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Comment by brainburn | Hacker News Reader

Uhm, decent support on all your devices? (there's even a commandline client).

Versus that ridiculous hack where you can whatsapp in the browser, provided you scan a qr code and have the phone on the same network.

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I don't think WhatsApp Web is a ridiculous hack. Instead I think it's quite an ingenious hack to allow you to use a computer to send and receive messages without 1) dealing with the pesky message synchronisation issues that plague iMessage, and 2) having the server store all messages. And your phone only needs to be connected to the Internet, not necessarily on the same network. Regarding the use of QR code, I think it's a clever way to authenticate too; no password to memorise, just a long random auth token.

Except that it stops working as soon as the phone enters sleep mode or (if you're roaming or something) has no reliable data connection.

Except that it stops working as soon as the phone enters sleep mode

Can't say I've ever experienced that.

Android 6.0 Doze mode actually distrupts it, I should have perhaps been clearer.

Have you even tried Telegram on the Web? It's clearly superior and yes, WhatsApp's solution feels like a nasty hack when compared to it. Also, didn't get that mention to iMessage.

Does it work when you're not storing your messages on their servers?

> there's even a commandline client

This totally speaks to me but I imagine saying to my buddies at the club: "You should use Telegram. It's free, you don't need an account, and best of all there is even a command line client.". That'll convince them right away. ;-)

Did you missunderstand "... there is even ..." phrase?

For most people Telegram offers pretty good desktop clients (as opposed to the rather horrible WhatsApp web experience).

Your phone does not need to be on the same network!!!! I have my phone in front of me right now at work and I remoting into my home computer(Chrome remote desktop) and using the web client.

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