this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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I tried to use it a few months ago. It would not let me use it unless I gave it access to all my contacts' information. I denied the permission request and it wouldn't work.
How in the hell are you okay with that?
I'm pretty sure the stock SMS app that comes with your phone also needs access to the contacts permissions, but is enabled by default, so the app doesn't even ask for it.
So in addition to that, why give the information to Facebook too?
Remember, Zuckerberg thinks people are dumbfucks for giving information to him.
Why do they go out of their way to disable the app if I deny access to contacts? Surely it would be less work to just add a couple of warnings telling me it may not work properly. But to disable the whole app? That is absolutely ridiculous.
How do you think phone number based chat apps works bro?
Give me the option to add contacts individually?
That app is cancer, better just to nope out of the installation.
Because that's how phones work, it links your account to your phone number and uses your contacts to tell you who's on the app too using their numbers.
Yeah, that is also how computer viruses work. I was very thankful for permission control. That app is cancer.
Meh, I think some people are just paranoid on Lemmy when it comes to stuff like this. There's plenty of laws in the UK around storage and use of information that protect users of apps like this.
If it's so benign, why make it necessary to give all the information about all your contacts to the app?
To paraphrase Zuckerberg, "people are dumbfucks for giving me so much information."
How else do you think a messaging app that replaces your phones messaging functionality is supposed to work if not on phone numbers?
So you're saying that the only way a messaging app can work is to access all the information from all your contacts? If it doesn't have all that information, it can't work? If Whatsapp can't have all that information, it would be impossible to function?
No, it's fully possible to have its own account and log in system, but that adds a layer of abstraction that makes it harder to sell to people as a replacement for their inbuilt messaging apps which just require a phone number.
If you give Facebook any benefit of the doubt in relation to privacy concerns, I guess I can only believe Zuckerberg to be correct.
And all thieves pay close attention to laws, and make sure their apps have "nothing" hidden in the folds.