[runawaybottle]

The main issue with WhatsApp as the primary platform of communication is that it’s exclusive. You can’t actually switch to Signal and continue with business because you’d need everyone to switch with you. Tech has yet to go through it’s ‘industrialization’ phase where one of the main advents was replaceable/interchangeable parts.

WhatsApp cannot be pointed to another network, it’s total vendor lock-in. Today happened at a non-critical time. If this happened during a hurricane, or any other disaster, the critical nature would be exposed.

Right now we’re just amused, but the implications are real. Facebook has way more accountability in all of this than just, as Zuckerberg said ‘Senator, we sell ads’.

[heavyset_go]

> Tech has yet to go through it’s ‘industrialization’ phase where one of the main advents was replaceable/interchangeable parts.

I disagree, tech has had periods of exactly this. Open protocols and APIs meant that you could write against almost any app or service that used them and switch them out and replace them.

In the early to mid 2000's, this was the case for a lot of things in the tech world, especially when it came to communication and messaging. It's only recently that we've gone removed those open protocols and APIs in favor of proprietary systems and silos.

That spirit is still alive today in some open source software.

[ikiris]

Excuse me, tech went through that phase and promptly left it because people didn't care enough

[bsder]

Tech left that phase because there was no way to pay the bills.

Servers cost money to run--equipment, bandwidth, power are all a thing. The only viable way anyone has found to pay for that is ads. So, here we are.

You pay for the product or you are the product.

[tuatoru]

> Tech has yet to go through it’s ‘industrialization’ phase where one of the main advents was replaceable/interchangeable parts.

Not going to happen without legislation. Maybe not even with it.

Industrial standardization was driven by the US Army around and after the time of the Civil War. The Army wanted rifle parts to be replaceable by any spare of the same type, not only those from the same batch as the gun.

There is no large single buyer with "social" apps, and the incentives for vendors are to try to lock in their customers.

[kitkat_new]

That's why instant messaging needs open standards like Matrix, which make switching apps and provider a nobrainer, because it almost wouldn't matter which one you would loose.

Additionally, only one of many service proviers would be seriously affected if a service goes down.

matrix.org

[zwieback]

SMS is sort of that, right, at least a crude form?

[jcfrei]

Yes, why shouldn't the next standard (like 6G) introduce support for a better messaging network than SMS? With group chats and image support. Each carrier could decide if you can send unlimited messages or a few thousand. In any case it would remove this dependency on a single company.

Edit: Just realized there's RCS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services

[JoshTriplett]

Such a standard is unlikely to ever introduce end-to-end encryption.

[jvolkman]

It already exists and is enabled by default (at least on my Pixel phone using the default messaging client).

https://support.google.com/messages/answer/10262381

[JoshTriplett]

That's not part of RCS, that's a Google extension.

[908B64B197]

iMessage is the working implementation, as long as nobody joins with green bubbles [0].

[0] https://www.androidauthority.com/green-bubble-phenomenon-102...

[kitkat_new]

yes, but I don't think SMS is sophisticated enough. After all, instant messengers replaced it ...

[timbit42]

...or use Tox and no service providers would be affected because it's 100% decentralized.

[timmytokyo]

Regulations need to focus on forcing these Internet monopolies to be interoperable.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interopera...

[ekianjo]

> Tech has yet to go through it’s ‘industrialization’ phase where one of the main advents was replaceable/interchangeable parts.

Oh i did not know that car parts could be used interchangeably from one brand to another. So nice to learn new things on HN every day.