If you use Whatsapp regularly, you know they update a lot of times. Have you seen their latest update? Every word which has something to do with time or location (today, tomorrow, here, now) is blue and underlined. You can click on it and make it an activity. I found it extremely annoying and never used it.
One day ago, Whatsapp announced that there is an update which eliminates the blue time stamps. A lot of people (including me) had complaints because it was a little bit pushy. I noticed that in every conversation you talk about time and the blue words kept coming. A big failure for Whatsapp. Do you think they will improve it and let it have a come back at some point or do you think they accepted their failure?
Everyone these days has at least 10 apps on their phone. Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter … Just a few apps which are used on a regular basis. All the companies behind them are innovating. And quick! Snapchat has added a few cool features and which you can have big animal eyes, a rainbow out of your mouth or an old face. Facebook has a lot of advertisements and since a few weeks Instagram also has advertisements. Did you know that Facebook is developing even more? They are trying to build intelligence in their app for blind people. The app will be able to describe certain aspects of pictures. It sounds like a great plan, but do you think this will actually work? They are also changing the ‘maybe’ button in a ‘interested’ button. To me it would not make a real difference. How far do apps have to develop themselves until they can’t? I think Whatsapp cannot do more, since it has already a lot of features. The latest update didn’t do anything good. Do notice all their updates?
http://www.nu.nl/internet/4157491/facebook-vervangt-misschien-knop-met-geinteresseerd-.html
http://www.nu.nl/internet/4157731/facebook-bouwt-kunstmatige-intelligentie-blinden.html
http://www.telegraaf.nl/digitaal/24689135/__WhatsApp_schrapt_blauwe_linkjes__.html
I had the same thoughts about the blue and underlined words in Whatsapp. Naturally there are some people who like it, because it is very useful for them and I think in some situations it can be useful for me too. But most of the time when I am writing a message it irritates me. I think Whatsapp have to develop an on/off button for this part of the update. Besides that I really like the fact that Apps are updating a lot nowadays, it’s nice to see that there are so many new features.
I agree, I found the update which consisted of underlining and highlighting words related to time and location very annoying. Whatsapp has removed this update now but quite a few people have also found this update useful to keep track of their activities.
Facebook has been constantly updating their website to add new and innovative features. What they are trying to do for blind people is truly something unique! It might work, however, do blind people even know about Facebook and how to go about it? This app just describes certain aspects of pictures, will it be able to also talk about status and event updates?
I didn’t like the idea of changing the ‘going,maybe,not going’ button to ‘interested and not interested button’. You could be interested in an event and may not end up going. This could cause a problem for event managers to forecast the number of being who will actually go for the event.
I think all apps could keep updating themselves to give them a more competitive edge! Whatsapp could introduce video call and video messages or introduce photo editing in which people could directly edit and send pictures on whatsapp.
I agree, the Whatsapp update was really bad and not useful for me. Especially when also the dutch word ‘hier’ was underlined for no reason. The messages app at the iPhone underlines dates also and also there I never used this feature. But sometimes an update is not just for new features, there are also problems they need to solve at, that are caused by updates of iOS. The updates of the iPhone also bring opportunities, like new possibilities because of extra features of the phone. I think Whatsapp should focus on that, instead of try to find new features themselves. For example, it took a lot of time before Whatsapp finally updated their app for the new screen resolution of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. A lot of people would be happy if this would have happened faster.