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 that your friends on Internet they are your real friends. Imagine if your feed wasn't full of people and posts you don't like." the publication says. “Imagine scrolling only at important moments and seeing what you want to see – not what the user wants you to see algorithm. Imagine not like a product.”
HalloApp claims that the privacy is an integral part of the service, keeping in mind the early days of the WhatsApp app. The service will use your phone number for registration, there will be end-to-end encrypted conversations and it will use your contacts.
However, the company states that it does not collect “additional data” from your phone book. In fact, the platform states that it does not collect, store or use your personal information.
Most importantly, it won't show ads. Instead of ads the administrators intend to make available additional ones possibilities at some small cost.
The app has some essentials functions, with four tabs at the bottom (home, groups, chats, settings), μια συντόμευση για την προσcase of a new post or images and two icons at the top (one to invite contacts to the app and one for activity/notifications menu).
HalloApp is available to download to devices Android and iOS. But would you use this service?