I developed the official WhatsApp for BlackBerry 10 app. AMA!
- Back in late 2011 I joined a small startup known as WhatsApp, as a member of the BlackBerry OS client team. I worked there for over 7 years, across several different projects, and have just recently left to pursue my own interests.
As the developer who wrote the official WhatsApp client for BlackBerry 10, I've wanted to open up to this community for a long time. Since I now speak only for myself, I finally feel comfortable doing so.
Ask me anything!
(* I may not be able to answer everything you might ask, but I'll try to be as open as I can.)11-26-18 11:09 AMLike 16 - Back in late 2011 I joined a small startup known as WhatsApp, as a member of the BlackBerry OS client team. I worked there for over 7 years, across several different projects, and have just recently left to pursue my own interests.
As the developer who wrote the official WhatsApp client for BlackBerry 10, I've wanted to open up to this community for a long time. Since I now speak only for myself, I finally feel comfortable doing so.
Ask me anything!
(* I may not be able to answer everything you might ask, but I'll try to be as open as I can.)11-26-18 11:12 AMLike 0 - User numbers are a category of question where I'm not comfortable giving direct answers, since they've always been treated as internal data. However, BB10 was one of our slowest falling EOL'd platforms. It just, unfortunately, did not have that far to fall.11-26-18 11:15 AMLike 0
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- Just curious as to the size of your team. Were you by yourself or the leader of your group and how many hours per month spent maintaining the app?11-26-18 11:56 AMLike 0
- ......oh and are you surprised that WA still works on BB10 devices albeit via android app workarounds? Any prediction on when that android app connection ends?11-26-18 12:01 PMLike 0
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I had some support from our graphic designers for various assets, though there was a lot of final tweaking I did myself. I also had some participation from our customer support team, but I supplemented by responding in the CrackBerry forums.
I'm somewhat surprised it works as well as it does, and also somewhat annoyed that it hasn't been made to work better. Most of the issues are due to subtle differences between BlackBerry's Android Runtime and "real" Android. These could be fixed by either BlackBerry or WhatsApp, but neither side seems to want to lift a finger to address them. I have no idea when it'll stop working.11-26-18 12:14 PMLike 6 -
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- During its heyday, obviously BlackBerry 10.
These days, its definitely Android.
I've had philosophical issues with iOS pretty much from the start. I've long said that if I ever leave BlackBerry, I'm going straight to Android.
This is because I personally do not like forcing all users only install applications from a first-party "app store," then applying arbitrary rules and enforcement about what can or cannot be listed on said store. I believe that developers should be able to create applications that the platform vendor does not approve of, and such applications will never be listed on an official app store.
While its easy to handwave this problem away as protecting uses from malware, I should also point out that vendors will also reject applications because they conflict with their business interests.11-26-18 12:31 PMLike 8 - -Was it easy to develop Whatsapp for BB10? How was the process? (was the app written from ground up, how long it took...)
-Were you working on features that never made to the final app (because it was EOL)... if yes what were they?skinnymike1 likes this.11-26-18 12:33 PMLike 1 -
The app was written from the ground up. It started as a personal side-project, beginning at the hotel bar on the tail end of the "BB10 Jam" conference. As the official launch of BB10 approached, and WhatsApp finally committed to the project, the level of effort seriously ratcheted up. Its hard to say how long it would have taken under more "normal" circumstances.
No, I did not work on features that failed to make it to the final app. Near the tail end, the vast majority of development was personally motivated. And if I'm going to go above and beyond to do it, I'm not going to waste my time on speculative work.11-26-18 01:17 PMLike 4 - I and others have speculated that WA is going down the WeChat model of features like integrated gaming and payments to drive user engagement. Given the state of development resources available to BB10, would it have been possible to continue feature parity or would BB have to commit resources and if that is true was that part of the reason for EOL or was it just the relative small user-base.
Also a personal thanks for your efforts to engage in the CB community it was and is appreciated.skinnymike1 and bunky1971 like this.11-26-18 01:32 PMLike 2 - I and others have speculated that WA is going down the WeChat model of features like integrated gaming and payments to drive user engagement. Given the state of development resources available to BB10, would it have been possible to continue feature parity or would BB have to commit resources and if that is true was that part of the reason for EOL or was it just the relative small user-base.
Also a personal thanks for your efforts to engage in the CB community it was and is appreciated.11-26-18 02:01 PMLike 3 - @dkonigs thank you for opening this up for discussion!
I understand you worked on BB10 / WhatsApp integration but I am sure you have Android experience as well. With that said, what recommendations would you make to @LiamQ and @max-bb in their efforts to continue their WhatsApp integration with the Android version of Hub?
I for one would love to see in-line reply experience as well as show the last message the user sent in the message list, similar to SMS & BBM.
I understand that both are impossible for various reasons and I wonder if you would have any pointers for the team.11-26-18 02:17 PMLike 0 - I actually don't have very much Android experience, and am completely unfamiliar with the nuances of Android's notification system. So unfortunately, I can't really provide any useful information to such efforts.rarsen and skinnymike1 like this.11-26-18 02:34 PMLike 2
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- Around the time that the first EOL announcement was made (Feb 2016 I think?) was there any effort made by Blackberry themselves to convince you to continue?
I ask because others on these forums are convinced that Blackberry would have wanted BB10 itself to go EOL sooner rather than later as they weren't making any money.
So was BB totally fine with the decision?11-26-18 03:34 PMLike 0 - Around the time that the first EOL announcement was made (Feb 2016 I think?) was there any effort made by Blackberry themselves to convince you to continue?
I ask because others on these forums are convinced that Blackberry would have wanted BB10 itself to go EOL sooner rather than later as they weren't making any money.
So was BB totally fine with the decision?
For me, personally, this decision was extremely painful. Probably even more so than it was for many people on these forums.11-26-18 04:00 PMLike 4 -
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The biggest limitation I can remember was being unable to provide a first-class "incoming phone call" screen for our VoIP feature. This is something we could accomplish on Android and Windows Phone, but also couldn't do on iPhone at the time.
However, every platform has its own arbitrary limitations. We're practically experts at not letting those get in our way, so chances are that we'd find workarounds if we had to.Bla1ze and skinnymike1 like this.11-26-18 04:22 PMLike 2 - wasn't message recall a feature that couldn't be brought to the BB10 app? I don't recall if this was a technical limitation or a resource one.11-26-18 07:55 PMLike 0
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I developed the official WhatsApp for BlackBerry 10 app. AMA!
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