Facebook's business model is highly dependent on the collection of user information for the purpose of serving targeted ads.
This results in huge profits for the company. However, two former WhatsApp employees announced their own social network, a service that promises to be completely different from Facebook.
HalloApp is the brainchild of Neeraj Arora and Michael Donohue, who worked for WhatsApp before and after acquiring the Facebook messaging platform. The new service claims to be "the first network of relationships", according to an official blog post of the application. What does this mean;
“Imagine your online friends being your real friends. Imagine your feed not being filled with people and posts you don’t like,” the post reads . “Imagine scrolling only at important moments and seeing what you want to see – not what the algorithm wants you to see. Imagine not being a product.”
HalloApp claims that privacy is an integral part of the service, keeping in mind the early days of WhatsApp. The service will use your phone number to record, end-to-end encrypted conversations, and use your contacts.
However, the company states that it does not collect "additional data" from your phonebook. In fact, the platform states that it does not collect, store or use your personal information.
Most importantly, it will not display ads. Instead of ads, administrators plan to provide additional features at a low cost.
The app has some basic features, with four tabs at the bottom (homepage, groups, chats, settings), a shortcut for adding a new post or pictures, and two icons at the top (one for inviting contacts to the app and one for menus activity / alerts).
HalloApp is available for download on Android and iOS devices . But would you use this service?
George is still wondering what he is doing here….
