WhatsApp with You?

[well]

Our cong has LINE group...

It has much more cuteness than WhatsApp... like cute emoji, cute theme, etc

 

But, for professional work and quick communication, I do prefer WhatsApp, It is more effective than LINE... And, plus I can see if the person is online or not

[Hope]

3 hours ago, Brandon said:

WhatsApp is nearly 10 years old and used to be a great app.

 

I should add to this thread that the major gripes with WA compared to better alternatives are: 

 

 

What are pros & cons of Signal vs Telegram, please?

[thegreenjudy]

One of my American friends told me they don't use it in the US and I am their only contact on WhatsApp 😂

 

@Brandon I am using Telegram with my husband and he tried to persuade our Chinese congregation to move over but nobody did. The power WhatsApp has will surely be abused at one point. And I don't entirely believe that they use encryption either although they say so.

At the moment it is still very useful. But I feel come the GT we want our old dumb phones back 😁

[New World Explorer]

6 hours ago, dilip kumar said:

Wrong bro. 

 

India a very populated country( nearly) runs on what's app. 

You can share songs(mp3) 

Videos-short

Pictures

Voice messages instantly. 

Our total business runs on what s app. 

 

And also see who is online. 

Also you can make audio and video calls. 

 

 

And how exactly useful is this in the area where group overseer needs to notify others in the group about , cleaning, FS arrangements etc..

Do I need to send video  or mp3 song to remind that tomorrow is a public holiday and the group meets instead of 9am ...but 9.30Am

 

Good social stuff but when it comes to congregational arrangements it's overkill.

 

 

[thegreenjudy]

12 minutes ago, Gregexplore said:

And how exactly useful is this in the area where group overseer needs to notify others in the group about , cleaning, FS arrangements etc..

Do I need to send video  or mp3 song to remind that tomorrow is a public holiday and the group meets instead of 9am ...but 9.30Am

 

Good social stuff but when it comes to congregational arrangements it's overkill.

 

 

 

Well the the point is that you can message several people at once. SMS can do that but it's not always reliable (I often get people telling me that they didn't get my message when I sent a bulk SMS). Also, once you have established a group, several people can reply and communicate with each other - this can be useful for a pioneer group or a party invite. Or if you stay in touch with people abroad. 

 

We often get updates for the ministry group or traffic problems etc. 

 

Once you start using it you never get back to the old method. I agree, if you only have to text one person, fair enough. 

[New World Explorer]

18 minutes ago, thegreenjudy said:

Well the the point is that you can message several people at once. SMS can do that but it's not always reliable (I often get people telling me that they didn't get my message when I sent a bulk SMS). Also, once you have established a group, several people can reply and communicate with each other - this can be useful for a pioneer group or a party invite. Or if you stay in touch with people abroad. 

 

We often get updates for the ministry group or traffic problems etc. 

 

Once you start using it you never get back to the old method. I agree, if you only have to text one person, fair enough. 

Well explained - thank you

Got it

[LindaL.]

1 hour ago, thegreenjudy said:

Once you start using it you never get back to the old method. I agree, if you only have to text one person, fair enough. 

 

One feature that I particularly like about WhatsApp, and that, personally, makes me prefer it to SMS's is I can see when the other person has received my message and also when they've read it.

One grey tick when the message has left my device; two grey ticks when the other person's device has received it; two blue ticks when the message has been opened.   

This can be altered in the privacy settings, but most people leave it this way.

[tekmantwo]

36 minutes ago, LindaL. said:

 

One feature that I particularly like about WhatsApp, and that, personally, makes me prefer it to SMS's is I can see when the other person has received my message and also when they've read it.

One grey tick when the message has left my device; two grey ticks when the other person's device has received it; two blue ticks when the message has been opened.   

This can be altered in the privacy settings, but most people leave it this way.

This is a feature that I would love to have. Too many times I have sent a text and then get stressed out because I don't know if it got there or if it was read.

