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Comment by cmurf | Hacker News Reader

Whatsapp refuses to function if you don't give it permission to read your contacts. I want to manually input the numbers I want to message via Whatsapp, but that isn't an option. Whatsapp wants to collect my entire contacts. My refusal to grant such permission means I can't use the app, which means there's no point keeping it around.

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I installed Whatsapp for the very first time last week. I feel like there's additional friction and nagging if you don't give it access to your contacts, but you can definitely open it and send/receive messages.

Please explain how, in detail? I tap the message button and it asks for permission to my contacts. I tap deny which only dismisses the permissions request. I don't get a chat field or any way to manually enter a phone number to start chatting.

Last time I used Whatsapp, there was no way to chat with someone who was not in Contacts, on Android. I first had to add each person to Contacts before Whatsapp would let me chat with them.

You can continue active chats or respond people who had started a chat with you, but yeah, you can’t start a new one without the contacts permission.

Maybe you can use a number link (https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/android/26000030/) without the permission, but I’m not sure.

I use WhatsApp without the contacts permission enabled (on Android, FWIW) and it works just fine.

On iOS?

AFAIK that's not allowed for iOS software, all programs must work even if the permissions are denied or redacted.

Works for me. But I can’t keep hundreds of numbers in my head anymore (though I did in my teens), and I hate constantly switching to my contacts - not to mention search by phone number to see who just WhatsApped me just doesn’t work well.

My solution is that I bought a $80-new Android phone (2nd hand would be $20 or less) which I keep at home on WiFi, and WhatsApp web from my iPhone to it. Works perfectly, except notifications, which is somewhat of a beature.

Small price to pay for keeping my main phone Facebook free.

> I bought a $80-new Android phone (2nd hand would be $20 or less)

You just paid money for pushing your personal data to Google.

I use clear Android-x86 VM with wiped Google Services for this, maybe several times for year.

Not connected to google, WhatsApp sideloaded (though cannot guarantee google doesn’t get a copy...).

The only data on this phone are contacts who have contacted me on WhatsApp; it has about 50 contacts compared to my main phone that has an order of magnitude more, and which ttbomk no FANG has access to or a copy of; the war is lost though, because every message/call has at least one more party and almost all of them do give all that info away to google, Facebook and Microsoft (giving Skype access to contacts)

Alas, where I live, NOT using WhatsApp would put me at a much worse disadvantage than the $80 I paid.

Mine works fine without contacts. Maybe try reinstalling?

It's cleanly installed for the first time on this mobile device.

Launch app Chats tab is active by default Tap the chat icon lower right side Whatsapp "To help you connect... allow access to your contacts. Not now or continue"

I tap not now, and am returned to Chats and no way to manually enter a number. Tap the chat icon again, same thing.

Android app info for Whatsapp says no permissions.

This is Android 9. Deleting and reinstalling hasn't changed this behavior.

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