A Caution: Android on a PC

[ameerat42]

Today I decided to try to get WhatsApp to run on the laptop. - I did, sort of.

[A chorus of incredulous "WHY BOVVER?!"]

First I had to install an Android emulator: I used Andy Android. (Found it handy enough, too!)

Then I registered a new Gmail account to use the App Store. (It was easier to make a new one.)

Finally, I installed WhatsApp on the laptop

Caution starts here:
On the way it wanted a phone number, so I used the one for my mobile (, I hear you say.)
But I didn't realise that it had then verified my computer as my phone AND HAD UN-verified the phone account for WhatsApp
In the meantime, I did send a message to my laptop from another phone with WhatsApp

When I went back to try to use my own phone, I had to RE-verify WhatsApp on IT!!

So the moral is...

[A chorus of "Who cares!?!?!"]

...but for the voice I didn't hear:

If you do this exercise, make sure you have a SPARE SIM card

Am(just sayin' is all).

[MarkChap]

for the very small cost of an SMS (which are usually free on most plans now anyway)

I do really have to ask

Why

[I @ M]

for the very small cost of an SMS (which are usually free on most plans now anyway)

I do really have to ask

Why

I really do not know why Am has gone to great lengths to torture himself by adding a program to a PC that was never designed to be on one but --- whatsapp is actually a very very good little thing. The beauty of it is that it will run on both your phones data and wifi and once you have a contact in the phone it doesn't matter if they swap numbers, sims etc, if they synch the new numbers to their whatsapp profile one can still message them whenever and wherever you want without even considering their number.

Oh yeah, it seems facebook have given up on trying to get money for it anymore, it is free of charge.

[MarkChap]

That of course is provided that both parties have whatsapp, ?
Or can I send a regular sms to a phone number from whatsapp ??

I really do not know why Am has gone to great lengths to torture himself by adding a program to a PC that was never designed to be on one but --- whatsapp is actually a very very good little thing. The beauty of it is that it will run on both your phones data and wifi and once you have a contact in the phone it doesn't matter if they swap numbers, sims etc, if they synch the new numbers to their whatsapp profile one can still message them whenever and wherever you want without even considering their number.

Oh yeah, it seems facebook have given up on trying to get money for it anymore, it is free of charge.

[ameerat42]

Noted. I have added you to the Chorus.

This expt was done with a non-data SIM.

[ameerat42]

The 99 cents/year was a real deal-breaker

OK, an explification* as to why: to use Whatsapp when smartphone is not here.

I don't plan to get another plan.

*Don't expect me to explificate this.

[ameerat42]

Both parties have Whatsapp. When I'm out of range,
the OS party can still call via computer.

You can't send a regular sms to the Whatsapp application.
A regular SMS uses the phone network. To have Whatsapp you need
a regular mobile phone >>added: NUMBER<< anyway. It uses the data
network to exchange msgs/pics/any file.

It's (inter alia) another way to use a mobile at the cost of a bit of data rather
than phone call plan. It does not do video like Skype does, but talk abroad to
other mobiles is cheap You only pay for a smidgin of data. If on an unLTD data
plan, even better.

[MarkChap]

so what is the point, if my friends/family/contacts don't use the app I can't use the app to communicate with them ??

Much quicker and easier to just use the technology that is already there, everyday normal SMS and MMS

[I @ M]

Mark, both parties need to have whatsapp installed.
Whatsapp simply piggy backs onto whatever number is in use in the phone at the time.
For example, someone comes to Australia from another country and acquires a local sim card and number and I have them as a contact already under their number from their country of origin, the whatsapp program will use whichever number they are using in Aus to deliver a message from me and vice versa.

You can send an sms to the contact as per normal, whatsapp is a little more sophisticated than an sms, no character limit, instant image attachment and voice recording attachment as well as the ability to "physically" call the other party via whatsapp over wifi connections or on your data allowance.
If you have free wifi in a hotel, shop etc you can talk to someone free of charge from one side of the world to the other.

[arthurking83]

..... whatsapp is a little more sophisticated than an sms, no character limit, instant image attachment and voice recording attachment as well as the ability to "physically" call the other party via whatsapp over wifi connections or on your data allowance.
If you have free wifi in a hotel, shop etc you can talk to someone free of charge from one side of the world to the other.

So in a word .. it's another version of skype, or messenger and whatever else I don't really use!

ps. technically sms's have no character limit for someone that types a lot! (not referring to self here either! )
It's just that on a per message basis there is a character limit( I think 137 characters ) .. any more than that simply adds another sms message to the recipient's list.
Strangely I once received an sms message where the character limit was reached for a single message, but another message was also received as well .. ie. I initially read the 1 of 2, and the 2nd of 2 was a strange one .. a simple full stop! Couldn't work it out for a few seconds and went back and forth between the two messages to try to find the second message until the penny dropped .. they obviously sent one character too many for a single sms.

[ameerat42]

See edit, but, if they have smartphones with data or access to Internet via WIFI...
Good for talking with pple OS.