 

Denise and I both have Samsung phones, about half of the time it will show  'delivered' and then 'read' when opened.  I didn't set it up that way and I have no idea how to change it. I would do it for every message,  given the option.

[Brandon]

2 hours ago, tekmantwo said:

about half of the time [the SMS] will show  'delivered' and then 'read' when opened.  I didn't set it up that way but I would do it for every message,  given the option.

 

This is most likely thanks to the fairly new Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard, which is slowly rolling out to all android phones, and is sometimes referred to as "SMS 2.0"

 

It is an international upgrade to the basic SMS ("text messaging") standard which has gone unchanged over the last 20 years.

 

RCS will essentially take all the features we love about internet-based messaging apps such as typing indicators, delivery and read receipts, availability/online status indicators, group messaging, etc and roll them in to the cellular-based texting service of smartphones (and won't require an internet connection to make use of).

 

Not only will you get the best of all worlds (high quality messaging + no app to download nor account needed to setup + no cellular data plan required) but it will also be fully backwards compatible with basic SMS;  whenever possible you'll get the new experience but when one or both phones do not support RCS, it simply reverts back to traditional SMS.

 

Android (via Google) has been working with carriers for several years now to formulate a standard which they could all agree on, and almost two years ago now, they were able to finalize the specification, so we should be seeing most new android phones supporting it (starting with Samsung).

 

Apple has yet to make any mention about whether the iPhone will one day support RCS (at the moment iPhones support basic SMS, MMS, and the apple-proprietary iMessage service which requires the use of the internet to send messages, but can still fall back to SMS when/if an iPhone temporarily loses its internet connection).

 

But just as the first iPhone did not support MMS until after that messaging standard had gained wider popularity, it stands to reason that, if RCS reaches a critical threshold in number of users and number of carriers which support it (currently around 50 carriers around the world do), then apple is likely to work to add support for it into iOS eventually.

[jwhess]

It is almost impossible for me (in my location) to receive SMS or MMS messages.  If I do get them it is hours late.  WhatsApp comes through every time.  I do not use it at present in our congregation.  The others seem to work well with their current choices.  I just try to remind them, if they want to contact me sens a "normal" person to person text message or call me on my landline.  They never remember.  I get an unreadable group text and my phone continues to try to open it (5 times).  Then I get all the group replies which are unreadable and my phone continues to try to download them (5 times).

 

In years gone by, I used to pay for every text and this scenario above used to cost me a couple of dollars every time.  

[John Doe]

We use WhatsApp in our service group to notice each other when out in service. "Who will take numbers 212, 216, 232?", "We are on Adams Street, will be there in 5 mins.", "I'll send you my notes on that street I worked on.", ""File attached""

I'm also invited to a group of brothers from the local congregations that are planning street witnessing.

I'm invited to a group of brothers and sisters that plans service at the lit carts.

For us, it's a really good tool in planning our service.

Sendt fra min ONEPLUS A5000 med Tapatalk

[Tortuga]

Lets see...

 

Canada, UK, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Romania, India and NZ use it.

 

The USA?.... not so much...

Edited September 27, 2018 by Tortuga

[Hope]

14 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

Lets see...

 

Canada, UK, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Romania, India and NZ use it.

 

The USA?.... not so much...

 

Yeah, I noticed that.  I'm not entirely hopeful for success on my end... but I'll put it out there, anyway...   

[New World Explorer]

1 hour ago, Tortuga said:

Lets see...

 

Canada, UK, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Romania, India and NZ use it.

 

The USA?.... not so much...

Australia not so much....

I am going to look into it for my Cong...give it a try as they say. Not sure if others will come onboard though.

Edited September 27, 2018 by Gregexplore

[Brandon]

15 hours ago, Hope said:

 

What are pros & cons of Signal vs Telegram, please?

