1y ago

Useless messenger

And no IPad version to

Memes @lemmy.ml

RmDebArc_5 @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Useless messenger

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147 comments

Isn't the web version a full client that works without a phone nearby nowadays?
- Yes it is, and because of who owns it, I would even prefer that to an unsandboxed closed source native binary.
  
  Pretty much I'll never understand why people want their webpages to be apps with access to all your shit
- Yes, but no calls, because apparently a browser doesnt have microphone and speaker support
  
  Whatsapp does their calls over voIP anyways right?
- works without a phone nearby nowadays?
  Last time I checked it kicked me out for no reason... But in a nutshell yes.

I wouldn't install it on my system in any case.
- Same. No sane linux user should.
  …
  Und: Hubi ist Linux Nutzer konfirmiert. - 2023, koloriert
  
  👀
- I don’t like WhatsApp, but some people simply refuse to use anything else (“better”) and the web clients can bridge the gap but it’s extremely annoying not being able to answer a call with a person you are texting
  
  Easy, I don't talk to such people. They can have my email or phone number if truly necessary. Yes, same for family or work, just not using Meta products for communication. Surprisingly enough people do understand.
- Element one via bridges and run WhatsApp on an old phone - that's the most I will allow an app from meta in my enviroment
  
  But please tell your contacts that you're using bridges, if you haven't already.
  You are effectively giving away encryption keys to a third party, since those messages need to be decrypted and re-encrypted mid-transit.
  Everyone who is part of the chats you use bridges with deserves to know about that fact, at least.

Stop using Facebook products
- I'm tired of seeing it

Even if it exists, then it does not have to be good. Look at Microsoft Teams.
- Microsoft Teams???
  
  I also hate it but unfortunately have to use it for work.
- forgive my ignorance, I also hated teams when I had to first use it, but now other than it being a microsoft and probably data hungry app, what's bad about it?
  
  Every damn thing?
  
  skype > teams
  
  It has indeed improved a lot over the last 2 years or so and is now actually quite a mature product, as much as I hate to admit that about an MS product. My biggest gripes with it are its refusal to acknowledge you may be using multiple devices (to this day) and MS's insistence that a person only do one thing at one time (can't edit calendar items while checking a chat, for example). Their Linux app is a joke and I'm better off running it from Chrome. The phone app makes the WiFi interface crash constantly and I have to run it off 4G; it is the only app I have this issue with.
  Which brings me to another gripe. Teams documentation insists that screen sharing on Linux is not supported, and sure enough you cannot see the option for it while on a call with someone. However if you are in a meeting (with however many people), the option magically appears and works absolutely perfectly.
  
  No separate tabs to do various things at once. You can pop out chats and calls, but that's about it.
  It also struggles to connect with the right audio device everytime.
  
  It's so horribly slow and resource hungry. It sucks a ton of memory, a lot of cpu. Every time I start a video call the cpu fan goes brrrr

WhatsApp is owned by Meta right?
- Yes
  
  Not sure why anyone would use it. I certainly wouldn't.

It's a web app, you don't really need a native application for it.
- I just use discord via the browser. Why would I allow it to harvest my data as an app?
  
  Because the desktop app works without having your phone around, if I remember correctly. It's a relatively recent feature.
- The Windows-only app is way better. You can make calls for example.

Meanwhile in the US and Canada: So, I'll just send an SMS, k?
- Also in the US: Blue SmS right?
  
  Teenagers are the only ones who care about that

Stop using that shit

"best i can do is a chromium only web app"
- Works in Firefox for me

Facebook couldn't bother making a proper Android app for years. Now you want them to make Linux apps? The likelihood is small...

My MF smartwatch has WhatsApp but still no Linux version.
- Technically you could run an Android container on Linux like with Waydroid and get WhatsApp too, it's just that there'll probably be more Android users
- Flatpak has WhatsApp for Linux.
  
  It's just WhatsApp web as an app

VIBER HAS A LINUX VERSION?!?!
also android is kinda linux
- But also arm
  
  And leg

You shouldn't use this app in the first place. It had many data breaches and it copy everything from Telegram (maybe everyone copies, but I don't use other apps). I only mainly use Telegram and Matrix.
- It's impossible to convince that to friends and family. In my country everyone use WhatsApp as primary messaging app . It's kind of like iMessage situation in US
  
  I feel that, a good chunk of my friends are on Signal thankfully but all of my family still use WhatsApp
  
  It's nice that a lot of my surroundings have finally jumped to Telegram. Previously it was Viber (bleh). But it's much hard to go to Matrix because it's much much less feature rich and less polished then Telegram. I can easily use it as a basic text messenger, but that's about it. So Telegram is a solid middle ground. Can't wait for the multi server Matrix accounts.

Why are we installing Whatsapp to begin with?
- Where I live everything is on WhatsApp. You want to get ahold of a business: WhatsApp, friends organizing a party: WhatsApp, want to check the traffic: WhatsApp.
  
  Same here. Just check out of society and you're good (:

Discord on Linux kinda sucks, though. It's more resource demanding than the Windows version and I can't even stream with audio.
- I just use Discord from my browser where it's at least sandboxed and doesn't have access to my filesystem.
  Since it's an electron app anyway it's basically the same as the app.
- I honeslty haven't had any issues with it. But I'm sire others are. I feel like that's the biggest challenge since there's a ton of distros and architectures
- I use it in the browser on Linux and it works fine. Everything works. They're electron app is poorly deployed.
  
  Nope, you still can't stream a window with audio

Its proprietary so that's not a shock
- So is Discord and Viber
  
  Neither of which run well on Linux. Don't use proprietary software when there are other options

web.whatsapp.com works really well
edit: It does not do voice or video but I'm OK switching to my phone for those

There are plenty of desktop wrappers available for the Web version. I don't use WhatsApp often but from my experience it seems fairly similar to the Windows desktop app
- Main problem is that it doesn't have voice and video calls there.
  
  Ah fair enough, I can see how that'd be an issue
- Afaik they created a Windows client that's native sort of recently and I'm pretty sure it's a better experience than the web version because that's one slow as hell to initially load for me.

Use it in matrix? Or Element One?

Wrappers are available as snaps/flatpaks
- None of which support voice/video calls. Also the native app on windows is fast af

You forgot about Matrix clients (and servers).

Whatsapp has always been behind the curve. Took them way too long to allow gifs.
- I actually prefer that—a simple messenger without gifs and stickers, just plain text.
  I'm not promoting WhatsApp in this case though. It's one thing it's done right, besides end-to-end encryption.