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Wothe @lemmy.world

Do you know what is an 'Everything App'?

Elon is always obsessed with WeChat's model. (For those who don't know about WeChat, it is basically the name of the 'Everything app'.)

Everything in one single point is pretty convenient but has led to a bunch of risks...

Leave a risk that you know in the comment.

108 comments

  • Yeah, uhh we had that in the 1990s and it sucked:

    Why do one thing poorly when you can do a whole bunch of different things even worse.

  • Convenience and marketing will always win at the end. We're heading that way anyway. People use Apple Pay and Google pay and don't think for a second what it means. Other forms of ID are going that way too. People want ecosystems without having to lift a finger. Just let big brother take care of everything.

    What, you want to talk privately? Use cash? What do you have to hide?

    • On the other hand, Google/Apple Pay are both pretty great products that replace a horrendous legacy payments system. Recall that for like 40 years the most innovative consumer payment system looked like this. And it was essentially a duopoly as well (Visa/Mastercard).

      At the end of the day, cash is still a thing as well.

      • Well, some countries indeed still commonly use payment systems from 50 years ago. That's pretty bizarre. I remember hearing about PayPal 20 years ago, how revolutionary it is, and I didn't quite get what the big deal is. That's because all around Europe we had secure online payments (secure against theft and such, not against the bank snooping) since the late 90's, and chipped cards even earlier.

        But anyway yea... In person, cash is king. Let's keep it alive. Some countries are planning to phase out cash, and that really is only because we're letting it happen due to our lazyness.

    • Sure, I use them, but I have a good reason why I started using them. I lost my plastic 3 times in one year. I have a small kid, he's glued to me, whether it be the market or the playground, doesn't matter, he's always with me. He distracts me all the time (aways asking questions), so I just forget to take my plastic sometimes 🤷.

      So, even though I was against it, I decided to use Google Pay (now Wallet). I rarely forget my phone (only when I leave home, so it's at home), plus it's big and bulky, you notice it missing sooner than a piece of plastic.

      If there are any FOSS alternatives, I'd gladly use them, but as far as I know, there are none 🤷.

      • That's my point tho. I get it that technology can be complicated and not everyone can, wants or needs to learn everything relevant about it.

        But the way it works out at the end, is that someone figures out to solve some truly trivial problem, and in the process siphons all your data and choices away.

        Oh no, I can't figure out the 3 buttons on a music player. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate listen to all your conversations on an off chance that you want to play a piece of music.

        Oh no, I need to raise my hand to turn on the lights. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate control everything in your house via an online service they control and can shut down on a whim.

        Oh no, I'm clumsy and keep losing an essential thing. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate go through all your purchases and identity at all times.

        Oh no, my phone has like, 6 buttons. That's too much for lil ol' me! Solution: Have two multibillion conglomerates dictate you how to use your tech, which at the end becomes just as complicated yet dumber and 6x as expensive than what we had 15 years ago.

        I dunno, at what point is the solution not worth that tiny inconvenience?

        You can like, put your payment card in your phone's case. Heck you can even put bank notes in there.

    • I can’t talk about google, but I do recall at launch that increased provacy was a widely touted feature of apple pay. If you’re using a credit card, all of your purchases are tracked, and your credit card provider is able to mine and sell all of that data.

      In addition, the merchant can do the same if you use a credit card. With apple pay, your phone anonymizes the number by only sending the merchant an authorization. In addition, apple does not store your transaction info.

      If I recall correctly, one of the reasons walmart originally failed to implement apple pay at their terminals was their loss of the ability to track customer purchases. They tried implementing some janky thing with qr codes.

      • Increased privacy in language of these corporations means "the only people who can access all of your data is us, our 50000 partner companies and every their partner company, and half of the governments on this planet that are currently touted as friendly. But nobody else, trust us bro".

        I know banks are shit, but well I have 4 bank cards from 4 banks from 4 countries, and for now, that shit isn't pooled yet.

        Plus I can still use cash, and even leave my phone at home if I wanna buy... Something... Without it being tracked.

        The problem of merchants tracking or stealing your card data is mainly in certain countries using banking systems that are 30 years out of date.

        Besides, people keep flocking to using all the store chains' apps and reward cards and whatnot, using their real names and data, so enhanced privacy in that regard is moot if people don't care in the first place.

        I also don't recall any talks about giving banks nonstop access to all our IDs and car keys and other stuff that's slowly creeping into phones, or rather into the hands of the handful big brother entities.

        But the payment systems are just one thing that came to mind, it's not the only problem with these ideas.

  • Why would you put yourself into an obvious dead end street? People already have problems leaving whatsapp for better messengers. People have a hard time quitting their amazon-addiction, even though there are many alternatives out there. Imagine you put all your eggs in one basket (messenger, shopping, payment, etc.) and lock down everything in one app. This might work for autocratic regimes, that push this idea of an app, as it makes it easier to control everything, but in the western world we like to be individualistic people who like to choose for themself, stand our or diverge from traditions.

    Currently in the west, there are multiple shops you can go to. If you happen to have a bad experience (product not at all like the picture, quality, etc.) you can give the app and the shop a bad review and never come back and try one of the others apps. If you have a bad experience inside a Everything App, where also is your communication with friends and the payment... how do you punish the app? No go to the shopping Tab anymore? Review a bad Tab on the appstore? If you leave all the tasks (shopping, communication, payment, etc.) separated in different Apps, you as a user keep more control. You can switch payments without affecting your communication. Imagine getting banned from paypal, whatsapp and amazon at the same time, because the TOS of this everything app. If you are not living in a autocratic state, you can choose (and should choose) and vote with your experience on what service is good and what service needs to go. If you live in an autocratic state, you might possibly can not choose from too much options, as your autocratic regime is trying to push this single apps, that they can control, into every sphere of your life. And if you do use something else, the autocratic state will find ways to make this a reason to have a closer look at you. Don't stand out. Do not diverge from the rest of the citizens. Or else you get the treatment. - I see how Elmo wants this tool on his belt.

    The Everything App stand diametrical against the individualistic person belief and an open market. If it were such a great thing, people would have done it successfully in the last 15 years of App development in the West. But there is none of these Apps. Because it is not fitting in a democratic state where services are federated across the market and not vertically implemented in a single app. Its why we have homescreens where multiple apps can coexist next to each other. Is the best homescreen, a single page, with a single app, where when you go inside, then only the variety of possibilities opens up (calendar, calculator, messenger, shopping, etc.) or is this variety of possibilities not already happening exactly there: On the homescreen, in seperated apps.

    He can try. But he will fail. Like he failed twitter.

108 comments