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WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

(www.nytimes.com)
713 points greenburger | 3 comments | 16 Jun 25 13:38 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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yakkomajuri ◴[17 Jun 25 12:56 UTC] No.44298568[source]▶
I guess this was expected, but it makes me feel really powerless in the sense that I can't really move away from WhatsApp.

I have a couple of friends that I message via Signal and even convinced my dad to use it a while back, but here in Brazil WhatsApp is _everything_, and I doubt most people care about this at all. In my case, I'd love to just go over to Signal fully but then I couldn't talk to family, friends, and probably couldn't even book a haircut or pay my taxes (my accountant messages me on WhatsApp).

It's one of those where unless just about everyone were to go over to Signal, most people won't, because keeping track of messages in two apps is quite hard.

That leaves me stuck in this ecosystem, which is quite sad.

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Moldoteck ◴[17 Jun 25 14:51 UTC] No.44299980[source]▶
you should still slowly push for more ppl in family to use signal. In moldova as example most ppl used viber, but moved gradually to telegram and whatsapp. I've convinced my family/friends to use telegram in the past, but I'll slowly help them use Signal more. Changes rarely happen fast
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1. jama211 ◴[22 Jun 25 19:43 UTC] No.44349696[source]▶
Is there functionality whatsapp provides (even if it’s really unrelated to software features, just by happenstance due to its widespread usage) that signal doesn’t currently provide for? If so, it’s a losing battle. No one would go backwards in functionality unless the ads got egregious.
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2. Moldoteck ◴[24 Jun 25 10:49 UTC] No.44364749[source]▶
imo there's only one important feature - chat backups. WA allows doing periodical backups into google drive to not lose the data
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3. jama211 ◴[26 Jun 25 19:14 UTC] No.44390394[source]▶
What you consider important may not be what others consider important. Seems like you know of other features that others find important you’re just not wanting to mention those because it undermines your point.