Darpa wants to make a better, more secure, version of WhatsApp

Re:Darpa wants to make a better, more secure, version of Wha... by nothrabannosir on Monday April 15, 2019 @04:09PM (#19668463)

I use signal on the reg, and the short comings are both superficial and unrelated to the security. In my opinion.

What are your specific concerns? I could list things like: lack of bold and italic , poor voice message UI, lack of video conferencing , lack of group names, ...

Note that WhatsApp was wildly popular for over half a decade before it got most of those features.

In other words: I don’t get the point of talking about these cosmetic blemishes. * Signal today feels like WhatsApp at its inception. I.e. a messaging app with the potential to be used by everyone and their dog.

Or is there some fundamental problem you’re encountering that I’m blind / oblivious to?

* edit: let me clarify: “... talking about these cosmetic blemishes as if they’re fundamental blockers to adoption. “

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Re:Darpa wants to make a better, more secure, version of Wha... by dominotw on Monday April 15, 2019 @05:41PM (#19669182)

they are not just cosmetic..

* no search (big one for me)

* no web client ( another big one)

* app gets stuck in "retrieving message..." if there is a poor signal like travelling under a tunnel

and there are many cosmetic ones like the ones you pointed out.

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Re:Darpa wants to make a better, more secure, version of Wha... by wfn on Monday April 15, 2019 @08:10PM (#19669980)

Text search across full message history has been part of stable production releases (on Android at least) for a decent long while, just fyi. (Desktop client has also gotten better (but is obviously far from perfect); those messages end up retrieved later on, fwiw).

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Re:Darpa wants to make a better, more secure, version of Wha... by usuallymatt on Monday April 15, 2019 @06:06PM (#19669339)

Not sure if it's because I run the beta version but I have the search feature in individual conversations and use it often. There is a desktop app and I agree it's not the best. The desktop app is the only place I've had the retrieving messages issue. So really the only gripe I see you having is no decent non-phone client. For me that's not a show stopper at this point in exchange for a secure, easy to use application.

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Re:Darpa wants to make a better, more secure, version of Wha... by dominotw on Monday April 15, 2019 @06:20PM (#19669416)

> . So really the only gripe I see you having

you ignored all my complaints saying you don't experience them. wtf.

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Re:Darpa wants to make a better, more secure, version of Wha... by tsunamifury on Monday April 15, 2019 @06:07PM (#19669353)

Note that the horse a buggy was wildly popular before the car came along, so as this follows Tesla would be find starting a horse and buggy company. I'm a bit exaggerated in my sarcasm here to really illustrate how arrogant it is to assume that features you don't value are 'cosmetic blemishes' when they really do fundamentally hinder the adoption of the product. While you may value security as a priority that overcomes all others, but most by network effect influence, do not. And if you really care about security, it follows that the 'cosmetics' matter as well.

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Re:Darpa wants to make a better, more secure, version of Wha... by nothrabannosir on Monday April 15, 2019 @06:23PM (#19669436)

Yes, although pushing a firmware update to turn a horse carriage into a model Y is, perhaps, slightly less practical than adding Markdown support to a chat client.

The original comment was a blanket "much more inferior in terms of functionality and usability." I hope to elucidate that, in the context of a DARPA grant, it might be worth the effort to look to the future, and differentiate between fundamental problems and fixable issues.

I wouldn't say the same for an XMPP client, for example. But WhatsApp and signal are very, very close.

Perhaps even closer than a horse and a model Y. ;)

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