WhatsApp vs. WhatsApp Plus Fight Gets Ugly For Users

BarbaraHudson writes WhatsApp is locking out users for 24 hours who use WhatsApp Plus to access the service. The company claims they brought in the temporary ban to make users aware that they are not using the correct version and their privacy could be comprised using the unofficial WhatsApp Plus. "Starting today, we are taking aggressive action against unauthorized apps and alerting the people who use them." Is this a more aggressive rerun of "This site best viewed with Internet Explorer"?

Comments

No

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this a more aggressive rerun of "This site best viewed with Internet Explorer"?

No, it's saying that the other app maybe be stealing your credentials, logging your convos, etc. It's not remotely the same thing.

Re:No

[Z00L00K]

And what prevents the standard "WhatsApp" from doing that? Just look at the EFF scorecard ( https://www.eff.org/secure-mes... ) reveals that there are better alternatives.

Re:No

[timmyf2371]

FUD? Perhaps they saw what happened to the Snapchat users who used a third party client which uploaded their photos to their own server and are acting now to ensure users only use the official version.

Re:No

[Richard_at_work]

Why should they? Its WhatsApps service, if they want to regulate what uses it then that's their prerogative and they can do it in whatever manner they wish to do it.

Better Link

[OzPeter]

WhatsApp issues 24 hour ban for WhatsApp Plus users

I'm not sure that WhatsApp has a leg to stand on as reverse engineering is allowed, and could be opening themselves up to legal action. What I do find amusing is this classic FUD argument:

Why am I banned for using WhatsApp Plus and how do I get unbanned?

WhatsApp Plus is an application that was not developed by WhatsApp, nor is it authorized by WhatsApp. The developers of WhatsApp Plus have no relationship to WhatsApp, and we do not support WhatsApp Plus. Please be aware that WhatsApp Plus contains source code which WhatsApp cannot guarantee as safe and that your private information is potentially being passed to 3rd parties without your knowledge or authorization.

Re:Better Link

[BarbaraHudson]

Please be aware that WhatsApp Plus contains source code which WhatsApp cannot guarantee as safe and that your private information is potentially being passed to 3rd parties without your knowledge or authorization.

Let me fix that for everyone:

Please be aware that both WhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus contain source code which cannot guarantee as safe and that your private information is potentially being passed to 3rd parties without your knowledge or authorization.

Let them release the source for their clients and servers ... then we'll see. Ditto for Facebook. I looked on the WhatsApp site, and while they claim to have contributed to open source, they have not released THEIR source.

Re:Better Link

[drinkypoo]

I'm not sure that WhatsApp has a leg to stand on as reverse engineering is allowed,

This is not about reverse engineering. This is about terms of service. You're arguing that they should be forced to provide services to people under terms not of their choosing, where the services are not mandatory utilities.

Re:Better Link

[Gaygirlie]

I'm not sure that WhatsApp has a leg to stand on as reverse engineering is allowed, and could be opening themselves up to legal action.

Companies providing an online service are perfectly within their legal rights to deny users of 3rd-party applications, it has nothing to do with reverse-engineering. They can't deny you from reverse-engineering stuff and using that stuff on your own, but they can deny you access to their services, then.

Re:Better Link

[Bogtha]

reverse engineering is allowed, and could be opening themselves up to legal action.

Just because reverse engineering is legal, it doesn't mean WhatsApp are legally obligated to provide their services to third-party clients.

The legal matter here is the blatant trademark infringement by WhatsApp Plus.

Fault of the walled garden

[Lirodon]

If you really value your privacy and want the RIGHT to use a service in any way you want, don't use closed messaging platforms like that.

WhatsApp doesn't understand the web

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately while other companies embrace the web and third party clients such as Telegram which has a list of official and unofficial clients and a public API, WhatsApp is actively waging war against third-party developers and their users. Last year they issued DMCA takedowns to all popular Github repositories hosting third-party clients and/or libraries interfacing with their API.

WhatsApp provides clients for many platforms but not for all platforms. Users of webOS, Firefox OS, Maemo, Sailfish, Ubuntu Touch had to use third-party libraries and also users of other platforms where there is an official client preferred using a third-party client because of many reasons.

After the takedowns, WhatsApp started banning users that connected to their network using third-party client, a move so evil that deserves a post in its own and the reason I stopped using their service. Since the takedowns and the banishments people waited for the release of a web client that would enable other platforms to use their service thru the beautiful of the world wide web.

Well, they finally launched their web offerring but its such a poor offerring that one wonders if anyone at WhatsApp actually understand the power behind the web. Lets analyse some parts of their launch post from their company blog:

Mistake one - it only works on a single browser

...simply open https://web.whatsapp.com in your Google Chrome browser...

WTF!?!?!? There is Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer. All those with large user bases. I am not even counting the small browsers. And they chose to release only for Google Chrome? What year is this, 1995?

Sorry but if it works only on a single browser then its not a product, its a tech demo.

Mistake two - it requires the current WhatsApp client for Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone

You will see a QR code --- scan the code inside of WhatsApp, and you’re ready to go

and

we will not be able to provide web client to our iOS users due to Apple platform limitations

So, to log in (pair) you need to have the current client on an Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone.

If you just have a dumb phone or another platform, you can't use the web client. The web client is not an alternative, its a toy that only works if you already have a working up to date client on a blessed platform which is not iOS.

Instead of opening to new users by allowing registrations and usage over the web, they choose to maintain their walled garden. The web client is useless if you're not already using their mobile app on Android, Windows Phone or Blackberry..

If it doesn't work as a standalone client then its not a client, its an auxiliary toy, a second screen application, some buzzword but its not a client.

Mistake three - It doesn't work if your phone is not connected to the internet.

...Your phone needs to stay connected to the internet for our web client to work...

MAJOR WTF?!!??!!? So you have your web client but it only works if your blessed mobile client is connected to the internet. We all know that battery life on a mobile device owned by a heavy user of IM tools never lasts long. So imagine that user trying to communicate with some WhatsApp pal and her SmartPhone battery gives up, she could use her computer to keep talking to her pal but in reality she can't because the damn web client doesn't work if your phone is dead.

Its even worse, imagine that office full of metal that behaves like a Faraday cage, or that office in a bad location sitting on the shadow of 3G coverage. Imagine all the reasons why your phone may lose connection to the internet. In all those cases, you will not be able to use the web client. Have a dead phone and you're travelling on a train with WIFI and want to use the web client, you can't! Are you sitting on a pub with free WIFI wi