Re:Ask HN: What's the worst piece of software you use everyday?
by lvass on Saturday July 11, 2020 @03:02PM
(#23804776)
WhatsApp. The desktop version has very few features, requires constant connection to a mobile phone and gets out of sync very often. It's practically irremediable if you're in a crowded wi-fi area and ethernet is the only way to get a good connection. It's also designed so no conversation is ever private despite advertising it's E2E encryption. Everyone you talk to has automatic backups enabled and they're stored unencrypted in Google Drive. And the "two step verification" password is the one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. It must be a 6-digit number that requires you to type it constantly in order to remember it. It basically assumes people are too incompetent to use password managers or simply writing a password down. Passwords you can remember are never safe.
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Re:Ask HN: What's the worst piece of software you use everyday?
by bluedevil2k on Saturday July 11, 2020 @07:53PM
(#23807280)
The most annoying thing is that you can’t just message a new phone number. You have to create a contact and then add their phone number to that contact, close the contact app to go back to WhatsApp, press “+” again, search for the contact you just made, select it, then start typing. God forbid the phone number is entered wrong and you have to go back into the contact app. Meeting someone in a bar/club (outside the US), it’s a 3-4 minute process with a high error rate. WhatsApp, let me type a phone number in directly into a new message!
Re:Ask HN: What's the worst piece of software you use everyday?
by arp242 on Sunday July 12, 2020 @02:34AM
(#23809350)
You can get around that using a special "https://web.whatsapp.com/send?phone=[..]" and/or "https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=[..]" URL. I think the web. URL only works with WhatsApp web and the api. works on phones, but I'm not 100% sure (I typically use WhatsApp Web myself).
I have a simple form on my website to make that a bit easier: https://www.arp242.net/wa.html.
Re:Ask HN: What's the worst piece of software you use everyday?
by sebbyy on Saturday July 11, 2020 @10:26PM
(#23808201)
Doesn't completly solve your problem but you can start sending message to a new phone number using an url. [0]
https://wa.me/{target-number}
https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/chats/how-to-use-click-to-c...
Re:Ask HN: What's the worst piece of software you use everyday?
by enraged_camel on Saturday July 11, 2020 @04:06PM
(#23805431)
That’s weird, I use WhatsApp almost exclusively (in the browser) and the desktop version is a joy. Never had syncing issues - in fact it syncs instantly for me.
Re:Ask HN: What's the worst piece of software you use everyday?
by leephillips on Saturday July 11, 2020 @04:57PM
(#23805889)
It syncs very well for me, too, but there are missing features (for example, you can’t post a status on the desktop).
Re:Ask HN: What's the worst piece of software you use everyday?
by philipwhiuk on Saturday July 11, 2020 @08:59PM
(#23807688)
WhatsApp status is one of those things that honestly you could drop and 99.9% of people would never notice.