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provide free app at a loss
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grow massive user base and market share
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squeeze your userbase for every cent they're worth
Every single time. We got to solve the funding issue some how, I dont want to live in a future run by ads.
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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WhatsApp was not free and already had a massive user base before Facebook bought it.
Hope this will turn people to alternatives.
Wasn’t it like a quid to sign up?
Yeah it was something like that, very low price compared to what SMS were charged for.
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(1 replies)
Eastern Europe loves the app Viber that Rakuten bought, which has had ads for years.
People LOVE a walled garden of their friends are there, too.
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(2 replies)
This is such great news! More ammo to use when trying to convince friends and family to move away from WhatsApp
delta.chat
The enshittify proof alternative!
...Electron inside.
Would signal also work?
I believe it is centralized but it is certainly an alternative to WhatsApp. My understanding is that it’s encrypted and privacy centric.
Yes, encrypted chats packetised over SMTP layer.
Smooth as silk for a year and a half.
Send pics, voicemails, files, videos, and video-chat(via Jitsi integration)
Arcane-chat app does location sharing too.
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Do you have WhatsApp?
No Telegram?
I dont have that one, none of the clients seem to work on my phone... Wechat?
Cant verify, SMS doesnt get through. LINE?
lol I dont have a japanese number. Kakaotalk?
No... ...discord?
Sure!
Shit he's 30 seconds from finding out Im a furry.
none of the clients seem to work on my phone
Hm, first time I hear that one to be honest.
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"We will never show you ads in WhatsApp. We promise". --Facebook when they bought WhatsApp and promised the previous owner not to force ads in the app...
I wonder if anyone believed them at the time
If they did not, they at least ignored that instinct and kept using WhatsApp...
How do we get people to stop ignoring their better instincts in things like this?
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I forgot WhatsApp existed.
Guess its shittier now.
Mhm. Yup.
It's the go-to messagging app in my country for historical reasons.
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I literally just got my senior citizen dad off Skype and over to WhatsApp like 2 years ago... Ain't no way I can get him over to signal
I see a lot of people saying it's time to switch to Signal, and I mean I agree in principle, it's my main messaging app, but I don't see how it can scale. It runs off of donations and the only reason it's still functioning is because the users that are there are above averagely passionate about it and willing to donate. If it became the defacto messaging app I fear that there is no way they would be capable of financing that level of traffic.
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