[mpb]

Good for talking with pple OS.

Our you could just wait for dinner time to arrive, the phone will ring, and then you can talk to OS people about all sorts of interesting things like electricity, phones etc for as long as you can keep them on the phone, and they are paying.

[ameerat42]

Our you could just wait for dinner time to arrive, the phone will ring, and then you can talk to OS people about all sorts of interesting things like electricity, phones etc for as long as you can keep them on the phone, and they are paying.

Time difference

- - - Updated - - -

So in a word .. it's another version of skype, or messenger and whatever else I don't really use! ...

Calls + SMS + MMS all on data, not phone allowance.

[arthurking83]

....


Calls + SMS + MMS all on data, not phone allowance.

Unless something has drastically changed, Skype is an IPphone system. Basically like this whatsapp thingy.

You can (or should be able too) make free network calls to other's connected to a network, same with messages(it's a combination of messenger and the original skype).
Difference is(what I think is the difference with whatsapp) is that you can also make calls and msgs to phones too(that is over the phone wires/wireless systems).
The access to phones is obviously a cost to the user .. but if you want the benefit of a totally seemless messaging system, then skype obviously has a greater advantage.

eg. no need to have an emulator running on a PC to access a simple application .. etc, etc.
No need to check sms on a phone if you're at the PC .. etc. no need to use the phone if you're at the pc .. etc.

So where you can't really make a (IP)phone call from a PC to a mobile phone with whatsapp, you can with Skype natively, using the network so its free.

ps. I haven't used skype since M$ acquired it. It comes installed and active by default on your (Win10) PC now .. it was opt in optional on Win7 that I remember.
I had to manually disable it completely on my Win10 PC .. blooming annoyance that it was.

But my son uses it all the time whilst he's playing his connected games. Always messaging someone on the other side of the world planning their domination of said world .. which I always worry about.

.. he's probably going to self educate himself, via his collection of experiences over the next few years, believing that world domination is a natural human condition ... and not a human failing!

no real need to stuffff around with sims! ... nor dims either for that matter .. just PC to skype device.

ps. for anyone in the know(because other than the very early years, I don't skype .. ) are there any issues with skype? Why don't more folks use it?

[I @ M]

are there any issues with skype? Why don't more folks use it?

Constant popups and "reminders" to buy skype credits.

Ditched it quite a while ago.

[ameerat42]

Yeah, Skype. Gottit too

Ask him about WhatsApp, AK

[arthurking83]

I remember my daughter asking me a question about some inane messaging app she wanted for her phone. She got her phone Jan last year(as she'd started high school and I wanted us all to maintain contactability!).

Anyhow, can't remember the app name, but after reading some info about it .. I told her in a very deliberate, demanding and severe tone .. No!

What this app apparently did(or does) is to locate all your contacts in your phone book and add them to it's database of users .. even if those contacts want nothing to do with this apps uselessness!

So the chances are that somehow, somewhere, someone known to you may have used this app and unknowingly add you to this apps list of registered users! .. even tho you don't even know that this app exists!

Damn! .. I just can't remember the name of the app. Hopefully someone else will.

I'll ask the kiddies tomorrow about it. I can't recall that they have it installed.

Actually a humourous anecdote about SMS'ing.
Not too long ago(a few months now), so daughter has no had the phone for a while .. a year maybe.
One day I check my phone plan's data usage and stuff like that(all three phones on my plan).
I was umming and ahhing about changing plans as I'm now using more data than before as I use it during work now(mainly maps).
Anyhow, checked lil miss 13yo's usage and noted that she's $10 over her allocated cost allowance.
Checked the data and nup! .. zip .. nothing!
Checked her phone calls allowance, nothing! .. whadda?
Checked her SMS usage .. AHHHHH!!!
She's made 1000's of SMSes in just a day or so. In fact on the list of SMS's in the space of just a few minutes she's made over 700!

700+ SMSs in about 9 minutes .. it's physically impossible to do that on the phone. You try it and see for yourself .. and I can type not only lots and lots .. but quickly too
First thing I thought was she's been hacked or something.
So I asked her about it and she blushed bright red instantly .. I almost got sunburned!
Turns out that she did somehow manage to sent 'a lot' of msgs to her 3 friends .. I just cant' work out how on earth ...
She won't say .. I don't care .. other than if my next set of replies all come in thick and fast in a furious manner .. it wont me!

Updated out plans to unlimited all across and shared data, so that either one of us can use whatever data in the pool .. and of course now she's stopped being friends with those original three!

[ameerat42]

1 msg x multiple recips = multiple msgs??

[arthurking83]

Nah! ... it was 700+ msgs to a single number!

A short while later she's msg'ed another friend a few hundred times and again to another friend.

She got all introverted when I asked her what she actually did, and how on earth she could have msg'ed so quickly .. should look into a stenographers career!!

[ameerat42]

K! RSI, Carpal Tunnel...