In that case it’s not WhatsApp itself, it’s a business using your phone number to message you.
If you open the chat and click the name on top, there should be a toggle to turn off “Offers and announcements” for that account.
If not (or you don’t wanna receive any messages from the sender at all), just block them and make sure to check the “Didn’t sign up” box.
i tried to convince my family and friends to use signal, only my parents wanted to, so still a win :3
Mompop always come thoo don’t they ❤️
Enshittification
I blocked Whatsapp in Whatsapp and so far I got no new messages from them.
Same
Signal is way better and I wish it was more common for people to use.
I only have it because the neighborhood group chat uses it. I can’t convince hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds to switch to Signal unfortunately. Some of them barely know how to use a smartphone.
All you really need is to get a few people on board
Try and give them a hand with it. The app has a very low cognitive load and a very simplified UI. Once you set it, its easy to forget its any different. I reminded the older folks in my circle that they could look at it as a guaranteed way to speak to family, and regular texts are more of the spam that come through
We used to say the same thing about Messenger.
My family moved as soon as I asked last year; but my old friend group is rather stubborn.
There’s nothing to stop anyone sending you a message on WhatsApp if they have your number, be they an individual or a company.
But it IS absolutely infuriating - not because it’s an advert, but because I don’t want any aspect of my communication with companies to take place on third-party proprietary closed platforms of which that company has no ownership or data control and which would require me to have an account with said platform.
I’m sure many people love being able to contact customer support by shooting them a DM on Instagram, but to me that’s wholly unacceptable.
If companies want to talk to me it should be through email or SMS only - because those are the only methods which are provider-agnostic.
Email and SMS are like the original federated systems. (And the postal service is, too!)
WhatsApp is an absolute menace here in India. 😣
Username checks out
They can’t send messages out of the blue, you have to contact the company via whatsapp first, after which they have a 24 hour window to reply. Marketing messages are opt in.
I had one of these marketing messages from Amazon this morning. I’ve never contacted them through WhatsApp, and as far as I can remember, have never contacted them outside of their apps. I definitely haven’t contacted them with my phone number.
They have my phone number, but it’s supposed to be for delivery issues, and I’ve withdrawn all advertising and marketing consent.
EDIT: I just checked, and I was automatically opted in to WhatsApp marketing, despite having turned off all other marketing 😤
I guess that’s part of WhatsApp’s terms of service. Good to know, thanks.
Either way, my dislike for corporations using closed platforms still stands. I really wish we had some modern, secure and featureful version of SMS - a federated direct messaging system that everyone was on, and yet nobody owned.
Maybe thats a law where you live but ive definitely been contacted by a bunch of companies through wpp without having contacted them first.
Syncthing fork!
As for whatsapp, well it is not ads per se FROM whatsapp but rather them now sending these VIA whatsapp instead of mail or SMS.
Yes, but I didn’t sign up to receive ads in WhatsApp, nor did I agree when creating either account.
I see. So all the spam you receive in your email and sms is because you signed up and agreed to receive it?
Bold of you to assume I get spam in my emails or SMS
Time to teach your friends and family that if they’re going to keep playing on the corporate intranet then they need to migrate from time to time to stay ahead of the tide of enshitification.
Or they could join the free internet that is actually by and for people, but far be it from me…
My family already moved to Signal about a year ago, and I have an online friend who I talk to over Tox; but my friends from high school pretty much only use WhatsApp, Instagram, ans TikTok, and they have never been open to my suggestions of switching to Signal and the Fediverse.
WhatsApp is owned and run by Meta. If you ever used WhatsApp, you’re a f*cking idiot.
This might be a crazy concept but some people have friends and family. While it isn’t heavily used in the US I hear that it is very popular elsewhere.
that’s what telephone numbers are for.
And calling someone is more secure than WhatsApp?
It’s really just ads by said company, not whatsapp. But whatsapp is partially blamed because they have system to do this, and since some service that you subbed require your phone number, they simply used the data they collected to send you ads via whatsapp. It’s like spam mail from service you give your email to.
Syncthing enjoyer
Good song
whatsapp is now really useless
What app?
There were talks on making people opt out automatically if they don’t give consent for continuing the messages.
