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Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

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467 points bundie | 6 comments | 08 Jul 25 16:11 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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jeroenhd ◴[08 Jul 25 17:20 UTC] No.44502053[source]▶
Google has been working on this since November last year going by the wayback archive of the support page for this feature.

I'm not seeing any indication that Gemini can read your messages, though. You can compose messages and start calls, but I can't get it to read me any of my messages. In fact, I can't even get it to send messages to group chats, only to individual contacts.

The feature makes a lot of sense, of course. WhatsApp is to many countries across the globe what texting and calling is to Americans. If your smart assistant can't even interact with WhatsApp, it's basically useless for many people.

Edit: ah, that explains why I can't make Gemini read my messages to me, Google's own documentation (https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/15574928) says it can't:

    What Gemini can’t do with WhatsApp
    
        Read or summarize your messages
        Add or read images, gifs, or memes in your messages
        Add or play audio or videos in your messages
        Read or respond to WhatsApp notifications
If you connected Google Assistant to WhatsApp, it seems like data may flow that direction, but then you've already hooked WhatsApp into Google before so I don't think anyone will be surprised there.

Does anyone know how I can make Gemini read messages? I can't even find the assistant settings necessary for that stuff to function.

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Hizonner ◴[08 Jul 25 17:43 UTC] No.44502286[source]▶
What Gemini should be able to do with WhatsApp:

    Exactly and only what any other random app on the phone could do
    with WhatsApp, assuming that you have enabled that in exactly the
    way you would have to enable any other random app to do it.
Google needs to not be abusing its position as the source of the OS to give its software special privilege to reach inside of third-party apps.
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kccqzy ◴[08 Jul 25 17:47 UTC] No.44502323[source]▶
The line is blurry. Google is positioning Gemini not just as an app, but as a OS level feature. The OS can by definition reach into any third-app app to do anything it wants. I'll give some more examples of OS-level features in case it's not clear: copy/paste is an OS-level feature and it is designed to extract arbitrary text or content from third party apps (copy) and insert them into third party apps (paste); screenshotting is an OS-level feature and it is designed to capture the visible views of any third party app with the only exception being DRM content.

Apple Intelligence has similar marketing. In last year's WWDC, there was the whole "Siri, when is my mom's flight landing?" segment (see https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2024/101/ at 1h22m) that didn't generate any controversy. So for some reason people think Siri should rightfully be an OS-level feature but Gemini should not. Got it. I guess Apple's PR is just that much better than Google's.

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1. bbarnett ◴[08 Jul 25 17:53 UTC] No.44502374[source]▶
Dear god! Are you sure? If I ever sensed a forkable event for Android...
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2. Hizonner ◴[08 Jul 25 17:56 UTC] No.44502410[source]▶
Well, really the line was crossed when Google Play Services got special privileges (and third party app developers were encouraged to call on Google Play Services as the only practical way to do various things, some of which maybe should have been part of the OS). And the "assistant" crap, and whatever else.

... and GraphenOS isn't exactly a fork, but it's plugging away, fighting the good fight, doing things like making Google Play Services both optional and a lot less privileged on the phone than it thinks it is.

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3. overfeed ◴[08 Jul 25 18:41 UTC] No.44502791[source]▶
Devils advocate: Google Play Services was the right solution to all the clamoring about Android fragmentation and OEMs abandoning devices by not providing upgrades.
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4. kccqzy ◴[08 Jul 25 18:58 UTC] No.44502922{3}[source]▶
I agree that Google Play Services was the right solution to fragmentation. I also agree that having forks like GrapheneOS was the right solution for a subset of people who like to de-Google themselves.
5. myko ◴[08 Jul 25 19:05 UTC] No.44502988{3}[source]▶
Definitely helped with that and also absolutely frustrating that it is so abusable to keep folks out of the Android garden.

Undeniable that Android updates are so much better than in the past, and it's far easier to keep your Android app using modern APIs than your iOS app, because most of those APIs are libraries with full backwards compatibility going back many years.

6. bbarnett ◴[08 Jul 25 19:28 UTC] No.44503202[source]▶
Yes, but GrapheneOS has lost access to Pixel specific drivers/etc, with the repo changes Google made?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44256604