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Comment by _wmd | Hacker News Reader

Back when I was a WhatsApp user, I for one enjoyed the refreshing total absence of notification spam. If I got a ping, it was because a real person I know had something to say. Just a cold, focused person-person messaging app. Even Facebook could not top that

Opening the floodgates to cron jobs dilutes the value of the service for me, and forces WhatsApp down my list of priorities along with SMS - which I haven't had notifications enabled for in many years, because in almost every case the messages are effectively an abuse of time and attention.

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Greg from Twilio here.

Totally understand your concern -- no one wants more spam. WhatsApp currently requires that brands using this API collect explicit opt-in from users prior to messaging them, and also that they also use pre-approved message templates to reach out to customers. Free-form messages can only be sent if the user replies back, and then only for 24 hours.

Curious, why'd you stop using WhatsApp?

I think you maybe missed the idea in my original comment -- opening up the platform to business and marketing in any of its guises whatsoever causes the dilution.. as is so often repeated, tech can't solve social problems, and I really have no interest in allowing marketing to invade my social space.

Any rules can/will be gamed, reinterpreted and twisted such that the end result is the always same -- I'm notified by a human-contact medium of a supposed human-contact that was actually a sales or marketing ping. I don't want that, nobody does.

Re: leaving WhatsApp, I just decided I didn't need it. People can voice call if it's urgent, for everything else I'll see it eventually. There was no gap in my life needing filled by an instant-response chat app with instant-online-status and instant-typing-notifications, I just came to find it all generally annoying

For some of my clients (Medical Practices & Plumbers) being able to send appointment reminders via text has been a huge improvement in their workflow. Their customers get timely information without interrupting their day, about the only thing missing is a secure delivery medium. We've explored Signal & Whatsapp integration, but I think we're still a few years off from anything taking off.

> collect explicit opt-in

Isn't this the biggest lie in the bulk messaging industry?

Maybe for bad actors. I work for an U.S. company and we were explicitly required to get opt-in by the compliance officer. And it's messages users actually want to get (we have over 99.9% opt-in).

> Curious, why'd you stop using WhatsApp?

I assume Facebook. I'm trying to get everyone I know off of it for that reason. Have you considered Signal or Telegram as additional integrations?

I share _wmd's concerns here. The _last_ thing I want is to be "contacted by brands" on Signal. And while I know I can manage _my_ experience with Signal, I don't want Signal to become a place where my friends avoid because it turns into a cesspit of "brand engagement" like so many other services...

(Which sucks a bit for WhisperSystems since I'm not paying them, and I don't want them to take money off Pepsi/TMobile/McDonalds in return for "access to me" either...)

Very good point. I haven't actually used WeChat, but so far as I know you have to explicitly opt-in by adding the brand as a contact. There are valid non-spam use-cases (e.g. Amazon order updates) and it would be an unobtrusive monetization strategy.

Telegram has security issues [0]. WhatsApp and Signal both use the Signal protocol [1].

[0] https://gizmodo.com/why-you-should-stop-using-telegram-right... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Protocol

Both of those are great channels (I personally use Signal), but we have nothing to announce.

I use twilio to send myself SMS notifications programmatically, such as when a multi-hour compilation completes, when DNS for a particular domain has propagated, or when my crawler detects that a new job had been posted to a local company's website. These notifications make my life easier, but my privacy isn't protected with SMS.

I would much prefer to have these messages delivered over signal than over SMS. I hope twilio will also consider signal messenger integration in the future.

I use Telegram for this. They have an easy API and my servers can send me unlimited messages for free.

That sounds extremely similar to wechat appart from the opt-in being managed in wechat itself. A lot of other limitations exist on wechat to limit brand creeps, limit number of push messages a day, pack brand accounts under a dedicated simili user fold and more.

If you guys are curious about a platform with good private / branding integration as to brands creeping in your private circles .

Small comfort. The bar for explicit opt in is very easy to dupe someone into. I know, it happened to me, and I’m a power user.

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