How to interface with phone app people?
November 22, 2023 12:44 PM   Subscribe

I have a phone, I have a phone number, I don't want a phone app. I don't know how phone apps work. How do phone apps work? Is there any way (without getting a special account*) to interface with people who prefer to use WhatsApp, Telegram, etc? Can I just give them my regular phone number?

I figure since it's possible to text an email address, and since I don't know anything about how phone apps work but I have a vague idea they might have phone numbers, maybe, so maybe there's a way?

(Yes, I know about Signal, but that is off topic. It's a phone app. Yes, I know telephones are basically apps these days, but that's off topic, too.)

*I don't
posted by aniola to Technology (9 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Do you mean for phone calls or texting? And are you talking about people in the same country as you, or people in other countries for whom using apps is a way to make free international calls and texts? Do any of the people you want to communicate with not have a cellular connection and only use wifi (or have very limited cellular data, or lousy reception, or data-only plans without talk/texting minutes), or are these people you fully expect to have a regular cell phone setup?

For most people in the latter category in your country, you can absolutely just give them your regular phone number and you should be able to talk normally and text using SMS. People use the apps out of convenience, or habit, or for extra capabilities, or for restrictions related to the factors in the previous paragraph.
posted by trig at 12:51 PM on November 22, 2023 [1 favorite]


How do phone apps work?

Some of them require accounts with usernames and passwords etc.
WhatsApp kinda just uses your phone number as the 'username'.
You download WhatsApp.
It asks you your phone number, and texts you a code or link so it can confirm it is really your number.
You then have access to WhatsApp, which is a lot like texting, but it's easier to send images, video, and especially to have a group chat where everyone can see the messages at the same time - this is why it's used for a lot of small group chats etc.
posted by Elysum at 12:57 PM on November 22, 2023


Is there any way (without getting a special account*) to interface with people who prefer to use WhatsApp, Telegram, etc?

If you want to send or receive messages or calls on WhatsApp, you will need to install and use WhatsApp. There is no getting around this. The good news is that is very simple, and very similar to Signal. Approximately 2 billion people use it.

WhatsApp is tied to your phone number (i.e. it does not use usernames or email addresses). You just give them your number (or they give you theirs). WhatsApp lists all the contacts in your phonebook who are WhatsApp users.
posted by Klipspringer at 12:59 PM on November 22, 2023


Best answer: A fair question! But: not as far as I know, no.
posted by lokta at 1:02 PM on November 22, 2023 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Basically no, if you want to send a text or call to someone via Telegram/WhatsApp, you need to have a Telegram or Whatsapp account. This goes in reverse too, you can't send regular text messages from a WhatsApp account to a phone number.

(WhatsApp often has a phone number associated with each account, but that's mostly to make it easier to find people you already know. Because you have a contact list of phone numbers in your phone, WhatsApp can use that to tell you which of your contacts are already on WhatsApp)

Sending a message on an app is basically like sending a Metafilter Mail message to another user on here. You can't MeMail someone without having a Metafilter account, and you can't MeMail a phone number. It's a closed system. These services are the same except they are accessed via a phone app rather than a website.
posted by BungaDunga at 1:04 PM on November 22, 2023 [7 favorites]


As to how phone apps work: the ones I've tried are tied to your phone number, so that's what you'd be giving people regardless. The apps let you communicate with other users of the apps; you can't use WhatsApp to contact someone on Telegram or a regular phone, for example. On my phone if I look someone up in the (built-in Android) contacts app, it shows me all the contact options for that person (regular phone/SMS, and then any apps they happen to be registered on). If I search for someone from within one of these app, their (regular phone) number will show up on the in-app contacts list if they're registered on the app, and if they're not registered they just aren't listed.

Some apps (like WhatsApp) also have web/desktop versions that let users text and call from their computers. Again, this is restricted to contacting users of the same app.

I've only tried two of these apps; maybe there are some that work differently.

I wrote the following in my first answer:
For most people in the latter category in your country, you can absolutely just give them your regular phone number and you should be able to talk normally and text using SMS

and just want to clarify: you should be able to talk normally over the regular, default, actual-phone app (or landline, if that's what they're using) - i.e., not using the WhatsApp-style apps - and text using actual SMS text messages - again, not the private apps. In other words, those people should have no trouble using your phone number to contact you, but they'll need to do it from outside WhatsApp et al.
posted by trig at 1:06 PM on November 22, 2023


Best answer: I guess the confusing thing about WhatsApp (and Signal and others) is that it uses phone numbers as identifiers- your WhatsApp account is associated with your phone number- but it does not use standard phone texting, it can't send or receive standard SMS texts. It's just used to identify your account.
posted by BungaDunga at 1:12 PM on November 22, 2023


I figure since it's possible to text an email address

Some carriers have an email-to-text service that receives emails and then forwards them to a subscriber as an SMS. Or they used to; they were never particularly reliable. Sending and receiving texts if you're not a carrier isn't free, so WhatsApp et al have no real incentive to provide similar services. They don't even support messaging between different apps.
posted by BungaDunga at 1:19 PM on November 22, 2023 [1 favorite]


Mod note: Misleading info and subsequent derail removed.
posted by taz (staff) at 11:38 PM on November 24, 2023


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