[delta_p_delta_x]

> The fragmentation of these third party apps gets frustrating very fast though.

Agreed, although where I live, most people have consolidated on Telegram. WhatsApp was popular about 5 years ago, but its popularity has quickly waned because of how difficult inter-device use is.

[Semaphor]

> because of how difficult inter-device use is.

Huh? What is difficult there?

[tmottabr]

several.. truth is that whatsapp was made to be used in one device only and is not frindly to be used in multiple devices at the same time.

Until recently (like days ago) you still needed the main device to be online and connected to their server to use the both the web or desktop apps, although for some time there was a beta going for the feature they released a few days ago where that is "no longer required".

Even so, i was on the beta of the new feature where you could use the web or desktop app without the phone since it started and it has its quirks.. Often it fail to load either the history or even new messages, messages sent on the main device often do not show in the web\desktop app and performance is overall terrible.

Also there is still no official way to have the same whatsapp across multiple phone\tablets devices.

[Semaphor]

Never had issues with the beta (before it, I simply did not use WA), but then I also never used it heavily.

> Also there is still no official way to have the same whatsapp across multiple phone\tablets devices.

That seems dumb. Luckily not an issue for me.

[tmottabr]

Yeah, it is completely dumb, but it is what it is..

The problem is that whastapp is old and it was first designed those decisions made sense..

the only other option around was SMS but it was expensive in many countries.. So now you had the option to pay a few dollars to buy the whatsapp (yeah, had to pay for it back then) and you could send SMS-like messages for free..

That is why it is so widespread in many countries, because it was a cheap alternative to SMS..

It was designed as a replacement for SMS and many of the early technical decisions that are limiting then today were made with that in mind..

One phone number = one phone = one whatsapp account

that is no longer the case today but they have to deal with the technical debts of those early decisions..

AFAIK all the other alternatives available today came much later with a completely different mind set, so they do not have those same limitations..

[WastingMyTime89]

WhatsApp was a pain to use on multiple devices. For a long time you needed the main phone to be connected nearby. I also lost my whole history when I went from Android to iOS for a silly technical reason. Really annoying.