Have you previously paid any attention to the permissions the Facebook app asks for at all?
I wanted to install Facebook on my Android device so I could share stuff on Facebook via the native "share" intent. Seeing the permission list made me reconsider.
When they broke messenger off into a different app I uninstalled. Right now I only use the mobile browser version and really only to upload photos of my daughter for my family to see. I'm starting to use it less and less though because the browser version is terrible.
If you're on Android, try using Tinfoil. It's the same browser version (so it may still be terrible for you), but interacting with it is a little easier than just opening Chrome/FF and going to fb.com.
When they broke messenger off into a different app I uninstalled. Right now I only use the mobile browser version and really only to upload photos of my daughter for my family to see. I'm starting to use it less and less though because the browser version is terrible.
They can easily upload their contact lists with your number included when finding friends. So yeah, our numbers are already on FB thanks to our friends.
Read the article, this is a separate app. No need to uninstall the Facebook app. Or does this new app makes you so angry that you feel like deleting an other app from them?
For Android only, a modern Caller ID system from Facebook.
Hello will show you info about who’s calling you, even if you don’t have that number saved in your phone. You will only see info that people have already shared with you on Facebook.
It also lets you look at businesses/restaurants information quickly from the dialer app
EDIT: I was wrong, this is one of the permissions they require on Android, however, not on iOS as Apple doesn't make it available to third-party developers.
Almost all Android apps can do this in realtime, because to get the IMEI/device ID (a questionable thing in itself), Google decided you should also be required to have permissions to see who is calling/called.
It's a major privacy violation, with Google directly encouraging it for no good reason.
(Getting device ID should be a very rare, high-security permission; instead each app should get a unique app+deviceID. And seeing who is calling is likewise a rare thing that should be highly suspect. Or Google could add controls or do on-demand like MS and Apple do...)
I can't think of a valid reason why an app should require such permissions besides information gathering.. there are API for making you app talk, or discover other apps
Exactly my thoughts... except this app is exactly in Facebook's wheelhouse. Who else could do this?
When Facebook introduced their phone (well, just their android launcher) a couple of years ago, I thought this kind of feature would be a major selling point.
While I would never use it, I know many many people who would be thrilled for something like this.
I wonder if the WhatsApp acquisition price just got validated.
This is a really interesting and logical move for FB, to integrate as a tangential add-on with something transactional like phone calls, (instead of just being a destination website / app).
Especially now that WhatsApp (recently acquired by Facebook) tries to hijack voice calling already. Even if you press the phone number in the WhatsApp contact details.
This was a major annoyance for me because I was used to abusing WhatsApp as my address book and the voice call quality with WhatsApp is often atrocious (plus it uses up my phone's very limited data plan).
I think the biggest challenge to this is Facebook itself (and other messaging/social apps). How many millennials make phone calls frequently to more than 5-10 close people any more? Everyone just uses messaging or social apps to stay in touch.
I don't need this to give me social context to my wife or my parents etc. calling me. The value of this is really to people that are not that close, where Facebook can surface relevant data that I don't have at the top of my mind - but I rarely communicate with those people via phone calls any more.
I would see the use for getting quickly restaurants/businesses hours, my solution right now is to query " <name of the business> hours" in google and hope that google provides the small information box with the hours.
However this Hello is on Android, if I had an android phone I could just ask OK Google and expect the information to come even faster.
If you have iOS you can use Spotlight for that: search a business name and get the same place info you get in Maps, it’s pretty convenient (I think it’s new in iOS 8).
a. Regarding millennials: If they can younger users to use their dialer in 2015, they might stay with them for life.
b. The average age for facebook is 40.5 [1]. I'm a Gen Xer myself, and I'm 50/50 with calls vs. messaging. I order pizza, call my mechanic, etc. all via the phone.
For me, it's both. I don't trust J. Random Food Service handling payments (and adding fees) for local restaurants when ordering via the web. (Most are too small to set up their own service, so they use crap like "GrubHub" or whatever.) I can just call them and pay them directly - costs less they get more. Also, now those payment companies can't track me since I'm not using them. I do use one or two large chains' phone apps because they seem trust-worthy enough and appear to be handling the payments themselves.
