Do you know what is an 'Everything App'?

Wothe@lemmy.worldbanned from sitebanned from site to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 131 points –

Elon is always obsessed with WeChat's model. (For those who don't know about WeChat, it is basically the name of the 'Everything app'.)

Everything in one single point is pretty convenient but has led to a bunch of risks...

Leave a risk that you know in the comment.

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I'm not sure that I would put "everything" in Elon's hands... Feels risky

No one should hand out their 'everything' to anyone

I gave my everything to someone once, they said it wasn't enough. Now I only keep it in my hands.

I'm sure you're just a grower. She/he doesn't know what they're missing out on!

Elon is right to understand that the data of a successful everything app (which can only happen by monopoly) will give him vast power in tech. However, after failing to implement one aspect of it in an established market and after removing most talent from Twitter, how will anyone keep falling for his techno-Ponzi scheme?

Look how many people joined Threads? I guess still falling for his techno-Pozi scheme, plus there is no need for people to download an new app.

While I don't disagree, keep in mind that every instagram user already has a threads profile, even without access. As far as I know I do have a threads account but I'm from europe and last time I checked I cannot access threads.

That's werid, maybe is Zuck afraid of getting su again by eu lmao

Lol, dude can't even run something like Twitter successfully, let alone an "everything" app. Not a chance in hell I would use it.

I was wondering if he would hire someone from China who previously runs "everything" app like Wechat. People should definatly look for alternatives

Yeah, uhh we had that in the 1990s and it sucked:

Why do one thing poorly when you can do a whole bunch of different things even worse.

Wechat is so creepy. I mean you could just get caught in some misunderstanding of being labeled as a dissident and get cut off from basically all communications.

And even if you are just an innocent civilian, all it takes is one bad hack and now criminals have the data of 1 Billion people.

Well perhaps it is creepy but in China it is massively convenient. Nobody uses cash or credit cards except foreigners. Everyone connects socially through it. Yes the authoritarian government is collecting data, how that is creepier than our distributed techno-authoritarian data collection is an ideological mystification.

Yes the authoritarian government is collecting data, how that is creepier than our distributed techno-authoritarian data collection is an ideological mystification.

Because one of those will put you in jail and have you executed and the other one just tries to sell you stuff

The incarceration rate is 4-5x as high in the US as in china

I'm sure. Easy to keep the incarceration rate low when you just go straight to executing criminals and committing genocide against entire ethnicities. Fuck the US, but especially FUCK NAZI GERMANY CHINA.

Please count the reasons for these incarcerations.

According to Bureau of Prisons the majority of those incarcerated are there due to drug offenses:

https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics\_inmate\_offenses.jsp

Yeah. Not because of dissent, unlike how the comments of the user I replied to tried to imply

Famously the Untied States has never had a single political prisoner.

Well there is a chance that is going to change.

Imagine how empty the slave chambers would be with proper drug acheduling in the U.S.

1 more...

Convenience and marketing will always win at the end. We're heading that way anyway. People use Apple Pay and Google pay and don't think for a second what it means. Other forms of ID are going that way too. People want ecosystems without having to lift a finger. Just let big brother take care of everything.

What, you want to talk privately? Use cash? What do you have to hide?

On the other hand, Google/Apple Pay are both pretty great products that replace a horrendous legacy payments system. Recall that for like 40 years the most innovative consumer payment system looked like this. And it was essentially a duopoly as well (Visa/Mastercard).

At the end of the day, cash is still a thing as well.

Well, some countries indeed still commonly use payment systems from 50 years ago. That's pretty bizarre. I remember hearing about PayPal 20 years ago, how revolutionary it is, and I didn't quite get what the big deal is. That's because all around Europe we had secure online payments (secure against theft and such, not against the bank snooping) since the late 90's, and chipped cards even earlier.

But anyway yea... In person, cash is king. Let's keep it alive. Some countries are planning to phase out cash, and that really is only because we're letting it happen due to our lazyness.

Sure, I use them, but I have a good reason why I started using them. I lost my plastic 3 times in one year. I have a small kid, he's glued to me, whether it be the market or the playground, doesn't matter, he's always with me. He distracts me all the time (aways asking questions), so I just forget to take my plastic sometimes 🤷.

So, even though I was against it, I decided to use Google Pay (now Wallet). I rarely forget my phone (only when I leave home, so it's at home), plus it's big and bulky, you notice it missing sooner than a piece of plastic.

