Facebook have agreed to buy WhatsApp for $19bn

[Feathers McGraw]

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/id...40219?irpc=932

How long will it take to turn it into advert-ridden spyware?

Goodbye WhatsApp.

What's your favourite alternative?

Feathers

[whatthefunk]

Theres another piece of software on the not-in-a-million-years list. I use Line, but I dont know how wide spread it is in the UK.

[Teunis]

A pity for the otherwise useful app, I was on the point of installing it.
I wouldn't worry about advertisements in it, I do worry the database will be milked in every conceivable way and that's why I won't use it.

[Feathers McGraw]

Theres another piece of software on the not-in-a-million-years list. I use Line, but I dont know how wide spread it is in the UK.

I don't know anyone who uses it, but that might just be my age bracket. I know a couple of people that use Viber, and a few who still own Blackberries who use BBM.

I often try not to put all my eggs in one basket (in this case, Google) so I guess BBM could be a decent option.

[Teunis]

From my Russian colleagues I hear good reports about telegram, a free open source Whatsapp type service financed by the owners of vk.com, the leading Russian equivalent to Facebook and Twitter.

http://www.myce.com/news/whatsapp-so...rnative-70547/

https://telegram.org/apps

Because their servers are found around the world they might have some holes in their security.

Threema is a non-free Swiss app that does seem to guarantee freedom of NSA snooping, it's costing € 1.79.