Category: Facebook
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WhatsApp and End-to-End Encryption (a ChatGPT3 article experiment)
Continue Reading: WhatsApp and End-to-End Encryption (a ChatGPT3 article experiment)For those who use WhatsApp, you may have noticed that your messages are secure and private, thanks to the encryption that is used. But what is encryption, and why is it so important?
Encryption is a process of scrambling information so that only the intended recipient can read it. Essentially, it takes the data you’re sending and scrambles it using a mathematical algorithm. To unscramble the data, you need a key, which is known only to the sender and the receiver.
WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, which means that your messages are encrypted on the sender’s device, travel securely to the receiver’s device, and remain encrypted until the receiver reads them. This means that no one – not even WhatsApp themselves – can see the messages you’re sending.
This is an important feature for anyone concerned about their privacy, especially in an era of increased surveillance. With WhatsApp’s encryption, you can be sure that your messages will stay safe, secure, and private.
WhatsApp is also working to improve their encryption, with plans to add a feature known as “Perfect Forward Secrecy”. This feature will generate a new encryption key for each message you send, ensuring that if one key is ever…
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Facebook Messenger’s “Instant Video” Lets You Simultaneously Use Video and Chat
Continue Reading: Facebook Messenger’s “Instant Video” Lets You Simultaneously Use Video and ChatThe messaging wars continue! Today Facebook Messenger added “Instant Video” to it’s iOS and Android app, allowing you to easily share live video while still in a text chat. Facebook has had “video calling” since back in May 2015, but that requires both parties to answer the video call in the same way that Facetime, Wire and every other video app does it.
“Instant Video” is different:
VIDEO STARTS OUT ONE-WAY – Only the video of the person initiating “Instant Video” is shown. The recipient sees the video of the sender, but their video connection is NOT enabled. Now, the recipient can start sending video, but they don’t have to.
AUDIO IS OFF INITIALLY – When the sender starts their video, the recipient receives the video without any sound. They can easily start getting sound by tapping on the speaker icon on the video, but this is great because often you are having a text conversation precisely because you don’t want to use audio.
YOU CAN STILL SEE THE CHAT – The video overlays the upper right corner of the chat window, but that’s it. You can still see the chat messages and continue having your chat.
This last point…
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Facebook Messenger Launches Group Conference Calls (Audio-only)
Continue Reading: Facebook Messenger Launches Group Conference Calls (Audio-only)Continuing their efforts to be THE communication platform you use, the Messenger team at Facebook rolled out “group calling” this week within the Messenger app on iOS and Android. The new feature was announced by David Marcus, head of the FB Messenger team. Right now this is audio-only (i.e. not group video) and per media reports is limited to 50 participants.
I had to go to the AppStore and upgrade the Messenger app on my iPhone to the latest version, but once I did, I suddenly had a phone icon in the upper right corner of a group chat:
Tapping that phone icon brought me to a screen where I could choose which of the group members I wanted to bring into the group call:
After tapping “Call” in the lower right, Messenger launched the call and gave me feedback about who it was connecting, etc:
It then connected those who were available and four of us were in a group conference call:
As you can see in the screen captures, I had the standard buttons to mute my microphone and to activate the speakerphone.
AUDIO QUALITY – The audio quality was quite good. I couldn’t find any technical info…
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Updated “Directory Dilemma” Article Now On CircleID…
Continue Reading: Updated “Directory Dilemma” Article Now On CircleID…Back in December, 2014, I published a post here called “The Directory Problem – The Challenge For Wire, Talko And Every Other “Skype-Killer” OTT App“. After receiving a good bit of feedback, I’ve now published a new version over on CircleID:The Directory Dilemma – Why Facebook, Google and Skype May Win the Mobile App War
I incorporated a good bit of the feedback I received and also brought in some newer numbers and statistics. Of note, I now have a section on WebRTC where I didn’t before. You’ll also notice a new emphasis in the title… I’m now talking about the potential winners versus the challengers. I also chose “Directory Dilemma” not only for the alliteration but also because the situation really isn’t as much a “problem” as it is an overall “dilemma”. It may or may not be a “problem”.
I’m not done yet.
I’m still seeking feedback. I intend to do yet another revision of this piece, but in doing so intend to:
- Change it from the informal tone at the beginning to more of a “paper” style;
- Include a bit more about potential solutions.
Comments and feedback are definitely welcome… either as comments here on…
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WebRTCHacks Publishes Analysis of Facebook and WhatsApp Usage of WebRTC
Continue Reading: WebRTCHacks Publishes Analysis of Facebook and WhatsApp Usage of WebRTCThe team over at webrtcH4cKS (aka “WebRTCHacks”) have been publishing some great articles about WebRTC for a while now, and I thought I’d point to two in particular worth a read. Philipp Hancke has started a series of posts examining how different VoIP services are using WebRTC and he’s started out exploring two of the biggest, Facebook and WhatsApp, in these posts:Those articles are summaries explaining the findings, with much-longer detailed reports also available for download:
Both of these walk through the packet captures and provide a narrative around what is being seen in the discovery process.