My mechanics (well, mine and my wife's) have web pages, but when you set up one appointment on them, they auto-add routine maintenance for you. While that could be convenient, neither of us drives like a normal person (I did ~4,000 miles per year the last 4 years, my wife even less), so it's really just a pain to have to cancel an appointment every time I make one. It's also scummy of them to set one up for me without even asking if it's what I want. It's a dark pattern of adding things to your basket without asking you, essentially.
b. Anecdotes are not data. I'm a Gen Xer as well, and avoid both voice and SMS as much as possible - I communicate via IM and email, and use the web for things like "ordering pizza".
If the phone rings with the sound I've chosen for my mother and my SOs, it gets picked up. Otherwise it goes to voicemail. I skim Google's transcription of it and consider calling back.
Here in Sweden we use TrueCaller [1] which is almost the same as FB Hello. It is available for Android, iOS, and WP. And pretty much cover the entire world. It will be interesting to see how TrueCaller can compete with FB Hello.
Pretty much everyone I know in India uses this too! It's one of the very essential apps here cause of call abuse. Will be very interesting to see how this plays out, indeed.
Sounds horrible! I shouldn't have to give them my address book to find out if whomever is calling me is a spammer. I wonder what they're doing with the data? Also, phone numbers change hands. What happens when my friend John Doe changes his number and it goes to a spammer? Do I suddenly get marked somehow as being associated with spammers?
I think it does not come from your address book. Rather, it builds the database from each one of us who register with truecaller with thier numbers. So for example: I register with my phone number 123456789, and you register with your phone number 987654321. Both these numbers would be stored on Truecaller's servers and when you get a call from my number 123456789, and even if you don't have my phone number in your phonebook, you still get to see that I am calling you with my name (the details come from the server). You need Wifi/data connection to get truecaller working. That's my understanding , unless I am utterly wrong.
You are utterly wrong. Truecaller does take its data from the contact book. It's very easy to test as well. If you happen to know someone's number is not on truecaller, do this - add his number in your contact book with some fake name and install true caller after that. When he calls you, you'll see the fake name.
It says: When you download Truecaller from Google Play, it NEVER uploads your phonebook to make it searchable or public. Truecaller needs access to certain capabilities to provide you with a richer experience.
Thanks for pointing this out! My volume of spam robocalls and SMS has gone through the roof this year, and I knew there had to be some app that did like a collaborative blacklist for these numbers. This TrueCaller appears to do the trick.
What I think is fascinating about this is how front-and-center the whole "block unwanted calls" feature is. They mention it several times on this one page, when they could mention a bunch of other features instead. It goes to show how concerned people are with potentially allowing frictionless contact from mere acquaintances.
I have never needed to block a call, so I'm not the customer here. I'm curious what demographic uses call blocking so much that FB wants to advertise directly to them. Is it a problem that younger people face, or something that happens in other countries?
Buy an SSL certificate. Enjoy Comodo calling you 3 times a week, sometimes waking you up, to try to sell security. Even after telling them to stop. (Yeah, I should take it up with the FCC...)
Even more fun: point out Comodo's lapses as a CA and say they're the last CA you'd ever deal with. Then the rep smoothly segues into pitching antivirus/"security" software.
Surprised that you give them your real number. Any data I provide online is only ever enough for the specific service I want to function. The rest is invented. Fiction. Myth.
I think being able to see how many others have blocked the number would help to weed out telemarketing calls, saving me the 3 seconds it takes to answer, hear the pre-recorded message and hang up.
One thing is not clear: What happens if I want some people (friends of friends etc) find me on facebook but they or others don't see my information on their hello app when I called / miscalled them? Would there be an opt-out?
In my circle, using Facebook to connect through anything other than Facebook itself seems futile. No one has emails or phone numbers posted, even for friends.
So this app seems like it would basically do nothing.
>> "So this app seems like it would basically do nothing."
