[FDSGSG]

Whatsapp uses this API to alert call participants that one of them is about to run out of battery, this is a very useful feature IMO.

[ghaff]

So Whatsapp tells other participants in a call what your battery life is? By itself, I suppose that's pretty harmless. But it's really none of your business what the status of my phone is in general.

[FDSGSG]

Yes, it says "ghaff's phone battery level is low. Call may end soon."

I think this results in a much better experience for everyone on the call.

[ghaff]

I guess I don't really want an app doing that given it could probably tell participants other things that I don't want them to know, especially if I enabled something like location services.

[FDSGSG]

This feels like a weird slippery slope fallacy.

[lupire]

That's what Permissions controls are for.

[ghaff]

Permission controls are a bandaid as someone else wrote.

Let's use the location services example.

So some communications app asks me for permission. Do I grant it? Well, as an unsophisticated user, maybe it wants this info to optimize the quality of my connection in some way. So maybe I ought to give it permission?

Instead, maybe it's going to broadcast my coordinates to everyone else on the call which is not OK in general.