 

Well it's been a little while since I last played with Signal (which is often considered the 'gold standard' in security for end-user messaging apps), but Telegram is cloud-based so it has some more conveniences than Signal such as be able to use your Telegram account on a computer or tablet even if your phone is disconnected from the internet or the battery dies. And Telegram does this while still being more secure and privacy focused than WhatsApp.

 

WhatsApp does not function if your phone's battery dies: While you can access your WA conversations from a computer, if your phone loses its internet connection, your computer is immediately logged out/disconnected from the WA servers.

From what I remember, Signal had the same issue (someone feel free to correct me if this is no longer the case with Signal).

 

By contrast, you can download Telegram to any and all devices (apple, android, and more) as well as computers using either their native clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux or using a web app (which runs inside the browser on your computer)---and all* your conversations immediately appear (similar to an email inbox in the cloud, which is what 99% of us are using for our e-mail accounts right now).

 

*I'll add that there is one kind of special Telegram conversation that does not sync between all your devices (and this is purposefully by design) is a Telegram feature called "secret chat."  When you start one of these with one of your Telegram contacts (and it's only available for one-on-one chats, not groups) then the recipient must first accept the invitation from just one of their Telegram devices, and when they do, that conversation is not synced to your Telegram account (is not stored in the cloud) but instead is end-to-end encrypted, with an additional layer of security, so that you can be sure that only you and the other party will ever see whatever you now decide to type. You can even set a self destruct timer on messages (I use this with my mother when we need to share a password with the other for an account we share, such as Netflix). And as an added security feature, if the recipient takes a screenshot (which would be undesirable in a secure chat where you want for there to be no record of anything left over) you receive a notification they did took the screenshot. (note, apple does not allow app developers to prevent a user from taking a screenshot, but Telegram added this ability so at least you know if/when the other party has made a digital copy of your secret chat).

 

Oh and I should also mention that while all three of the messaging apps we're discussing here require new users to use their phone number to create their account, Telegram is the only one that allows you to send messages to other Telegram users without actually sharing your phone number with them. This is an optional features which allows you to create a sort of nickname for yourself on Telegram which you can share with people you want to start a chat with without them having your actual phone number.

   In my opinion this feature puts all the other phone-number-based messaging apps at a big disadvantage compared to Telegram, since there may be times you'd like to chat with someone new but are not sure you want to share your personal contact details with yet.

[Brandon]

6 hours ago, jwhess said:

It is almost impossible for me (in my location) to receive SMS or MMS messages.

is that an iphone or android?

 

7 hours ago, jwhess said:

WhatsApp comes through every time.

is that over wifi or cellular data? (because if it's over cellular data--in other words, SMS fails while cellular data is working fine--then there is something else happening there...)

 

what's your carrier?

[John Doe]

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

 

Well it's been a little while since I last played with Signal (which is often considered the 'gold standard' in security for end-user messaging apps), but Telegram is cloud-based so it has some more conveniences than Signal such as be able to use your Telegram account on a computer or tablet even if your phone is disconnected from the internet or the battery dies. And Telegram does this while still being more secure and privacy focused than WhatsApp.

 

WhatsApp does not function if your phone's battery dies: While you can access your WA conversations from a computer, if your phone loses its internet connection, your computer is immediately logged out/disconnected from the WA servers.

From what I remember, Signal had the same issue (someone feel free to correct me if this is no longer the case with Signal).

 

You can use Signal without your mobile phone being connected to the internet. Tried it just now.

[Brandon]

41 minutes ago, John Doe said:

You can use Signal without your mobile phone being connected to the internet. Tried it just now.

It does appear you're correct.  Have you tested whether there is a maximum number of devices you can link?  For example, can you link the app from your iphone to an ipad, an android tablet, a mac, and a windows or linux computer, all together?

 

I wonder what the main difference between telegram secret chats and signal is then, whether it's just the different encryption protocols or if there are any technical applications which are being applied differently between the two, since obviously signal has some sort of a buffer on their servers.

