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Ask HN: WhatsApp, now integral to our lives, provides no tech support. Ideas?

15 points by simonebrunozzi ↗ HN
I am having a ton of issues with my WhatsApp account for the past few days. I am good with computers, have tried everything imaginable, and still have issues.

It helped me realize how integral it is to our "digital" life. I certainly use it more than my phone number, or any other app.

Being cut off from it makes it really annoying to deal with ordinary communications with friends, for business, etc.

WhatsApp seems to offer support, but it's not what it seems. Essentially, this is what you get:

"Unfortunately, we don’t provide chat or email support for questions about messaging at this time. Replies to this message won’t be read. Thank you for understanding."

So... you're essentially left alone. No recourse.

Any ideas of what I could do to try to solve my issue?

42 comments

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lobito14
"WhatsApp, now integral to Your lives, provides no tech support. Ideas?"

I corrected it for You.

Dessesaf
Yes, "our" does not necessarily include you. There is no separate word for an "us" that includes all people.
simonebrunozzi
Thanks. Now it's much better. 2B people use WhatsApp, but that doesn't include you. Forgive me if I thought so.
high_byte
seems to be becoming the norm... uber eats decided to just not show up. can't contact driver. can't contact uber. why offer support if you have a billion users? sounds like massive overhead. so lose a few users, it's cheaper.
Bluestein
(I am sure this has been studied to death ...

At what point, at what scale, (ie. 1bn. users) does it become humanly impossible to offer support? To scale offering "human" support, that is.-

At some point the "right to talk to a human" will become regulated ...

bouke
Or look at it from a different angle: at what scale (ie. 1bn. users) does it become possible to stop to offer support? Simply don’t care about those users with issues or questions.
coldtrait
I've been able to get some basic support and it gets followed up via WhatsApp Support but it was something basic, like I had a question about my backup data and couldn't figure out why I could not access older images/videos despite having data backed up but they couldn't provide much support.

I assume WhatsApp Business provides better support?

Bluestein
PS. At this point, I think they should just forcibly convert WhatsApp into a project of the United Nations :)
Bluestein
(Just wanted to take the time to appreciate the downvote ...)
daydream
> Any ideas of what I could do to try to solve my issue?

What specific problems are you having?

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christophilus
> Being cut off from it makes it really annoying to deal with ordinary communications with friends, for business, etc.

As someone who has never used WhatsApp, why is it annoying to communicate without it?

carlos_rpn
I do not know where op is from, but here in Brazil, where whatsapp is huge, there's a huge expectation you'll be reacheable on whatsapp, both in and out of work.
codingdave
That is definitely not universal - I've never used it, and it seems to be just for teenagers in my area. (Rural Midwestern USA)
carlosjobim
South America: Whatsapp

Northern Europe: Facebook messenger

United States: SMS/iMessage

meiraleal
which is quite fun. Does SMS/iMessage support groups, bots or any kind of automation? Americans stopped in the stone age.
BOOSTERHIDROGEN
That is why Discord is huge in US while the rest of the world telegram, fb, WhatsApp.
codingdave
> stopped in the stone age.

And pleasantly so. I actually barely even text - I tell friends to send me an email, or even better just show up at my door and we'll hang out. I get that I'm an outlier, but I enjoy having my digital communications be for work, and my "real" life being offline.

dyingkneepad
My country only didn't settle for SMS because you still have to pay per message, where WhatsApp is free.
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simfree
MMS is part of standard cellphone plans and supports group messaging. Most people can't tell when they are sending a SMS or MMS, it just works.

That your carrier had such abusive SMS & MMS rates that it pushed people to Over The Top apps is concerning, and raises notable digital sovereignty and Telecom regulation questions about where your local telecom regulator failed.

meiraleal
That's an interesting perspective. So Americans are stuck with a non-evolving protocol because telecom regulation worked well?

I'm glad ours didn't.

Spooky23
WhatsApp is like iMessage outside the US. It’s also an effective way to communicate with Android users and avoid the blue/green bubble drama, and the inter-carrier SMS technical issues. (Many of the MVNOs are painful to deal with with group texts)

I use it extensively for youth sports teams, as the most popular team management app in my region is hot garbage.

muzani
It's the equivalent of email and SMS here, but worse.

Appointments use WA. Deliveries are communicated through WA. Pretty much every physical social group uses it - residential communities, alumni groups, school groups, family, friends. I've been pushing people at work to just use Slack but they're more like "contact me on WA for emergencies".

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cpach
Have you considered migrating to another platform? For example Signal. They offer better security and there seems to be support options AFAICT: https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/6746004451610-C...
Two4
As someone who quit WhatsApp a while back when there was a big scare about a change in ToS (and everyone was promising to jump ship to telegram/signal), I cannot overstate the importance of the network effect. For a platform with a userbase this size, the critical mass of users required to pull everyone over to a new platform is simply massive. I'm on both other platforms, and although I see many of my contacts there, they are simply not active. They prefer WhatsApp, and unless something cataclysmic happens, they'll remain there.
cpach
I hear ya. I also use WhatsApp a lot. But if OP has issues that makes WhatsApp unusable, and the owner of the platform refuse to offer support, how to proceed…? Even if the network effect is strong, at that point I would seek out alternatives.
muzani
I would be very happy if people migrated to another platform. Second best here is Telegram, but it's impossible to get everyone there. It's heavily used for government communication, scams, and affairs/prostitution.
cpach
Friends don’t let friends use Telegram

https://soatok.blog/2024/05/14/its-time-for-furries-to-stop-...

cpach
PS. Perhaps I was a little to brusque in my comment. I could have phrased it like this: When using Telegram, be aware that it’s severe shortcomings when it comes to security.
muzani
Thanks, wasn't aware of this. Back when we were evaluating messaging tools, it was the only one that had E2E.
simfree
Telegram does not support group message encryption, and encryption is off by default for direct messages.

At no point has Telegram been a leader in End to End encryption. If you like the thought of the United Arab Emirates having access to all your unencrypted messages though, it's a great option!

https://www.reddit.com/r/PrivacyGuides/comments/wi3ln6/compl...

meiraleal
How do you offer chat/email support to 1 billion people? That's obviously impossible.
waldrews
You don't do it for free, but you also don't charge so much it becomes a profit center and screws up incentives.
ksec
>Any ideas of what I could do to try to solve my issue?

I mean, written down the issue is 50% of the problem.

aristofun
Whatsapp has always been a piece of sh*.

When Durov said it from stage everyone were mocking him.

But the truth is for better or worth Telegram is the only messenger today that doesn’t suck as a mass product for end user.