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Comment by jheriko | Hacker News Reader

amazing how massive they made it with so little functionality

classic shitware

Outside of purity, why care about this? The functional requirement of a social media app is that it has a large and active user base, and this needs to take priority over non-functional requirements like install size.

Since it was built with a lean team on a tight deadline, I can see why install size has taken a back seat. Only so many hours in a day and focusing on execution timelines and product market fit is 100x more important.

I want an app that solves a problem; not focus on a purity test.

Even beyond that, as an experienced engineer like yourself, you know sometimes you make compromises you don't necessarily agree with. Trashing others people work comes across as immature.

This comment reminds me of when American based AAA game studios were mad about Elden Ring's success.

What functionality is missing that you would add?

> What functionality is missing that you would add?

Are you being satirical? There's literally no functionality beyond the very basics. No timeline customization, advance posting, search, polls, hashtags, view customization, history management, lists, account deletion...

It's not about what functionality is missing, it's about what's there. 250 MB to show you a list of text posts and comments? Why is it so big? What does it do to warrant that?

It apparently needs to spy on your Apple Watch heartbeat and every other sensor on your phone.

This isn't far from the truth. Have you seen the list of App Store data collection permissions it requests? For what amounts in functionality to little more than a terminal session to a BBS? Holy shit. I verified it's longer than TikTok's which is widely assumed to be a hostile state-backed surveillance tool at this point.

For Threads, the following may be "collected and linked to your identity":

Health & Fitness

Purchases

Financial info

Location

Contact info

Contacts

User content

Search history

Browsing history

Identifiers

Usage data

Sensitive Info - whatever the hell that is [1]

Diagnostics

And my favorite, "other data" I.e. it collects so much we don't even have a category for it

[1] Apple's definition includes: racial/ethnic data, sexual orientation, pregnancy or childbirth information, disability, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, political opinion, genetic information, or biometric data

I'm sure there's a valid reason for all this...

Those aren't permissions it requests, it has no permissions by default. Instead it's the broadest interpretation of data it could gather from any of its features and dependencies (an app granting a permission grants it to all frameworks as well). But they will have to ask about all of them, especially health data. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a broad, general list they imported from other Meta apps in the rush to ship.

It's not even anything about features or frameworks or dependencies.

It's literally just checkboxes inside App Store Connect when you submit the app.

Basically it's what Meta's lawyers think needs to be disclosed.

I'm sure they do sentiment analysis on your IG posts, put you in advertising targeting cohorts like "cancer survivor", and that's what they mean by "health data". Not that it's getting anything from the iOS Health app.

Apple guidelines, especially around user-submitted content, have some leeway in interpretation if they are "optional to disclose" or not. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/#o...

If I'm posting all day on Threads about my health, that doesn't sound like "Collection of the data occurs only in infrequent cases that are not part of your app’s primary functionality", and hence they need to declare literally anything a user might be posting about.

The health one is what raised eyebrows for me. That wasn't included by accident.

I'd be surprised if it actually requested it. At the same time, it could just be an overly broad interpretation of the fact that they obviously gather any health data you post about on the service.

Not sure how I feel about extending the benefit of the doubt to one of, if not the number one, least trustworthy companies on the planet.

Not really the benefit of the doubt given the app is out and no one has posted about it asking for health permission (AFAIK). Or any other permissions you wouldn't expect for social media (again, AFAIK).

Reminder that outside of devs - no one would really care if your whole app’s functionality is copy pasted across all classes, has a million dependencies and is unmanageable devwise if it brings in the dough

No company cares about purity, architecture or how beautiful the code is, the only reason most do is because it aligns with maintenance costing less and being able to develop features faster

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