A common finding between both reports is that the services are not using the more secure mechanism of DTLS for key exchange to set up encrypted voice channels. Instead they are using the older SDES mechanism that has a number of challenges, but, as noted by the report, is typically faster in enabling a call setup.
All in all the reports make for interesting reading. It’s great to see both Facebook and WhatsApp using WebRTC and I think this will only…
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WhatsApp Calling Arrives on iOS – More Telecom Disruption Ahead!
Continue Reading: WhatsApp Calling Arrives on iOS – More Telecom Disruption Ahead!As I checked my AppStore updates on my iPhone this week I was surprised but pleased to see that WhatsApp now includes “WhatsApp Calling”. As it says:“Call your friends and family using WhatsApp for free, even if they’re in another country. WhatsApp calls use your phone’s Internet connection rather than your cellular plan’s voice minutes. Data charges may apply.
How many ways can you spell “disruption”?
(Hint: w – h – a – t – s – a – p – p)Sure, there have been a zillion mobile apps providing Over-The-Top (OTT) voice services, many of which I’ve written about here on this site.
But this is WhatsApp!
This is the application that just passed 800 million monthly active users! (Techmeme link) With projections to hit 1 billion monthly active users by the end of the year.
Oh, and it’s owned by Facebook! 🙂
Now, I personally don’t use WhatsApp that much right now. The people who I want to message are primarily using iMessage, Facebook Messenger or Wire. (And every once in a great while I’ll fire up Skype on my iPhone.)
But obviously there are 800 million people who do use WhatsApp each month… and…
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The Directory Problem – The Challenge For Wire, Talko And Every Other “Skype-Killer” OTT App
Continue Reading: The Directory Problem – The Challenge For Wire, Talko And Every Other “Skype-Killer” OTT AppAs much as I am enjoying the new Wire app, there is a fundamental problem that Wire faces… as well as Talko, Firefox Hello and every other Over-The-Top (OTT) or WebRTC application that is seeking to become THE way that we communicate via voice, chat and/or video from our mobile phones and desktops. That is:How do they gather the “directory” of people that others want to talk to?
The fundamental challenge all of these applications face is this:
People will only USE a communication application if the people they want to talk to are using the application.
And where I say “talk” it could also be “chat” or “message” or… pick your communication verb.
It’s all about the “directory” of users.
There’s a war out there right now… and it’s a war for the future of our communications between each other. It’s a war for messaging… and it’s also a war for voice and video.
And it all comes back to… which communications application or service can provide the most comprehensive directory of users?
Which communications tool will be the one that people use the most? Will any of them replace the default communications of the mobile phone? NOTE:…
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Telcos Should Be Worried – Facebook Controls More OTT Messaging With WhatsApp Acquisition
Continue Reading: Telcos Should Be Worried – Facebook Controls More OTT Messaging With WhatsApp AcquisitionTalk about disruption… the telecom part of the media world is buzzing with news of Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. Techmeme is currently showing MANY posts on the topic and the day is just getting started.The key point here is that WhatsApp is a prime example of what is often called an “Over-The-Top” or “OTT” application. It uses the data channel on a mobile phone to provide services. Here’s another key point from the Facebook news release:
- Messaging volume approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume.
The traditional telecom companies (“telcos”) have already seen their voice revenue seriously eroded by Skype and so many of the other OTT voice applications (such as Viber, which was just acquired) and they’ve been watching SMS traffic and revenue plateau and decline.
WhatsApp was already one of the major players in the mobile messaging space… indeed I have friends in Europe who tell me they can’t remember the last time they sent an actual SMS message because they use WhatsApp for all their messaging. Their usage, too, is not just about the “free” cost of WhatsApp messages – it’s also about the richer messaging experience they can get over WhatsApp versus plain SMS. They…
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Facebook Rolls Out Free Voice Calls In The US On iOS – A Quick Walkthrough And A Big, Huge Caveat
Continue Reading: Facebook Rolls Out Free Voice Calls In The US On iOS – A Quick Walkthrough And A Big, Huge CaveatFacebook today rolled out it’s free voice calling in the US via its Messenger app for iOS (iPhone/iPad). The Verge was the first I saw with the news and a great number of sites are now following.Voice calling through Facebook has the potential to be hugely disruptive… rather than calling on your phone over your regular phone connection – or even rather than using Skype, you can just call from directly within Facebook. This is the kind of “Over-The-Top (OTT)” app that gives telco operators a fit… goodbye, telco voice minutes!
Plus, it’s using some HD voice codec so the sound quality is outstanding.
And since the folks at Facebook want you to live your life inside of their very pretty walls, this just provides yet one more reason for you to stay within those walls.
BUT… there’s a big huge caveat that I’ll get to in a moment.
A Quick Walkthrough
First, though, let’s look at how it works. When you go into the Messenger app and open a chat with a friend (in this case, Jim Courtney), all you have to do is click the “i” button in the upper right:
After you do that…