Apparently Europe finally got Whatsapp to enable 3rd party chats making it easier to switch to more privacy friendly alternatives article However the only other app that currently works with it is "BirdyChat"??

Have anybody found any news about when serious alternatives will be integrated?

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[–] 41 points 11 months ago (13 children)

Pretty sure signal refused to integrate

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (11 children)

    Signal should be subject to the same law. So I hope all it takes is someone making a bridge that forces Signal to open up as well.

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  • [–] 35 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    I don't want to chat with people on WhatsApp with Signal. I don't want Meta linking my metadata. Interoperability will only keep people from switching to better platforms

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago* (1 child)

    While I agree with your sentiment, no interoperability obviously hasn't made people switch to better platforms either. The only difference is that without interoperability, I'm forced to still use WhatsApp to communicate with those unwilling / unable to switch.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago*

    this part of the DMA only applies to “gatekeepers”, which are very large providers. the biggest barriers to being a gateway are (imo) turnover of > €7.5bn, 45m active monthly users in the EU

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  • [+] 1 point 11 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (3 children)

    WhatsApp uses the same encryption protocol as Signal. Theoretically they should already be interoperable.

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  • [–] 18 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Any link of this BirdyChat?

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago

    I'm going to setup my own open source chat server soon and just give the few people that need to talk to me a copy of the open source client. That you can use to talk to me, the rest will be gone

    I'm sooooo fucking tired of every company and government wanting to inspect my asshole just so they know that toilet paper to advertise to me or to be sure that I'm "not a terrorist or a pedophile because the government totally is doing this to protect the children, absolutely!!!"

    Fuck your lies

    Fuck your marketing

    And apologies for my French, I'm just reeeeeeaaaally done with this nonsense

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago

    The Birdy app requires a work email, which then gets you on a wait list, so that you can subject yourself to their data mining:

    Data Categories:

    • The email address you use as username on BirdyChat network;

    • Your messages and media within messages;

    • User identifiers for blocked WhatsApp users;

    • Usage information including timestamps related to your communication with WhatsApp users;

    • Device and connection information such as IP address, operating system information and the BirdyChat version you are using;

    • General location information using your IP address;

    • Authentication information including encryption keys that WhatsApp encryption protocol uses;

    • WhatsApp user reports in case a WhatsApp user chooses to share this information with WhatsApp.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Have anybody found any news about when serious alternatives will be integrated?

    ...never? They're not integrated because they don't want them integrated. This is malicious compliance. Even if they were, the opt-in nature would make it completely useless. Much like Apple's RCS integration.

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  • [+] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (10 children)
  • [–] 13 points 11 months ago (8 children)

    apperently meta gets to pick it, and it is not a public api.

    No they dont, and it's a public modified Matrix-protocol. Why would you lie about that?

    The problem is that WhatsApp can demand third parties to meet very high standards, making it impossible for independent actors to gain access to this.

    You need a pretty well run machinery to live up to the standard, but if they do, WhatApps can legally not deny access.

    If they do, it's in violation of the DMA, which gives you a 10% of all global income in fees.

    These has been used against Meta and Google before, and there's no reason to believe they wont do it again. They actually live up to it.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    WhatsApp was originally built on, and still is, a forked version of XMPP. It is nothing like the matrix protocol.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    It's not, but they made a WhatsApp API for the DMA. There's a Matrix bridge to WhatsApp.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    I understand the DMA interop thing quite well, and it is a private API. The matrix bridge does not use official interop as the Matrix foundation has given up on plans to do interop, as it requires geolocating (and then georestricting) their users.

    The current, longstanding, matrix bridge requires you to have the WhatsApp app installed on your phone, with a working account.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago*

    From my understanding, this bridge does use some the official WhatsApp web client's API. You only need to connect the official app once in a while (a few seconds every two weeks) and can do so on a separate device.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    You’re correct, it is not a public API. In fact, just to see the specs, you need to be either an organization (or an indie developer) registered in the EU and have to sign a massive NDA just to get the documentation!

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    I'm already using a matrix bridge for it because I can't get some cousins to move natively to Matrix. But if that would make it more stable it would be appreciated.

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