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WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

(www.nytimes.com)
713 points greenburger | 9 comments | 16 Jun 25 13:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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d3vmax ◴[17 Jun 25 06:18 UTC] No.44296182[source]▶
Alice Newton-Rex, head of product at WhatsApp: “Alongside of private messaging, people were saying they wanted to hear more about topics, teams and organizations across WhatsApp.”

- I am pretty sure NO ONE asked to hear about more topics and organizations across whatsapp.

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EbNar ◴[17 Jun 25 08:04 UTC] No.44296745[source]▶
I'd literally PAY for a mod taking away the "updates" tab. I don't care about stories nor I want channels shoved in my face. I just need to message someone, from time to time.
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fanwood ◴[17 Jun 25 08:14 UTC] No.44296789[source]▶
I found the solution by convincing all my friends and family, one by one, to move to Signal. I still use Whatsapp for people who did not migrate, but it's surprisingly possible (if not easy) to convince people to use another app
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sebastiennight ◴[17 Jun 25 08:18 UTC] No.44296811[source]▶
Same here. The trick is to never mention "privacy", "no ads", or anything similar (which has negative perceived value).

If you talk about that stuff, people will dilly-dally with the usual "well I already have too many apps, I'm not sure I want to install one more"

I tell people that the video calls are better (which was true in my experience, back when I still used WA). Instant install

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1. HenryBemis ◴[17 Jun 25 09:08 UTC] No.44297111[source]▶
The fun fact is that those people have 100+ apps on their phones, which run in the background, draining their batteries, tracking the sh*t out of them, never actually use them (get value out of them) and they think zero about their privacy (probably use gmail or the sorts). Someone asked me to install Viber and it had 30 pages of advertisers/data brokers. I won't share a bowl of poop with them (WhatsApp, Viber, etc.) "Meet them where they are" doesn't work if they are in a pool of privacy-poop.
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2. tialaramex ◴[17 Jun 25 09:40 UTC] No.44297274[source]▶
I don't know about iOS but a modern Android will periodically delete permissions from apps you aren't using, the app stays installed but it's now just a harmless icon and wasted storage space as I understand it.
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3. Jach ◴[17 Jun 25 09:50 UTC] No.44297336[source]▶
You also have the ability to easily setup a "Work profile" that's functionally like a second user with its own apps that don't talk to your normal profile apps, and you can shut the whole work profile off when you don't need it so the apps can't even run until you turn it back on. My preferred way of setting it up is with Shelter installed via FDroid.
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4. HenryBemis ◴[17 Jun 25 10:20 UTC] No.44297483{3}[source]▶
You are preaching to the choir here :) My point is not for "us, the techies" and privacy-oriented people. My point is clearly for the 50%-60% that think that "we are trying to take their precious WhatsApp from them" and they don't understand that their car insurance is gradually 20% more expensive than others because they keep posting photos from bars on FB.

I keep 'lean' devices, the apps that I actually use, battery lasts from days to weeks (phone, tablet respectively) and NoRoot Firewall (on Android) makes sure that my phone stays 'silent' to the apps and target IP-addresses of my choosing.

5. coldtrait ◴[17 Jun 25 10:23 UTC] No.44297501[source]▶
I only use viber because it is the only alternative for using TrueCaller in my country (India) that I know of.
6. jen20 ◴[17 Jun 25 11:09 UTC] No.44297723[source]▶
> The fun fact is that those people have 100+ apps on their phones, which run in the background, draining their batteries, tracking the sh*t out of them,

This is wildly untrue on iOS. Perhaps people have 100+ apps. But the rest, not so much.

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7. sebastiennight ◴[17 Jun 25 11:26 UTC] No.44297823[source]▶
You're saying that having all the apps open at the same time won't drain the iPhone's battery?

Because normal people just never close apps. Are they silently shut down/paused after a while?

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8. maineldc ◴[17 Jun 25 12:11 UTC] No.44298150{3}[source]▶
Yes - on iOS only a few things can be done in the background but most apps are frozen eventually when the are no longer in the foreground.
9. jen20 ◴[19 Jun 25 14:47 UTC] No.44319188{3}[source]▶
> Are they silently shut down/paused after a while?

Yes. This has been the case since 2008 when the first version of iOS supporting third-party apps was released. Background refresh allows some quanta of work do be done when an app is not in the foreground, but only limited things.