If there are any FOSS alternatives, I'd gladly use them, but as far as I know, there are none 🤷.

Putting credit cards in smart phones is not the end of the world by any stretch. Security on this front is constantly developing. Putting it into an everything app run by a guy whose first move after buying Twitter was killing multifactor auth for most of his users isn't something I would consider wise.

You might enjoy getting a wallet case though. I keep my ID and debit card in my phone case and the overall profile is pretty much the same, just slightly bulkier.

Hm, this seems like a good option, the phone wallet I mean. Is this like a special case of some sort? Cuz I have an armor case for my phone and I'd like to keep it that way, cuz I also drop my phone... a lot 😒.

I wouldn’t say I’m clumsy

I also drop my phone… a lot 😒

😅

You can buy fairly bulky leather cases with place for your entire wallet, with a flip screen cover, and that will probably protect the phone even better than an armor case. Or something else... If there's one product there's no shortage of, it's phone cases. Especially if you have a popular model.

OK, OK, you got me there 😒.

!angryupvote@sh.itjust.works

😂

I hate flip covers, it takes forever to see who is ringing.

I'll just look for something on AliExpress. I didn't know phone cases that can hold cards was a thing, otherwise, I would have searched for them earlier.

I get this brand called teelevo off of Amazon, try searching for that along with wallet case for your phone model. It's sort of like an armor case with a compartment you can slide a couple of cards into. It's not as strong as say an OtterBox type of phone armor, but when I drop it it has been the case that cracks if anything. I don't mind because they are also relatively cheap compared to the alternative

Aw, man, thanks, this might be exactly what I was looking for ☺️ 👍. Don't mind if the case breaks either, I can always fix it or just order a new one.

That's my point tho. I get it that technology can be complicated and not everyone can, wants or needs to learn everything relevant about it.

But the way it works out at the end, is that someone figures out to solve some truly trivial problem, and in the process siphons all your data and choices away.

Oh no, I can't figure out the 3 buttons on a music player. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate listen to all your conversations on an off chance that you want to play a piece of music.

Oh no, I need to raise my hand to turn on the lights. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate control everything in your house via an online service they control and can shut down on a whim.

Oh no, I'm clumsy and keep losing an essential thing. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate go through all your purchases and identity at all times.

Oh no, my phone has like, 6 buttons. That's too much for lil ol' me! Solution: Have two multibillion conglomerates dictate you how to use your tech, which at the end becomes just as complicated yet dumber and 6x as expensive than what we had 15 years ago.

I dunno, at what point is the solution not worth that tiny inconvenience?

You can like, put your payment card in your phone's case. Heck you can even put bank notes in there.

But there are private and open source alternatives to these things. Home Assistant is the way to go for home automation, same with Apple's HomeKit (all local communication via your network only)

There are alternatives for almost everything, but most people just want to buy a new shiny thing with the biggest brand name, and click click click agree to everything.

True, we've gotta be the ones to push friends and family to fight that

Oh no, I need to raise my hand to turn on the lights. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate control everything in your house via an online service they control and can shut down on a whim.

Yeah, this is just stupid, I agree. I mean, I wouldn't ever use smart devices in my home. Not just because corps gathering data, but because I truly believe this just makes you lazy... well, at least me. And there is nothing worse than being lazy. Everyone is, from time to time, so am I, but getting out of that circle sooner rather than later is what matters, and smart devices just make the process a lot harder IMO.

Oh no, I'm clumsy and keep losing an essential thing. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate go through all your purchases and identity at all times.

I wouldn't say I'm clumsy, I've never forgotten my plastic before I had a kid. There are just a lot more obligations and as I said, he thinks the world of me, he's litelarly glued to me, and the constant questions are distracting, especially when juggling with 3, 4 other things, keeping an eye on him on top, and... well, it just happens 🤷.

I dunno, at what point is the solution not worth that tiny inconvenience?

It's not tiny if I have to wait 3 days for the bank to issue me a new plastic, and you rarely have cash in you. I mean, who deals with cash nowadays anyway.

You can like, put your payment card in your phone's case. Heck you can even put bank notes in there.

That is an option that another user mentioned and yes, this hasn't occured to me before, so thank you as well for the suggestion 👍. Will look into finding a case that maybe has room for a card or two in the phone 😉.

