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A comment on WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app. Parent comment

Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by teekert on Thursday January 07, 2021 @07:45AM (#25670379)
WA is not particularly good, it's just that I don't know anyone who doesn't use it (in the Netherlands), even when you want to contact helpdesks it is sometimes the preferred way. I mean, we have this in many streets: [0]

Without kids I could see myself getting away with not using WA, but with kids you are really setting yourself up for a very hard time (and prepare to be judged by other (annoyed) parents and your kid will feel the consequences at some point, the kids will miss out on critical and fun information).

WA has almost become what email used to be. Except that it's a controlled platform and we are locked into a single provider, a provider that once promised a focus on privacy and an app free of commercials, forever...

[0] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=whatsapp+buurtpreventie&t=ffsb&iax...

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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by dtech on Thursday January 07, 2021 @08:18AM (#25670638)
It has completely replace texting in NL and some parts of Europe too, and I mean that literally.
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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by beaconstudios on Thursday January 07, 2021 @08:57AM (#25671040)
yep, here in the UK everyone I know uses whatsapp. Some people have telegram as well, but WA is the baseline. The only SMS texts I get are marketing and automatic notifications.
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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by studius on Thursday January 07, 2021 @09:00AM (#25671084)
What does it do that's so great?
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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by chaosite on Thursday January 07, 2021 @09:24AM (#25671323)
It's "good enough", and it used to be free when texting wasn't.

And it's better than SMS at Unicode.

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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by teekert on Thursday January 07, 2021 @10:29AM (#25672111)
And at sending/receiving pictures... MMS was even more expensive here.
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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by Agingcoder on Thursday January 07, 2021 @05:01PM (#25678196)
It's more reliable than sms - I used not to receive some of the texts people would send me, which caused all kinds of misunderstandings. I ended up doing experiments with friends sitting beside me just to prove my point. The same thing happened to family members.

I'm not sure what the problem was, but WhatsApp solved it.

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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by thw0rted on Friday January 08, 2021 @08:33AM (#25684532)
I don't actually use SMS but I don't think that most people get read/receipt confirmation. The little check-mark system in WA is a big step forward compared to plain texting. Of course, similar features exist in other chat applications, but if the comparison is just between WA and SMS, that's a big difference.
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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by beaconstudios on Thursday January 07, 2021 @10:01AM (#25671807)
it just replaced texting back when phone contracts tried to charge lots of money for texts. The network effect does the rest.
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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by teekert on Thursday January 07, 2021 @08:22AM (#25670687)
At one point I had unlimited data (2011-ish?) for 5 eur/month and a text was 20 euro cents per 160 chars or so... So I guess providers wanted SMS to disappear here.
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