely to go to the status section. I guess the more annoying issue is that it is possibly deviating from a chat app to another social media portal with ad delivery.

lcnmrn 14 hours ago

Signal.

  • zahirbmirza 13 hours ago

    Great App, but one that no one wants to download. I have never gotten a Single message on Signal. Idk why, it seems so functional and is multiplatform.

    • KomoD 9 hours ago

      > but one that no one wants to download

      100M+ downloads on just Android says otherwise

  • toephu2 8 hours ago

    No one in my friends or relatives circle uses it.

    • theGeatZhopa 6 hours ago

      not now, but may be they want to in some time in a distant future

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