So happy end then. But you see my point, sometimes the solution to not give in to the hungry corporations can even be really simple. But the advertisements can drown out everything.

I actually don't give in that easy. I could have used Google Pay a lot earlier, like years ago. But I didn't. I even dealt with cash only for the longest time, until some stores just stopped accepting cash 🤷.

I can’t talk about google, but I do recall at launch that increased provacy was a widely touted feature of apple pay. If you’re using a credit card, all of your purchases are tracked, and your credit card provider is able to mine and sell all of that data.

In addition, the merchant can do the same if you use a credit card. With apple pay, your phone anonymizes the number by only sending the merchant an authorization. In addition, apple does not store your transaction info.

If I recall correctly, one of the reasons walmart originally failed to implement apple pay at their terminals was their loss of the ability to track customer purchases. They tried implementing some janky thing with qr codes.

Increased privacy in language of these corporations means "the only people who can access all of your data is us, our 50000 partner companies and every their partner company, and half of the governments on this planet that are currently touted as friendly. But nobody else, trust us bro".

I know banks are shit, but well I have 4 bank cards from 4 banks from 4 countries, and for now, that shit isn't pooled yet.

Plus I can still use cash, and even leave my phone at home if I wanna buy... Something... Without it being tracked.

The problem of merchants tracking or stealing your card data is mainly in certain countries using banking systems that are 30 years out of date.

Besides, people keep flocking to using all the store chains' apps and reward cards and whatnot, using their real names and data, so enhanced privacy in that regard is moot if people don't care in the first place.

I also don't recall any talks about giving banks nonstop access to all our IDs and car keys and other stuff that's slowly creeping into phones, or rather into the hands of the handful big brother entities.

But the payment systems are just one thing that came to mind, it's not the only problem with these ideas.

He's a decade late on that. I don't see people wanting one app having that much of their information being constantly collected in the background. Then again, millions of people agreed to Threads' data harvesting so...

Most of the are celebrities, they make money from giving up their privacy right.

I imagine most celebrities have primary accounts and people who manage them or at a minimum two phones for that reason so they are only giving up what they want

If an application has tracking and censorship software that is tied to a country's government, then chances are I'm not gonna use that app, especially if China's government is involved. This is why I hate WeChat.

Besides, an "everything app" basically just defeats the purpose of having an app icon collection on your home screen. I like how colorful it looks, and I don't want that to be taken away.

We're just getting further and further into dystopia at this point.

Why even have an OS for the everything app? What if we made the app itself into an OS?

Also: Does an everything app contain itself?

I'd argue that Windows from Win98 - XP was trying to be an "everything app"

This was highly unethical and didn't work

Can you please elaborate?

Honestly I was probably exaggerating a little.

But I was going to talk about stuff like the heavy integration of Internet Explorer into those versions of Windows and the bundling of apps like Outlook Express and Windows Messenger. They were accused by the US government of illegally maintaining a monopoly on PC software through this, and some software that is bundled in most countries still isn't in the European Union or South Korea.

Still, I do think MS wanted to cause vendor lock in which is a similar issue to why an "everything app" gaining popularity would be an issue.

I don't trust Musk with anything, let alone everything.

As soon as a company offers 'ease of use' for anything, it'll try to get everything it can get their hands on and use it to their own advantage.

agreed

Shit, I deleted my Twitter account when Musk bought the company. I’m definitely not going to create another one to use X.

Where did you go, if not twitter

Nowhere. I mainly used it for news, I just don’t use Twitter as a news source anymore.

It seems like what he wants to add is mainly real-world identity and payments. The US already has an 'everything app' that has that and social media, shopping, classifieds and payments - facebook.

And it is fading

So is Twitter. Adding payments and a bunch of other random shit to make it into facebook isn't going to help.

I think i ditched fb for almost 3-4 yrs

Facebook is awful, of course. I haven't signed into my account since 2019 and now I can't without sending them my driver's license, which clearly will never happen. Just because I stopped using FB and IG doesn't mean everyone did, however.

Why would you put yourself into an obvious dead end street? People already have problems leaving whatsapp for better messengers. People have a hard time quitting their amazon-addiction, even though there are many alternatives out there. Imagine you put all your eggs in one basket (messenger, shopping, payment, etc.) and lock down everything in one app. This might work for autocratic regimes, that push this idea of an app, as it makes it easier to control everything, but in the western world we like to be individualistic people who like to choose for themself, stand our or diverge from traditions.

