- cross-posted to:
- thevergenews@sh.itjust.works
- technology@lemmy.zip
- cross-posted to:
- thevergenews@sh.itjust.works
- technology@lemmy.zip
WhatsApp is rolling out ads. In an update on Monday, Meta announced that it will now show ads from businesses through its Stories-like status feature.
Meta says it will tailor the ads to your interests by using “limited” information, including your country or city, language, the channels you follow, and how you interact with ads on the platform. You can also change your ad preferences from Meta’s Accounts Center.
This isn’t the only change Meta is making to WhatsApp. The company will also start showing promoted channels when you click on the Explore button to find new ones to follow. It’s also rolling out the ability to subscribe to channels to “receive exclusive updates” as well.
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Get Signal.
LET THE ENSHITTIFICATION BEGIN!
Begin? 🤔🤔🤔
What year is this?
2025!
Oh honey that ship sailed long ago
Repeat after me… “Enshitification”!
Is it really enshitification if it was shit to begin with?
Years ago before Meta bought it, it was good. So I think it kind of counts.
I hate how my country (Brazil) depends so much on Whatsapp. If I could, I would uninstall that app immediately.
Same thing here in Italy
Same here in UK. So many people think of it like email. A universal communication system. They can’t see the problem with it being a single, closed, for profit, provider. Now Meta feels people are locked in, they will be finding out. But they still won’t see the problem until it ratcheted to really bad. Like frogs in boiling water.
Same in Germany.
I do believe it’s better than using iMessage for example but it’s undoubtedly rubbish.
Nothing better than having a private conversation with my friends and having some dude lean in to remind us that Brawndo, the thirst mutilator, has electrolytes.
the channels you follow
I knew they would use that info for targeted advertising
It’s Facebook 101, let the users themselves tell you what they like
WhatsApp getting ads is great news! WhatsApp, and any other meta/facebook/for-profit-social-network will never be a good product. Therefore, the second best alternative is for it to be as bad as possible, so people finally change to worthy alternatives.
What is the alternative here? Don’t know, perhaps Signal, though the devs are not welcoming at all. The UI is absolute shit. Looks like UI for old people, huge margins and empty space. My screen fits like 3 chats. A compact theme would take a few hours to create and vastly improve the product, but ya…
My Signal screen fits 8 chats, and looks simliar to any other messenger I’ve used. It’s a messenger app and the UI shows messages. I wouldn’t want it to show anything else.
It seems to be device specific. On my device, WhatsApp fits 2 more chats. I hate meta/insta/fb/etc, but WhatsApp just looks considerably better than Signal. Signal, as I said earlier, just has huge margins and padding. It looks ugly.
Like you, I also want my messenger app to show conversations. Sadly, Signal shows more empty space than conversations. It really needs a compact UI. I invited several friends to Signal and they all left because it looks bad. I know it sounds like nitpicking, but UI/UX IS extremely important. Making the claim “meh, it looks fine” and ignoring people’s perspective is not the way to run an app that is dependent on the number of users, like signal is. If I don’t have anyone with whom to chat, the app is useless. It needs userbase.
Strange, maybe it has to do with scale in phone settings? I tend to have mine set to the smallest. I’ve also learned to not care as much about UI since dumping big tech and moving to FLOSS/FOSS (Libre Office is amazing but definitley less polished looking than something like Microsoft Office) so maybe I’m just getting blind to it haha
Signal? Dude, I don’t want nonstop getting updates about the war plans of the Trump administration ;-)
I know right? Why would I use signal? There’s not even any games!
/s
i use none of these features.
i’m glad they are not as invasive as i thought, but they will definetly be making them worse over time.
Doctorow is always right.
People are going to use whatever the majority use.
I need to ude WhatsApp when i travel to countries egere it’s widely adopted. Just like I need tocuse Facebook if I want to partake in group chats with friends.
They’re just too big. How is anything else supposed to take off? Just gradually maybe.
So maybe Signal will get there in a few years? What’s itd adoption rate since it was created?
Gradually is the answer. You can dual use both Signal and Whatsapp. Same how you can use Lemmy and Facebook and are not limited to one sociale media app.
It’s a slow grind for adoption. I’ve had Signal installed on my phone since like 2016. Went from one person I knew to now about ~30. It’s mostly people from work at tech companies but progressively I’ve noticed other industries employees adopting it for unofficial chat that my contacts list has been growing over the years. Probably won’t take off in a few years. Maybe another decade
Family chatgroup, signal Work chatgroup, signal Half of my friends, signal
Won’t be very long until I remove whatsapp from my phone. That one friend that doesn’t want to switch, call me I guess…
That’s the main reason Signal uses phone numbers for verification.
That way you can see which of your contact can be reached on their platform.
I slowly diverted from WhatsApp to Signal in that way. I also have it in my WhatsApp bio: ‘‘You can reach me on Signal. Come on over, it’ll be fun’’
You mean WhatsCrap?
OH whatsSNAP
Never used it for personal ends. But I’m curious to see if all the companies using as a work tool will divert from it.
Signal.
And IF I learn how to run Jammi, it will be my default communication application.
I think you mean Jami (single m).
It’s a nice concept but I’ll try to get my xmmp server nice and secured.
I stand corrected.
Soon: WhatsApp revanced
Explains why I’ve started seeing ads for WhatsApp, which was really bizarre
The problem is there are very few alternatives that will work for grandma and her friends, especially open source alternatives. This is why WhatsApp and LINE are stupidly popular.
I had to use LINE for work a few years ago to communicate with the Philippines. Awful app.
Awful depends on your point of view. Is it easy to message and call your friends and make group chats for free? The answer is yes. The fact that the interface sucks and is ad-ridden is irrelevant to older aunties and uncles.
