And no IPad version to
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
It’s because the vast, vast, VAST majority of people have no idea that many apps are just showing a website. Also, the app version is almost always more efficient in terms of precious phone screen real estate compared to a browser. Apps also remember who you are so you don’t have to login. It isn’t hard to understand why people like them.
That said, many apps are horrible from a privacy perspective. But that is largely hidden from the average user, most of whom simply don’t think much about online privacy anyway.
I hope the ubiquity of irritating ads are the thin edge of the wedge that gets more people interested in ad-blocking, and then perhaps online privacy more generally.
Yes, but no calls, because apparently a browser doesnt have microphone and speaker support
I wouldn’t install it on my system in any case.
Same. No sane linux user should.
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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.
“Easy, I don’t talk to such people”
so you don’t talk to most people, outside of coworkers, family and other weirdos
T. Care about privacy, also care about having a social life without being an annoying weirdo
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
Even if it exists, then it does not have to be good. Look at Microsoft Teams.
It’s a stopgap but Teams for Linux at least gives you Wayland support, choice of seperate window sharing and background filters
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?
It’s almost impossible not to sadly, at least if you want to reach everybody in ypur contacts… It was the first popular messaging app here and inertia prevents people from moving to better alternatives now.
The reason is the network effect. I want to use signal or rather even an EU based messaging service, but everybody, including businesses, are on WhatsApp in my country.
