WhatsApp Beta

[Dean]

my bad! originally linked here from the homepage

 

[opinionhated]

Ok. Been using it for a day now. On the iphone you get a message exactly like an sms. So that's a major difference to a chat program. On the android there's not much different to a chat app like fringe or ebuddy. Messages don't pop up, which defeats the whole point of the app. You do get a notification sound and icon in the notification bar, but that's it. Also doesn't turn the screen on. So unless this changes, no reason to use it, unless a lot off your contacts have it.

 

[Mr Feesh]

Ok. Been using it for a day now. On the iphone you get a message exactly like an sms. So that's a major difference to a chat program. On the android there's not much different to a chat app like fringe or ebuddy. Messages don't pop up, which defeats the whole point of the app. You do get a notification sound and icon in the notification bar, but that's it. Also doesn't turn the screen on. So unless this changes, no reason to use it, unless a lot off your contacts have it.

Agreed @ this stage its not amazing but it is a beta. Whats the data usage of this app like?

 

[mjwitter]

Agreed @ this stage its not amazing but it is a beta. Whats the data usage of this app like?

So far mine has used just under 300KB, that's 15 messages and a few friend list updates over today and yesterday. So if I were using 3G that would have cost the price of one sms and I sent 7 of those 15, so coming out quite far ahead. Also at home I use Wifi, so it is basically free..

 

[oronte]

For Android people you can also use Google talk to communicate with your Blackberry friends. Google talk can run permanently in the background on a Blackberry and use virtually no power (I have gtalk and bbm running on my Blackberry). I don't know how gtalk works on android though?

 

[Maddmatt]

Google Talk runs in the background by default on Android and signs in automatically.

The hardest part of all this is getting people I know to use one of these programs, they're not going to install this stuff on their phones just for me.

 

[oronte]

Good point, that's why you get them when they're young (or new). I convinced everyone of my friends who got a Blackberry recently to install googletalk and bbm that way they've already got an im app and see no need to install a new one (hopefully).

 

[Dean]

Ok. Been using it for a day now. On the iphone you get a message exactly like an sms. So that's a major difference to a chat program. On the android there's not much different to a chat app like fringe or ebuddy. Messages don't pop up, which defeats the whole point of the app. You do get a notification sound and icon in the notification bar, but that's it. Also doesn't turn the screen on. So unless this changes, no reason to use it, unless a lot off your contacts have it.

Instead of complaining here about an app that's in a testing phase, I think it'll be loads more beneficial if you email WhatsApp with your findings (bugs) and recommendations. For the Nokia BETA, we used the address [email protected]... so I assume you can probably use that one too, or perhaps they have [email protected]