Currently in the west, there are multiple shops you can go to. If you happen to have a bad experience (product not at all like the picture, quality, etc.) you can give the app and the shop a bad review and never come back and try one of the others apps. If you have a bad experience inside a Everything App, where also is your communication with friends and the payment... how do you punish the app? No go to the shopping Tab anymore? Review a bad Tab on the appstore? If you leave all the tasks (shopping, communication, payment, etc.) separated in different Apps, you as a user keep more control. You can switch payments without affecting your communication. Imagine getting banned from paypal, whatsapp and amazon at the same time, because the TOS of this everything app. If you are not living in a autocratic state, you can choose (and should choose) and vote with your experience on what service is good and what service needs to go. If you live in an autocratic state, you might possibly can not choose from too much options, as your autocratic regime is trying to push this single apps, that they can control, into every sphere of your life. And if you do use something else, the autocratic state will find ways to make this a reason to have a closer look at you. Don't stand out. Do not diverge from the rest of the citizens. Or else you get the treatment. - I see how Elmo wants this tool on his belt.

The Everything App stand diametrical against the individualistic person belief and an open market. If it were such a great thing, people would have done it successfully in the last 15 years of App development in the West. But there is none of these Apps. Because it is not fitting in a democratic state where services are federated across the market and not vertically implemented in a single app. Its why we have homescreens where multiple apps can coexist next to each other. Is the best homescreen, a single page, with a single app, where when you go inside, then only the variety of possibilities opens up (calendar, calculator, messenger, shopping, etc.) or is this variety of possibilities not already happening exactly there: On the homescreen, in seperated apps.

He can try. But he will fail. Like he failed twitter.

I am not 100% sure I will ditch Twitter or X whatever, cuz I know Elon is try to be the data master, and spying on us all the time, I might keep it for fun, but never handing out a single piece of my information (use fake ones), but I won't use it for private chat for sure, I only trust decentralized/e2ee structure for private chat. Like WireMin or Session.

What do you mean i will never hand out information? You already did and still do while using twitter. Somewhere there is your name linked to the device you are using to browse twitter meaning you dont have to say your name for them to know it‘s you

Also, websites can and do look for all kinds of patterns to identify you. Cookies are so old news that Google is actively working on ditching them. Way more sophisticated methods by now to identify you without a direct tracker.

Everything is fake

You cannot fake your screen resolution, ip address, usage and typing behaviour. Believe me, you are beeing tracked and used for data.

What if I use decentralized app? All there services are unrelated to the ios system or others, would that be safe? Cuz I am currently using one, and all the service might need users data, they stay away from it, or askusers permission first.

what do you mean by a decentralized app? are you thinking of mastodon? all i'm saying is that if you use twitter, there will be data collected about you no matter what.

It’s strange. In my limited perspective, it doesn’t work all that well in places where you have good choices. WeChat, Grab and Gojek has worked in their markets.

MYN is struggling in India. They do everything just a little worse than the leading company.

They do cabs but not as good as Uber. They do shopping but not as good as Amazon. So and so.

Someone like Amazon should be able to venture into most of these areas easily. But somehow dedicated companies do things better most of the time

Only reason WeChat works is because it's built up by the government as the only option to spy and control people. There's literally no other objectively successful everything app and it's not going to happen in the west unless we really let our guard down. The only thing that's close to this in the west is Apple's ecosystem and they basically got grandfathered in because they "make their own hardware" or whatever lobby bullshit is being thrown.

Everything app has been attempted many times. Every time it ends up wors than the sum of all of it's functionalities. We already have an everything app - it's the web browser.

I have seen like 10s of everything apps in the Indian market and they die eventually ! People stick to the aspects of the app what works for them !

Grab isn't even doing that well.

As someone else said, it only really works in a market that has little to no competition. Anywhere where there's even a modicum of competition these all-encompassing apps don't dominate.

I guess w'll c if X works

He bought an company to turn it into a different app with a different name. WTF start your own app, it would be much cheaper

He basically bought all the users

At the price he paid for them, still cheaper to start your own and just market it heavily. Especially considering hour baby have left during his tenure.

All the users*

*that are willing to stick around after the utter shitshow of the last year he's put on.

Variety is the spice of life.

I wouldn't call this shit convenient when you get trapped in some shit search algorithm, and end up with shit all for alternatives.

Now he is being a copy cat of Zuck, collecting all those data