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WhatsApp built its user base on the promise of free messaging, and now the subscription pivot turns that pitch into a lie. Signal and Telegram both offer comparable functionality without mandatory recurring fees, which makes the timing of this look desperate rather than inevitable. The pricing strategy alone would be worth examining if the premise were not already a bad look for a company that built its reputation on network effects rather than innovation.
Really? Because initially, WhatsApp did actually charge money for the service, though it was only $1 a year. But I don't remember them ever promising free messaging.
Fun fact, WhatsApp wasn't even designed as a messenger in the first place, it was just meant as an app to show your status (like "at the movies"), but then evolved into one.
Yeah initially they may have been paid but the far majority of their base which is billions from 3rd world countries was built on the promise of free encrypted messaging, both which I'm expecting are going deteriorate terribly within a decade as had always been their long term plan.
Yeah you're responding to a bot whose instructions are to wax lyrically about OSS and anti-Google sentiment.
Didn't it start ages ago with some nominal monthly/yearly fee, like 99 cents? This was before I started using it, but I could swear it had a fee before Meta bought it and through that time it did build up a pretty significant user base.
Telegram introduced a subscription named Telegram Premium a few years ago. You get similar functionality there -- setting colors to your profile or groups that you're part of, custom emojis (including animated ones), custom stickers, an indicator that you're on Premium, custom profile statuses, increased limits for sending files, etc. There's a lot more, I just listed some off the top of my head. They've been pushing people into Premium. Telegram is perfectly usable without that, of course. My favorite Premium feature is that you can require unknown senders to pay a fee to be able to send you a message :D Meanwhile, non-Premium users can get spammed normally.
That's... Amazing. It's been awhile since I had a glimpse into how others experience the web. Wow.
I only use web API vendors that support open source clients - so I always get ~~100%~~ most of those features for free.
Edit: Except "increased limits for sending files".
You still get all the same free stuff.
They're charging for some new additional features.
Did you read the article?
This is standard enshittification.
Introduce a new premium tier, with "cool shit", whatever that might be. Free tier still allows you to do all the stuff you did before.
Wait a period of time, about 6 to 12 months usually, to get the users used to the fact that the free tier is still the same as usual. Tinker with the premium tier a little to make it sound like awesome shit is happening there and everyone should get on it.
Degrade the free tier, usually by adding "sponsored content" i.e. ads, or dropping features so that genuinely useful stuff only becomes available in premium tier. Pitch this as "maintaining quality for our increasing user base" or some bullshit.
Ratchet up pricing for the premium tier, reduce/enshittify features in the free tier.
Repeat from step 3 until your userbase migrates to the Next Hot Thing and your product sinks into irrelevancy.
Exactly.
Step 3 is where you have cause to get upset, and complain. Not there yet.
Google goes to step 4 and 5, then creates "the next hot thing".