There are so many better alternatives than both meta and windows. It’s enshitification personified.
open us up to do calls from the webview then, so i can do it in linux too.
I usually only used the webversion anyway?
First (feels like) everyone complained about apps (for example restaurants) and demanded a web page.
Then there’s a fully functional web page and everyone looses their mind because nothing of value (seriously, what could the native app do better?) was lost.Lol trash
This could mean great news to Linux WhatsApp users.
i use the web version and it works just as well, while also benefiting from not being a native program that can steal more data than just a tab in your browser
Tip: you can use the WhatsApp web site for text messaging (I don’t think it works for audio/video?) and if you want to use it in a standalone window you can “install” it as a web app (in most browsers). It’ll use way less RAM running in your existing browser than running a separate electron instance.
(I don’t think it works for audio/video?)
it does
Cut Meta some slack. They’re not Nvidia. They’re only a $1.5T company. They can’t make everything native.
It’s called enshittification for sure.
It’s beyond that. It’s surveillance software
Are there seriously anyone in here, that uses WhatsApp? If so, please revise your life…
USA =/= rest of the world.
Here in Brazil whatsapp is almost mandatory, if you dont have it you cant talk to anyone
Sounds really sad to be so dependent on it…
almost mandatory
That’s bullying talk. It’s the same everywhere… and what matters is the “almost” part. If people need you, they find a way. It might be SMS, it might be email, you might be left out from groupchat but you can still be reached.
In Latin America most public services, banks ans bussines uses whatspps as their main support line.
To give you an example, if you have no water in your house you need to report on wp. No other way. And this is the standard for a lot of services, wp is the ONLY way to ask for support.
Also, if you are a freelancer or have a bussiness, your clients expect you to have whatsapp, 90% of inquiries and sales goes through wp.
It’s a nightmare, i really want to get rid of meta services but it is impossible for my case.
I have decided to decouple what i can, and use different phones for meta services, but i suspect that they still correlate and collect data. (Based on location, wifi, mac of iot, browsing etc)
Anyways, i ask people to be aware that for some of us, our situations makes impossible to remove some of the meta, microsoft or google services.
My aproach for now is to only use the minimum neccesary, i still search for ways to gradually switch out what i can.
Whatever i can’t rid off, i have another phone for it, how effecrive this is idk but for now is the best solution i found.
i ask people to be aware that for some of us, our situations makes impossible to remove some of the meta, microsoft or google services.
Right, I’m not saying it’s necessarily bullying by people, it can be precisely by those companies. They make themselves as hard as possible to ignore.
Thanks for the clarification, i read you wrong, and you are completely right. Whats worse is that even if you are a bit savvy or informed is hard to fully get away from them. But anyways, even if i cant escape them i will try to give the minimum data possible.
To give you an example, if you have no water in your house you need to report on wp. No other way. And this is the standard for a lot of services, wp is the ONLY way to ask for support.
whatsapp requires phone numbers. surely they can be called
It’s a nightmare, i really want to get rid of meta services but it is impossible for my case.
if you have tech skills, try running a matrix bridge for whatsapp for yourself. take it slowly if you need it, you are not in a hurry. your own server, federation off. keep using whatsapp as you did before, and check for a month or two if the bridge is running stable. subscribe to notifications for github releases of the bridge to know if there’s an important update.
you won’t be able to leave whatsapp behind, but at least you’ll be able to get rid of its apps that do whatever that’s not for your benefitwhatsapp requires phone numbers. surely they can be called
Sadly the phone number is only for messages, in most cases it’s automated with a bot giving you options.
if you have tech skills, try running a matrix bridge
I didn’t know about matrix bridges. To be honest i’m not familiar with matrix but i have been learning about networking and self host on the side. I could make it part of the project.
Thanks for the suggestions! I should interact more with the community, i have been receiving lots of good feedback recently, i was always a lurker on reddit.
A lot of people in nations that rely on WhatsApp have data-only plans because they’re cheaper.
Or worst because Meta itself make such plans cheaper, or even free (as they did in e.g. Brazil), when data is used on their platforms.
It’s the de facto communication medium in Europe. It’s not much of a choice. Even work related groups are usually over WhatsApp.
It’s kinda scary that Europe is so willing to let all of their private messages go through an American data broker company that is well known for doing sneaky things to get data they aren’t supposed to have.
Scary indeed.
Phone carriers are to blame. Unlimited SMS plans weren’t common when whatsapp took hold of our communications.
Now, I live in Europe, and my family, friends and others, don’t use WhatsApp… So it is much of a choice.
Said like a truly ignorant person. There are countries where work teams discuss almost everything on WhatsApp. My mom is a teacher, and all communication regarding work that doesn’t justify an entire official mail happens on whatsapp. Literally everyone’s on whatsapp. Also, it’s not really that hard to just use whatsapp on the web.
Oh, you are truly ignorant - sorry to hear that.
Literally everyone I know, is not on WhatsApp… And most of those I have known to use it, don’t anymore… Why would you, really? You do know that change start with you, right? Or are you too ignorant to know that?
