How would I go about running Whatsapp on Librem5?

Just Anbox (of course :slight_smile: ). No messages.

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What’s wrong with coffee, btw?

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You misspelled “devil urine.”

well when i read the title of the post, i thought, WTF??? why buy a phone guaranteeing security of personal data, to install the nearly ultimate data whore on it, planning for the whole insanity combo together with facebook, instagram etc???
go for a cheap chinese android phone, at least, there, you don’t have to care who listens in, because you know that every conceivable agency does…

Most, but not all. How about this:

That as things stood, I didn’t think it was possible to have free and fair elections ever again. That liberal democracy was broken. And they had broke it.

(from My Ted talk: how I took on the tech titans in their lair)

I do feel very sorry for some people who find themselves under pressure though. A while ago I read about someone with a relative who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the extended family immediately set up a WhatsApp group to help them keep up with the situation. What was this person supposed to do under those circumstances? Start agitating to switch to a different platform? Be the one person in the family “who didn’t care enough” to join the group? (That is how the others would have seen it, of course.) AFAICR he hadn’t decided what to do when I read about it, but it is a horrible situation for anyone to find themselves in.

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One solution might be to use a whatsapp/xmpp bridge and a jabber client on the Librem5. @amosbatto wrote about the possibility, but I don’t know whether someone already tested this setup.

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@wimdows : Every people I know who drinks coffee regularly, at some point said something like ‘I can’ t do anything if I don’t have my coffee’, they are allllllllways tired without it, EVERY … ONE …OF …THEM

@Gavaudan : omg, I laughed so hard :rofl:

@nohkumado : Well, same here, but I think it’s the first step to a better way (when I switched to linux, at first, I kept some windows soft with wine), and it helps Purism to produce my futur phone, so welcome to @pjkaka :wink:

@pjkaka : sorry I didn’t mean to disturb your thread that much with my comment, I hope you found / find your answer here

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If I remember correctly, once you have a Whatsapp account set up, there is an option to use it from a web browser. If that is still the case, you could isolate the mobile application inside Anbox (for the rare case where you need to reverify your account or some such), and just use the browser version normally.

It’s also possible someone in the future will develop a Bitlbee plugin for it, so keep an eye on that.

@fralb5 I can’t say you know me, but I’m your regular coffee drinker who can very much take it or leave it (and I drink strong coffee). There are two reasons (beyond liking the taste) I drink it. First is if I have to get up earlier than I normally do (especially if it’s up at the crack of dawn, in the bitter cold, to go looking for Bambi). The second is to regulate my sleep schedule. If I go more than 2 weeks without coffee, I start getting up later and staying up later. I’m one of those people who would quite happily work graveyard shifts, as (without coffee) I’d get up at 1PM and stay up till 7 AM.

The key to avoiding dependency on coffee for basic functioning is to wait until you are awake before imbibing. I get up around 8 AM, and don’t drink coffee until around 9 AM.

I use Whatsapp to keep in touch with my parents and relatives. My business partners also use it extensively. I would personally never want to use a Facebook product but asking practically 30+ people to change to a different tool is a little too much, especially when a lot of them are older folks who struggle with technology.

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Same here. It’s just totally unrealistic to expect everybody else to switch to accomodate one person’s wishes.

Facebook hopes so.

Maybe the world will get lucky and Facebook will be forced to divest itself of WhatsApp. :wink:

Yes, maybe, Would be nice. But, meanwhile we are faced with the facts of (postmodern) life. No Whatsapp equals social isolation. (At least over here in Western Europe.)

It is quite special for you. I have no problems at all to be without WA in Northern Europe. Of course here you can also find people who “would die” without WA but fortunately not so many. We also have people who consider it a blessing to be without any mobile phone at all. Personally, I would be content with a Linux mobile without any snooper apps from Google and Facebook. W#e have a Synology NAS server with mobile apps (Android) serving most of the needs. It will be interesting to find out if we can replace it with Librem5.

Switching folks away form spyware like whatsapp is a slow gradual process, switching one person at a time, talking to them, explaining what it does, etc. Always surprises me how many have no idea what fakeboo/twatter/whatsapp/instagram et al all do. Most here, I’m sure, already know the drill on how to explain it to folks.

Most of my contacts now are on Signal, and it was a process over the last two years. Eventually more were on than not, and many used Signal along with 2-3 other apps until their own friends made the switch as well. And there are a few other left that know that if they wish to contact me, it’s that, Wickr, or call me.

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To use the browser version you need that your mobile app is always connected, otherwise the browser version goes offline…

Well that’s just… special…

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This is probably the central privacy question of our times - how to secure oneself when one’s network cannot be bothered due to apathy, ambivalence, or ignorance. All legitimate attributes as one cannot be an expert in all walks of life.

A wish for privacy. But still somewhat unrealistic as you so well put it.

A mon avis - you’re screwed, mate, if Whatsapp is the only viable vehicle to connect. For me, I have a lot of friends and family that made the jump to Signal and the rest are happy with SMS which is likely just as bad as Whatsapp. And when I need privacy without security, I use Sudo.

Now, for what it’s worth. Your concerns abstracted are my concerns. I don’t see any significant movement toward native Signal or Sudo on the L5 currently. So I am totally aware of the glass house I am slinging rocks from. And I empathize with your problem.

It is a central technology question today. I have nothing else. I hope you find success. All I can do is philosophize. Désolé.

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Pidgin supports every protocol known to mankind. :laughing: If/when it supports the screen size…
https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/ThirdPartyPlugins#AdditionalProtocols

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Don’t take me wrong, I am willing to try and convince people to switch to a Whatsapp-alternative. But finding a viable alternative is not so easy.

For a lot of people revisiting sms is easier than installing a new app. But providers (such as T-mobile in the Netherlands) switching off mms support does not help, really.

A few people are prepared to switch to Telegram. For one thing, it is easy to install. But since it is Russian, and people are not entirely sure it is safe, enthousiasme is somewhat lacking.

Signal I like. For the obvious reasons (open source and all). But as long as it doesn’t run on phones, people can’t switch to it even if they would be prepared to do so.

Everyone switching to matrix (Elements) would be the best solution, probably. But getting it up and running isn’t easy, and neither is its daily use. For people to start using it, it would have to be a lot less complicated.

Eventually (when I have my L5) I will try and set up a matrix bridge to Whatsapp. But from what I’ve seen so far, I expect this to be way more complicated than I would like it to be.

Pidgin I will try aswell…