That's also the main selling point of the phone. In many European and South American countries, Whatsapp is basically a necessity (I'm not exaggerating). Anywhere else you can just get a real dumbphone for a tenth of the price

[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

Well, if Meta gets to read my messages, the least they can do is comp me the phone. I'm not paying twice (with my money and with my privacy). I'm realistically never using a phone with Meta spyware in the first place, though.

[–] Sidyctism2@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How is pre-installing an app thats free and available on play store a selling point?

[–] plutopos@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

Because people who buy a dumbphone don't want the play store. They want a phone that does only the basics— texting and calling (plus some minor utility like alarms). And Whatsapp replaces texting and calling in many countries

[–] AndyMFK@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What are you referring to? I read the article and saw no mention of meta

[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

WhatsApp is owned by Meta and it ships with the phone. WhatsApp is basically Signal or Telegram, but monitored by Meta.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 3 points 1 month ago