I was never a regular user of Whatsapp, the mobile messaging app recently purchased by Facebook for gazillions of dollors, but now I’m never touching the thing again.
Why?
Well, after a recent update, every single time I open the app, I am greeted with this:
It’s an annoying pop up thing telling me to turn on notifications for Whatsapp.
Only, I don’t want to. I’ve never had them on, and I don’t want them on now.
I cannot, however, turn off this nagging screen. It appears every time. It would appear the only way to get rid of it would be to switch on those damn notifications.
Well, that’s not happening. I won’t be bullied by software, for goodness’ sake!
So those few people i converse with on Whatsapp I will start to chat to on something else, and Whatsapp is gone from my phone.
If you’re looking for a replacement, Glassboard is a great bet. Not that well known and not overly polished, but a nice indie solution.
The lesson here is to let your customers use your system the way they want to, not the way you want them to – else they might just go elsewhere.
Update: the app store on my phone tells me there is a new version of WhatsApp is ready to download. And guess what?
At least they are listening.
Is the lesson to learn that if a service is big enough a company can forsake a few “lower quality” customers in order to push people to use the service the way they want it to be used?
Or it may be that WhatsApp has had feedback that many people don’t realise they’ve been sent a message and people might perceive that the app is at fault for not showing notifications.
It should say ‘Welcome to Facebook’ because that forceful complete disregard for user preferences and annoyance to the point of abandonment and resentment is one of Facebook’s trademark.