For you. Today I had to email someone. I looked through my address book and because I'd previously add their name/number Facebook had retrieved their email (which I didn't yet have) through their profile and put it right in my address book. This happens quite often for me.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 146 ms ] threadA step too far.
I wanted to install Facebook on my Android device so I could share stuff on Facebook via the native "share" intent. Seeing the permission list made me reconsider.
Questionable audience. Whom is this for?
Most people who are hardcore facebook users do not use phone calls at all as far as I've seen.
Hello will show you info about who’s calling you, even if you don’t have that number saved in your phone. You will only see info that people have already shared with you on Facebook.
It also lets you look at businesses/restaurants information quickly from the dialer app
EDIT: I was wrong, this is one of the permissions they require on Android, however, not on iOS as Apple doesn't make it available to third-party developers.
Luckily, I am running on root and can disable that access, but it's certainly possible.
It's a major privacy violation, with Google directly encouraging it for no good reason.
(Getting device ID should be a very rare, high-security permission; instead each app should get a unique app+deviceID. And seeing who is calling is likewise a rare thing that should be highly suspect. Or Google could add controls or do on-demand like MS and Apple do...)
I can't think of a valid reason why an app should require such permissions besides information gathering.. there are API for making you app talk, or discover other apps
I think more realistically computers are Still mysterious magic boxes to them to some extent
When Facebook introduced their phone (well, just their android launcher) a couple of years ago, I thought this kind of feature would be a major selling point.
While I would never use it, I know many many people who would be thrilled for something like this.
I wonder if the WhatsApp acquisition price just got validated.
This was a major annoyance for me because I was used to abusing WhatsApp as my address book and the voice call quality with WhatsApp is often atrocious (plus it uses up my phone's very limited data plan).
I don't need this to give me social context to my wife or my parents etc. calling me. The value of this is really to people that are not that close, where Facebook can surface relevant data that I don't have at the top of my mind - but I rarely communicate with those people via phone calls any more.
a. Regarding millennials: If they can younger users to use their dialer in 2015, they might stay with them for life.
b. The average age for facebook is 40.5 [1]. I'm a Gen Xer myself, and I'm 50/50 with calls vs. messaging. I order pizza, call my mechanic, etc. all via the phone.
[1] http://smallbusiness.chron.com/breakdown-facebook-users-age-...
By choice, or by necessity?
My mechanics (well, mine and my wife's) have web pages, but when you set up one appointment on them, they auto-add routine maintenance for you. While that could be convenient, neither of us drives like a normal person (I did ~4,000 miles per year the last 4 years, my wife even less), so it's really just a pain to have to cancel an appointment every time I make one. It's also scummy of them to set one up for me without even asking if it's what I want. It's a dark pattern of adding things to your basket without asking you, essentially.
If the phone rings with the sound I've chosen for my mother and my SOs, it gets picked up. Otherwise it goes to voicemail. I skim Google's transcription of it and consider calling back.
1. http://www.truecaller.com/
http://www.truecaller.com/support#/General/a3
http://www.truecaller.com/support#/Android/a24
It says: When you download Truecaller from Google Play, it NEVER uploads your phonebook to make it searchable or public. Truecaller needs access to certain capabilities to provide you with a richer experience.
Play store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.truecaller
Even more fun: point out Comodo's lapses as a CA and say they're the last CA you'd ever deal with. Then the rep smoothly segues into pitching antivirus/"security" software.
Also, Let's Encrypt is supposed to launch soon, which should be very interesting.
https://hellotext.com/
And Microsoft Hello: http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/03/17/making-w...
http://hello.com/
https://www.gnu.org/software/hello/
(As of version 2 it includes a mail reader...)
- Facebook (networking)
- Messenger (messaging)
- Hello (calls and callerID)
Facebook should just fork Android, integrate all of these and release their own build.
So this app seems like it would basically do nothing.
For you. Today I had to email someone. I looked through my address book and because I'd previously add their name/number Facebook had retrieved their email (which I didn't yet have) through their profile and put it right in my address book. This happens quite often for me.
Facebook? Only use the mobile web site on my phone, thank you!
I don't know why I would have a need to replace it.