WhatsApp to let users message without their phones | Hacker News Reader

WhatsApp to let users message without their phones

bbc.com

17 pointspseudolus16 comments

I'm really pissed at Signal because they went the same route as WhatsApp and tied the account to a phone number and it's not possible to use it on more than one (android) device or just on a PC (without phone).

WhatsApp gave us the chance to convert a lot of people to a facebook-free messenger because of their change of terms and we did convert a lot of people.

But meanwhile I have to agree with most people I know: the Signal app is just shitty compared to WhatsApp (often crashes on android, you can't set a custom notify sound, messages arriving late, ...) and now it also lags behind this new feature.

Before you get mad, realize that Signal is a non profit, with much less budget and much smaller number of employees working at it than WhatsApp/FB. If you're so motivated, can even build something for them in open source.

Being "pissed" is about the phone number requirement which is just a political decision and not about budget.

> If you're so motivated, can even build something for them in open source

No, as far as I know they don't allow alternative clients (at least on their servers). Of course that is their right but IMHO still a dick move (again nothing to do with budget) and we are stuck with the official client. Open source is nice but with this limitation it has lost the biggest advantage.

Element [1] is very similar to Signal and doesn't require a phone number :)

It's also got many compatible Matrix clients (Web/iOS/macOS/Linux/terminal) which don't have to dance around the rules like the unofficial Signal clients.

It also syncs message history across clients (all e2e encrypted).

[1]: https://element.io/

I don't really use signal, but there is a semi official API client you can use from the cli and integrate everywhere. Renting a throw away phone number costs a few cent (sorrily this reality for many services today)

While you literally can't use WhatsApp without your phone nearby.

Edit:// as for functionality no current IM can beat telegram except WeChat obviously

Doesn't signal and whatsapp let a new user of the same phone number take over the account? Both will in some ways show that the keys have changed, but if you rent a number and then that is returned to the pool of rentable numbers then someone else can effectively stop your access to the account.

Tying accounts to phone numbers is a design decision that is just plain wrong for anything that does not only run on a phone or anything that is supposed to identify a person rather than a phone number.

I don't see anything in this release that says you can use WhatsApp without your account being tied to a phone, just that you can use it without you phone being on (mirroring).

If that is the case, Signal already supports that feature.

Also, I've had no issues with the Signal app on android nor iOS. Neither has any of my friends.

This is big! Can't wait until we have radios that can also show images.

Lmao. And good thing we have BBC covering this technology breakthrough.

Yeah, pretty frustrating when whatsapp is the only messenger i can't have open on both my phone and tablet.

Incidentally, the only messenger I use that requires a phone number is again, whatsapp. Because it has basically replaced SMS here.

Other than that, if they want me to sign up with my phone number, I say no thank you and move on. Looking at you Signal, and other "security/privacy conscious" messengers.

I hate phone requirements. In fact I do not even have a phone number for a few years now and regularly send emails to companies explaining how SMS is all but secure.

However you can just rent virtual phone numbers or even just pay a few cents to receive a verification once.

I know it's annoying, but just playing their game I guess (and showing how little effect these phone limitations actually have)

I have a phone number. I just don't see why I should give it out to everyone.

That's my point. Don't. Use throwaway ones whenever it's not critical information and simply avoid the service should they think secure information should be on the mobile network.

At least that's what I do. But so far things only got worse than better.

Services that use SMS as single only way to reset a password without further verifications are simply not thinking about security enough

Would be nice if while they're at it they let us migrate our message history between iOS/Android properly. The paid 3rd party solution I used didn't work, by the time I was done messing with it I'd already been using Whatsapp for a week and had to value the new history over the old and not risk wiping it out.

I don't know about iOS, but in Android it saves everything to Google drive. So you can buy a new phone and have whatsapp fully restored within minutes. I guess they would have that functionality on iOS too.

Yes it works fine on the same OS, there's a backup/restore option. Swapping between the two vendors isn't supported. I think the excuse is encryption keys however it's not insurmountable if they want to make it work (some 3rd party solutions do work, I think my large archive was just breaking the one I chose, they sent me a debug build but I had more issues so gave up).

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