Still agree with your opinion, though. Also, I find it annoying that you can't message someone on WhatsApp without adding them to contacts.
wa.me/263xxxxxxxxx?text=Hello
Opening that link will launch WhatsApp (or WhatsApp web) to the user's number and the text "Hello" in the message field.
Android v8, Firefox v68.6.
Open firefox settings, toggle 'open links in app'.
(or)
Open a chat with yourself in whatsapp. https://wa.me/your-number . You can spam anything here, it's personal and only you can see it.
They send wa.me/number-of-person-you-are-contacting in that chat. Click on it and it will start a chat with person-you-are-contacting.
All numbers MUST be in international format. Country code and number.
Looks like it is some half completed demo integration rather than production ready...
Open a chat with yourself in whatsapp. https://wa.me/your-number . You can spam anything here, it's personal and only you can see it.
They send wa.me/number-of-person-you-are-contacting in that chat. Click on it and it will start a chat with person-you-are-contacting.
All numbers MUST be in international format. Country code and number.
Literally doesn't matter what you do, it's what other people do with your data. I can tell from this guy I interned for 15 years ago that at one point he uploaded his entire address book to Facebook including my name, email and phone number because he still shows up in facebook recommendations to me today on Facebook and IG.
Never gave them access to my contacts either or even had him in my contacts but FB's shadow profile knows he knows who I am.
They are almost certainly sharing data behind the scenes, they openly say this in op's link about how WhatsApp uses your data:
> improving their services and your experiences using them, such as making suggestions for you (for example, of friends or group connections, or of interesting content), (...) across the Facebook Company Products;
There is a small chance that they've gotten all my data from the people at the other side of the conversation if they have the fb app installed I guess, which really isn't much better.
The trick that i use is to type their number into the domain wa.me in the following format https://wa.me/xxxxxxxxxxx
That allows you to open a chat to that specific number without adding them to your contact list.
You can, if you're both part of a group chat together. Tap on their number and a pop up comes up allowing you to message said person.
Also agree with the opinions expressed even with similar experience to yourself (no Facebook or messenger apps installed, WhatsApp contacts don't appear as suggestions on FB website).
Is this a new limitation? On iOS I'm still able to message someone new using only their phone number. Though I'm blocking contact access so perhaps that's why.