stethoscope
Well-Known Member
I'm not using an account with mine, but I did have to enable 'chat features' for messages to work over internet data - and it relies upon others also having it enabled too, otherwise falls back to SMS.
Whatsapp - how does it work ?
- Thread starter gentlegreen
- Start date
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Telegram doesn't use SMS either.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
Last time I looked, using it on anything other than a phone looked like a right ballache, so I guess something has been improved in the last couple of years.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
You can just go to the Post Office and speak to a stenographer.
stdP
One Swiss dinosaur in Polly Gosling's anorak hood
8ball jokes, but this really is like trying to send a smoke signal via carrier pigeon in to a fax machine. SMS doesn't do voice messages (although RCS can, and seemingly some versions of it support encryption*), telegram is a wholly different (encrypted*) protocol that only works in between telegram clients (and TTBOMK telegram doesn't do SMS at all either).
* As with any encryption, it's only as trustworthy as far as you trust they key management which basically boils down to the people who write the app
klang
klang
bless you! common cold or some sort of allergy?
stdP
One Swiss dinosaur in Polly Gosling's anorak hood
Chronic initialitis on top of ASL syndrome sadly.
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
When last did you read the small print on a new piece of software? Indeed, have you ever read the small print on software?
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
Thread is why I still just text, email and call people, I'm not using half a dozen different platforms just to keep in touch!
stdP
One Swiss dinosaur in Polly Gosling's anorak hood
Ditto for me - as per one of Crispy's recent posts, the last ten years has been a concerted effort from most of the tech sector to move everyone away from open standards (where anyone can implement and host their own) and corral everyone in to their own little walled gardens, maintenance for which is normally paid for by mining your personal data and selling it to
<everyone closes the tab as stdP climbs up his hill and goes on an on about how this cycle is just like the bad old days of timesharing mainframes in the 60s and 70s, only now with adverts>
1927
Funnier than he thinks he is.
Wait, What? who did this happen? I always saw a drawback of WhatsApp was i cant use it on laptop!
you can you use if via the web or download the desktop app.
strung out
💩 🤣 🍆 💦 🧐 👻 🐝 🐈⬛
To be fair, I think you've only been able to use it on a PC/laptop for the last 7 or 8 years, so maybe you missed it.
1927
Funnier than he thinks he is.
Maybe it was just MacBooks you couldn't ue it on then. I know i tried a few years ago, and it wouldn't let me. All sorted now, so thanks! everyday is a school day.
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
Bump.
I'm thinking of starting a group WhatsApp. To share group events. So I thought I I'd consult urb mind wisdom first
Can all participants see each others numbers? Someone said it was possible for this to be hidden, is that true?
Would person who sets it up be 'admin'? Can others be appointed admin too
Rules - how is it possible to enforce rules? (no posting at night, no offence topic chat etc)
All hints tips etc welcome. Thanks.
I'm thinking of starting a group WhatsApp. To share group events. So I thought I I'd consult urb mind wisdom first
Can all participants see each others numbers? Someone said it was possible for this to be hidden, is that true?
Would person who sets it up be 'admin'? Can others be appointed admin too
Rules - how is it possible to enforce rules? (no posting at night, no offence topic chat etc)
All hints tips etc welcome. Thanks.
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
It's not much more sophisticated than group texts really. But you can add files and pics, which is useful.
I like ones for small group, but find the ones for large groups very annoying - lots of irrelevant stuff pinging away (although you can turn notifications off for particular groups).
If I'm in a large group, people I am not connected with come up as telephone numbers rather than their names.
You can allow or not allow people to invite others or make changes, but at first glance I'm not sure you can give some people more permissions than others. Maybe you can.
There's no real place to put rules, you could put in the 'description' I guess, but no-one will read it.
Sorry but Facebook is much better for this sort of thing.
I like ones for small group, but find the ones for large groups very annoying - lots of irrelevant stuff pinging away (although you can turn notifications off for particular groups).
If I'm in a large group, people I am not connected with come up as telephone numbers rather than their names.
You can allow or not allow people to invite others or make changes, but at first glance I'm not sure you can give some people more permissions than others. Maybe you can.
There's no real place to put rules, you could put in the 'description' I guess, but no-one will read it.
Sorry but Facebook is much better for this sort of thing.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
.. and Facebook is bad.
Re: hiding numbers - maybe this will be useful..
www.sammobile.com
I’m on a few groups. Seems to work fine with decent non-histrionic folk. Not sure about how things would suit if any “enforcement” was required.
Re: hiding numbers - maybe this will be useful..
WhatsApp offers ability to hide your phone number in Community chats
Meta-owned WhatsApp is among the most popular instant messaging apps in the world. Over the past few months, WhatsApp has ...
www.sammobile.com
I’m on a few groups. Seems to work fine with decent non-histrionic folk. Not sure about how things would suit if any “enforcement” was required.
RiderOnTheStorm
Well-Known Member
Whoever sets up the group is the Admin . The Admin is only one who can add / remove people. The Admin can make others an Admin.
If a person is not in your address book, then its just their number that comes up beside their post. But if that person is in someones elses book then their name comes up for them.
You can set up a group and set an option where only the Admin can post stuff. This is great if you just want the group to be a place where info is passed on to many (one way traffic). Has great advantage that there arnt side-tracked conversations or dozens of messages pinging all the time. Of course, you could have a couple of trusted folk be Admins so that its not just 1 person who has to do the leg work. Also, you can enforce rules easily if its just 2 or 3 posters. If someone in the group has a Q then they can message you directly.
A chat group is different to a Community ..... I dont have much experience of those.
scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
To add to those two posts, yeah, you can add extra people as admins, which means they can add/remove members and edit group info. It's under group info.
I can't think of any way to enforce rules except by reminding people and then removing them from the chat. I imagine lots of people would violate the no posting at night rule though, because it's not really necessary, since only users who want notifications at night will get them.
I can't think of any way to enforce rules except by reminding people and then removing them from the chat. I imagine lots of people would violate the no posting at night rule though, because it's not really necessary, since only users who want notifications at night will get them.
scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
Nah, people other than the admin can add members, it depends what permissions you've enabled. The default is to allow members to add other members.
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
Thanks. I've only ever set up a 'group' of 3 people before and I don't recall being given options. Does it present you with options when you add people to the group? Or is it somewhere else?
Never heard of a 'community'- where does it give you that option?
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
Thanks Sam so admins can choose to not allow members to add people?
Maggot
The Cake of Liberty
Click on the 3 dots to see the options. At any time.
I'm not in a community, but there's a oommunity option at the bottom of the chats page.
It comes up under the same menu as for starting a new group chat.
The communities thing is mostly a way of grouping several group chats together. You get an "announcements" group that everyone is a part of, but people who aren't the admin can only react or reply to posts the admin has made - not post their own messages that aren't a reply to something. The existence of other group chats in the community is visible to everyone but you can only see and make posts in the chats you've been added to. You can do the phone number privacy thing in communities too, not sure if it's also possible with regular group chats that aren't part of a community.
Screenshot that probably makes it clearer than what I've just described:
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