 

I've tested sending messages from my mac while my iphone was offline, and took my mac offline before connecting my iphone to the internet.  I was sort of expecting that those messages wouldn't appear on my iphone, but they did, meaning signal is caching them (at the very least, temporarily) on their own servers.  That doesn't seem much different from cloud-based messaging, especially when you add self-destructing messages as a feature...

🤔

 

makes me wonder if signal just gives people a greater feeling of peace of mind, while in practice not being any different from telegram's secret chats feature

[carlos]

3 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Lets see...

 

Canada, UK, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Romania, India and NZ use it.

 

The USA?.... not so much...

Yes, WhatsApp is extremely popular in Europe and India.

 

In my opinion it has a lot of advantages over SMS. First of all, it's free. You can send thousands of messages and they won't cost you anything (except if you pay for data, but even then WhatsApp messages are very small).

 

You can send a message to a group and every group member will receive it. We have groups for elders, elders and MSs, pioneers, every preaching group... even the moderators here communicate by means of a WhatsApp group. Groups can be created ad hoc and then removed easily when they are no longer necesary. For example, we're preparing a picnic. Create a WhatsApp group with all those participating so that you can discuss where, when, what will everybody bring, who will go in whose car... After the picnic, we share our pics on the group. Then we remove it.

 

Whatsapp allows you to send voice messages, pictures, videos, contacts, documents or your location. If you want to meet someone, just send them your location and they can open it in their favorite GPS software. Besides, you know when the other person read the message. Communication is immediate, even when you are in different corners of the world.

 

A problem with WhatsApp is when you are bombed with feel good cat pictures or forty messages just to say Good Morning. But we have strict rules about that in the "official" groups for elders, MSs and so.

Edited September 27, 2018 by carlos

[Hope]

WhatsApp really sounds very good...

[jwhess]

4 hours ago, Brandon said:

is that an iphone or android?

 

is that over wifi or cellular data? (because if it's over cellular data--in other words, SMS fails while cellular data is working fine--then there is something else happening there...)

 

what's your carrier?

1). Android

2). I have cellular data and wifi when available.  It works when I get to a city.

3). ATT / CC (consumer cellular)

Edited September 28, 2018 by jwhess

[Qapla]

If that is  - that is what I have - can't complain

[Brandon]

8 hours ago, Hope said:

WhatsApp really sounds very good...

Except the part about Facebook owning it, viewing you as their product, and selling your meta data to the highest advertising bidder.

 

otherwise ya, it does all the stuff that every other messaging app today does

[carlos]

3 hours ago, Brandon said:

otherwise ya, it does all the stuff that every other messaging app today does

The point about selling info about you is probably true, although the amount of information they can obtain from WhatsApp messsages seems quite limited.

 

On the other hand, it's true that there are many other messaging apps out there, and probably some of them are even better than WhatsApp. The problem is that nobody uses them among my acquaintances. I installed Telegram once and I really liked it but only one or two of my contacts had it. The same happened with Line. The software may be wonderful but if nobody uses it it's completely useless for me. WhatsApp is not so popular in North America but in Europe is the absolute standard. You can contact anyone, people or companies, by WhatsApp if you have their phone number.

 

I have to agree that the most popular messaging app is not necessarily the best one. But it is what it is.

[Hope]

4 hours ago, Brandon said:

Except the part about Facebook owning it, viewing you as their product, and selling your meta data to the highest advertising bidder.

 

otherwise ya, it does all the stuff that every other messaging app today does

 

As a longtime employee of advertising agencies, I know they're not quite as evil as is popular to claim. And I don't really care about my metadata... I'm not that interesting. Or that easy to sell to. 🙂

 

Like @Carlos, I just need something that works, that others will actually use. I love the idea that Telegram allows messages from laptops- I'd use that feature. But it will be hard enough to sell a "known" app to my group.. 😑

 

Also, I like Facebook very much 😇😉