The Smartphone Free Life

Find your focus. Reclaim your life.

Andy

What’s app with WhatsApp requiring the mobile app?

What’s app with WhatsApp requiring the mobile app?

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I’m at a conference this week for my day job. I’m working a booth and doing demos, the whole schmoozing thing. It’s a living.

The organizing team I’m working with said that they want to connect on the ground, not by Slack, or text, or anything, but using WhatsApp.

Why? They say it’s just better for this type of thing.

So, like always, I look to see if it’s possible to use WhatsApp on a non-mobile device.

And, it turns out that WhatsApp is actually more annoying than a standard, mobile-only app.

Here’s what I found. And what I didn’t find.

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The easiest way to use mobile apps without a smartphone

The easiest way to use mobile apps without a smartphone

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One of the common objections against living without a smartphone is: “but I want to use Uber/Tinder/some-app-that-only-exists-on-mobile!“

And it’s true that a great many apps are now no longer coming out with a version for non-mobile devices. This is especially true for apps from newer companies, who have decided that if they have to put in development time on one type of platform, they should put it in the one that’s most designed for addiction. I mean, engagement.

No luck for those with a flip phone.

But just because that’s how they want you to use the software, doesn’t mean that’s how you have to use the software.

I encountered this when I went to a FinCon, a financial media conference, a few months ago. While there was a Slack channel for engagement, most people in practice used the FinCon app.

Seriously, the QR code links to a URL, why can’t you just give it to me?

At this conference, I wanted to be as involved as possible in what was going on, but without a smartphone (or tablet), I needed to find another way.

Luckily, I found one.

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