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Zuckerberg Plans To Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger (nytimes.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, plans to integrate the social network's messaging services -- WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger -- asserting his control over the company's sprawling divisions at a time when its business has been battered by scandals.

The New York Times: The move, described by four people involved in the effort, requires thousands of Facebook employees to reconfigure how WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger function at their most basic levels. While all three services will continue operating as stand-alone apps, their underlying messaging infrastructure will be unified, the people said. Facebook is still in the early stages of the work and plans to complete it by the end of this year or in early 2020, they said.

Mr. Zuckerberg has also ordered all of the apps to incorporate end-to-end encryption, the people said, a significant step that protects messages from being viewed by anyone except the participants in the conversation. After the changes take effect, a Facebook user could send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, for example. Currently, that isn't possible because the apps are separate.

12 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Thank god, this will kill WhatsApp finally! by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Insightful

    After the changes take effect, a Facebook user could send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, for example. Currently, that isn't possible because the apps are separate

    Already my WhatsApp is being swamped with spam and forwards. There is no threading mechanism, no clear idea of what message is responding to whom. There is no way scroll past things I am not interested in. Pretty soon signal to noise degrades so much users resort to wholesale "delete all unread messages". I hate that damned thing.

    But so many of the groups I am interested in insist on using WhatsApp. Easy, convenient, at hand. A typical alumni group of about 100 people have 10 people responsible for 90% of the postings. 10 more read those posts. The rest delete all messages blindly.

    Now you allow Facebook users to spam the WhatsApp account. The already poor signal/noise ratio will degrade even further. I am hoping this finally kill WhatsApp for good and something better might emerge to take its place. Need the convenience and easy access, but some sort of threadable interface, some sort of AI learning who reads messages from whom and automatically group messages as "likely to be read" "likely to be skipped" ...

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Thank god, this will kill WhatsApp finally! by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It almost like these things are being designed by people who've never seen usenet.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    2. Re:Thank god, this will kill WhatsApp finally! by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It almost like these things are being designed by people who've never seen usenet.

      usenet doesn't do any of the things they want to do, like track eyeballs. If they wanted usenet, they'd have used usenet.

      With that said, usenet + email + some kind of web of trust system would provide all the actually useful functionality of facebook, using 1980s technology...

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Thank god, this will kill WhatsApp finally! by fallen1 · · Score: 2

      What about the severe child porn problem that is apparently plaguing WhatsApp (https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/20/whatsapp-pornography/)? All this move to make communications end-to-end encrypted across all three platforms will do is extend the amount of people that can be reached, and can reach, those resources nearly anonymously -- making it more difficult to investigate the situation.

      --

      Dream as if you'll live forever.
      Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
      ~Anonymous~

    4. Re:Thank god, this will kill WhatsApp finally! by Voyager529 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      An all-platform messaging system already exists. It's called e-mail, and thankfully it's not owned by a single corporation.
      I don't see the need for a bazillion services that do nothing but duplicate the functionality of email, badly.

      E-mail has its advantages, but it has its drawbacks. It does threaded messaging terribly. It does many-to-many terribly. It is too easy for conversations to get fragmented and splintered, and incredibly difficult to rejoin them thereafter. Attachment limits are never clear. Spam is everpresent. There is no meaningful sent/delivered/read notification.

      There is a reason why Slack and Teams exist, and are popular in corporate environments where E-mail has long-since been a standard. I agree that a common, open protocol is preferable to the current hodgepodge of Hangouts/Kik/Whatsapp/Messenger/Viber/WeChat/GroupMe/Skype/BBM/++. However, XMPP hasn't seemed to have E-mails success, and clients built on top of it tend to lock their implementation down, which doesn't serve the purpose.

  2. Maybe to fend off a breakup by schwit1 · · Score: 2

    There have been calls to break up Facebook and other tech giants on antitrust ground. if Instagram and whatsapp are tightly integrated with FB to the point that it's one app this would make separating the functionality much harder.

  3. Re:make sense by fred6666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can't subscribe to whatsapp withtout a phone number that can receive an SMS. You can't login to whatsapp on two phones at the same time.
    You can't use whatsapp from your PC without having it installed on your phone first. And I think your phone must even be on and with an Internet connection so that your PC can send a whatsapp message.

    Facebook messenger doesn't have any of these limitations.

  4. Re:make sense by fred6666 · · Score: 2

    so they would delete user accounts without a phone number? Or block access? Seems unlikely stupid, but this is Facebook so we never know.

  5. Re:Alternative? by ciurana · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does anyone know of a Whatsapp alternative that doesn't suck? End to end encryption that is promised by someone that's not scummy like Facebook or Google? What Whatsapp used to be before being purchased by Facebook. Needs to work on apple and android.

    Telegram. Now it has nicer features than WhatsApp or Messages.

    The source is open - better scrutiny. macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, Linux. Conversations move seamlessly from one device to the next.

    Telegram pissed off both Roskomnadzor and NSA because it has strong encryption and little central oversight - a bonus. If it's good enough to piss Putin's goons and our goons, it's good enough for us to use. I work nowadays with a couple of major VCs, and most chat about deals and other sensitive topics have moved to Telegram because it makes everyone feel less exposed than with Google/WhatsApp/Slack/etc.

    Cheers!

    --
    http://eugeneciurana.com | http://ciurana.eu
  6. In Other News by sycodon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Jim Jones will host a Koolaid Social at 6PM.

    Seriously, there is no reason to be on Facebook anymore

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:In Other News by Pascoea · · Score: 2

      Seriously, there is no reason to be on Facebook anymore

      Seriously then, don't go on there. Still trying to figure out how this made it to +4, Interesting.

      Facebook exists for the same reason that the NFL does: Some people still find it interesting. Doesn't mean there isn't a swath of people that wouldn't be affected if it went away tomorrow. Different people have different interests, news at 11.

  7. Re:Alternative? by Octorian · · Score: 2

    Does anyone know of a Whatsapp alternative that doesn't suck? End to end encryption that is promised by someone that's not scummy like Facebook or Google? What Whatsapp used to be before being purchased by Facebook. Needs to work on apple and android.

    Telegram. Now it has nicer features than WhatsApp or Messages.

    The source is open - better scrutiny. macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, Linux. Conversations move seamlessly from one device to the next.

    Telegram pissed off both Roskomnadzor and NSA because it has strong encryption and little central oversight - a bonus. If it's good enough to piss Putin's goons and our goons, it's good enough for us to use. I work nowadays with a couple of major VCs, and most chat about deals and other sensitive topics have moved to Telegram because it makes everyone feel less exposed than with Google/WhatsApp/Slack/etc.

    Cheers!

    Telegram does not do E2E by default. Please stop deluding yourselves into thinking its somehow a "more secure" option.
    IMHO, any messaging product that not do E2E-by-default is just implementing E2E for the purpose of paying lip service to the idea.