WhatsApp was the best messaging app out there. Clean, fast, intuitive UI. No bloat. And then Facebook bought it and shat all over it. Now it looks like their crappy Messenger app. Time to go.
WhatsApp will now show ads.
Submitted 1 day ago by MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/technology/whatsapp-ads.html
Comments
usernameunnecessary@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Will be REALLY hard to go with a family such as mine (my father seriously thought if you uninstalled google you would never be able to download anything else more on your phone).
CreamyJalapenoSauce@piefed.social 1 day ago
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The first thing that came in my mind when I found out about WhatsApp having ads now.
trailee@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
This is a good time to refer back to a Forbes piece on Brian Acton from a few years back:
The Facebook-WhatsApp pairing had been a head-scratcher from the start. Facebook has one of the world’s biggest advertising networks; Koum and Acton hated ads. Facebook’s added value for advertisers is how much it knows about its users; WhatsApp’s founders were pro-privacy zealots who felt their vaunted encryption had been integral to their nearly unprecedented global growth.
This dissonance frustrated Zuckerberg. Facebook, Acton says, had decided to pursue two ways of making money from WhatsApp. First, by showing targeted ads in WhatsApp’s new Status feature, which Acton felt broke a social compact with its users. “Targeted advertising is what makes me unhappy,” he says. His motto at WhatsApp had been “No ads, no games, no gimmicks”—a direct contrast with a parent company that derived 98% of its revenue from advertising. Another motto had been “Take the time to get it right,” a stark contrast to “Move fast and break things.”
Facebook also wanted to sell businesses tools to chat with WhatsApp users. Once businesses were on board, Facebook hoped to sell them analytics tools, too. The challenge was WhatsApp’s watertight end-to-end encryption, which stopped both WhatsApp and Facebook from reading messages. While Facebook didn’t plan to break the encryption, Acton says, its managers did question and “probe” ways to offer businesses analytical insights on WhatsApp users in an encrypted environment.
Long live Signal!
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Long live Signal!
Ghostie@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
WhatsAds
pHr34kY@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Poor Meta are just trying to make ends meet. /s
multi_flexi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Thankfully I’ve never used this thing.
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Isn’t this news 8 months old?
ominouslemon@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Yep, the NYT article is from June 2025
AcesFullOfKings@feddit.uk 1 day ago
[deleted]MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Okay, noted, gonna put this on my posts from now on. Thanks!
Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I know a lot of people who use WhatsApp and do I need it in a container on occasion. But fuck Microsoft and all the other tech companies colluding in thr or global cartel.
Fediverse and Linux stands still and yet gets better and better by comparison.
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
If you use that pile of crap, you deserve it.
Sturgist@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Sweet…
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Wow, you’re fast.
Sturgist@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
💪 sorting by 🕑 New because 🔥 Hot was all read
notsosure@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I switched to signal, but am just switching to WIRE.
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Oh, what motivated you to do this switch? Is WIRE better than Signal?
smiletolerantly@awful.systems 1 day ago
Oh no! And just when I finally got around to setting up an XMPP server, too!
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 day ago
XMPP was really confusing for me, I stick with Signal.
smiletolerantly@awful.systems 1 day ago
Yeah the UX for setting it up was not great. Conversely though, the UX for using it has been fantastic so far. My biggest concern was that the clients would feel dated (on Android esp), but no, they’re surprisingly polished!
space_viewer@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Well, of course they do…
muzzle@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Thank god, maybe I can get my family to switch to signal.
forwhomthecattolls@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
it’s been so so nice having most of my friends and family (that want to talk to me) on Signal. it’s so unobtrusive and chill not to mention the peace of mind
morto@piefed.social 1 day ago
Teach us your ways!
pHr34kY@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s SUCH a battle. The only people I had on Signal were my immediate family. I just replaced it with my own XMPP server so my kids can join without a SIM.
johsny@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Same!
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Lucky, my parents call me paranoid for using IronFox even though they DO know about tracking.