zlacker

I went down a 1-minute rabbithole. I hate Whatsapp, but it's not optional. So I was curious if it's compatible.

There's a Sailfish help page [0] showing how to get the APK from Aptoide, or downloading directly from Whatsapp.com .

But with Google killing off 'sideloading', is it credible that independent APK sources are going to dry up in future?

[0] https://docs.sailfishos.org/Support/Help_Articles/Whatsapp_S...

>>afandi+(OP)
That shouldn't be a problem as long as you can still download apps from the Play Store itself (not the official app). Basically, take a look at how proxy stores like Aurora work, they connect to the Play Store servers and allow you to download apps directly from Google, without needing the Play Store app.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the downloaded app will work on such a device (if it doesn't have Google Play Services), but at least it lets you download the app, which isn't much different from downloading it from say, APK Mirror. And as long as you can extract the apps from either the Play Store or Android devices itself (via adb/root etc), I'm assuming sites like APK Mirror will continue to exist.

>>afandi+(OP)
”I hate Whatsapp, but it's not optional”

Yes it is.

>>clucki+1i
To rephrase: Social contact is ultimately higher in my needs than technology choice.

>>clucki+1i
While WhatsApp is not very much used in the US, in some other countries such as Brazil it is basically the primary form of "phone" communication. It is everyone's default text, voice and video message platform. People don't ask if you have WhatsApp there, they just assume it. You talk to your Bank/Investor manager using WhatsApp. You order pizza through WhatsApp. Customer Support for services is WhatsApp bots that send you to the correct places. If I don't have WhatsApp, I can't voice chat with my mom, she won't see her grandkids. If you have any sort of business, you need WhatsApp.

And yes, I do have Signal installed, and there are only 2 people who talk to me through it (one being my partner).

Phone carriers got too greedy charging for every single SMS message and phone call, WhatsApp took over when smartphones became popular.

>>dyingk+vm
This. Some people just don't realize how pervasive and essential WhatsApp is in some countries, mine included.

I'd much rather use Signal but that's not realistic.

>>sombra+rz
But isn't it a timebomb waiting to blow up eventually? Like, Meta fucks something up with it and there is nothing you can do.

IIRC South Korea used to be fully depedent on a horrendous AcriveX applet running only in Internet Explorer for all their online services, yet they eventually managed to get rid of it. It should be possible here as well.

>>afandi+zj
They are having phones, with like, cellular communication methods, you know...

>>afandi+(OP)
WhatsApp works okay on my Jolla C2. Occasional annoyance with device detection (BT headphones) where it'll still end up outputting to speaker, but I haven't had that with any other Android app running via AppSupport like YouTube Music, so dunno if that's just WhatsApp being problematic.

Installed it from Aurora, an open source frontend to the Play Store.

Biggest pain-points for me with AppSupport is:

1. Lack of Bluetooth passthrough in a sane way (community workaround results in it being unavailable with host OS). 2. It does not report to apps that PIN entry is enabled, meaning some awful but important apps like Danske ID don't work.

Otherwise it does the job remarkably well. Still prefer native SFOS apps when available, however it is a small ecosystem and so depending on your usecase you may find yourself installing Android apps.