Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

I've been running and using a puppeting bridge [1] for my Matrix instance for more than 4 years with 3 different numbers and no problem at all.

The controls they have in place are probably based on behavior, rather than on access.

[1]: https://github.com/mautrix/whatsapp

WhatsApp will ban you if it detect any kind of automation, if you use this or an other wrapper you will -very luckily- get banned, even without making calls. They want you to use their paid business API

Good to know WhatsApp is at least somewhat proactive against scammers.

That would be a fine posture to take, very naturally-selective, but I find it discomforting because I've seen so many different ways that humans act that don't benefit them (individually or on the whole). It isn't always out of self-destruction or lack of self-preservation. More often than not, the choice was based on what's easiest -- a tendency towards the path of least resistance. This technology looks a lot like trading off intention, and attention, for quick and good-enough(?) results. Enough so that I can understand GP's concern for our communication skills as a society.

I think we could find ourselves losing the "thought and effort" in spite of it being more valuable, because many people find it easier. Or that even those who continue on with it, despite it not being easier, are broadly labeled as a bot because their writings failed the vibe check.

I have confidence that there will always be small communities that continue holding this as valuable, but that maintaining it in a community setting will become more strained as the general zeitgeist drifts in the direction of regarding output higher than effort.

I don't use WhatsApp, I helped most of my family and many friends move away from it, and I feel like we (you and I) see WA in a similar way. IMO the main issue here is the network effect and vendor lock-in (for the lack of a better term -- I'm writing this from my phone in a rush).

> Where am I wrong? What am I not seeing?

English is my second language, so maybe I'm missing some context here, but every time I hear techies calling non-techies "Normies", it's used in a derogatory / condescending fashion. That's reductive (non-techies are not a homogenous group) and somewhat intellectually lazy.

To give you an example, WA users in the US and, say Portugal or Poland ended up using it for slightly different reasons and in a different technical context. WA used to be the best video chat app for quite some time in the UK, AT or PL (imo), and I know of many people who started using it for that specific reason (esp. important for large migrant communities). FaceTime wasn't that popular because Android market share in the EU was bigger than in the US.

WhatsApp acts the phone's entry point for many.

Contacts aren't stored on the phone, messages act as contacts. Phone and video calls also on WhatsApp. Photos are shared via WhatsApp so that's where the gallery is. It even functions as a calendar of sorts – events are organised in WhatsApp groups so there you have directions and dates and who brings what. More and more businesses use WhatsApp to communicate with customers.

Why people like this, I do not know. But this is what I observe. Maybe software in general is too shit to use so people prefer to take a sub-optimal WhatsApp-based life over fighting their phones at every step. And I can't blame them.

> Where am I wrong? What am I not seeing?

The killer application are the group chats. Normies can't make an email group, or remember to reply to all, or even make a Yahoo! Group [dead] or Google Group [dead?].

It's very easy to setup a group in WhatsApp and keep the member list updated.

For bonus points, it's very difficult to Ctr-C the info in WhatsApp, it's easier to press the arrow and forward the message to another WhatsApp group.

Once you have all your groups in WhatsApp, it's easier to use it for everything.

PS: Also, a few eons ago in many countries SMS had a cost, and WhatsApp was free, it was so another good point to use it.

WhatsApp nailed the onboarding experience. In a time where other services asked you to create an account with an email and password, which is enough of a hurdle already, WhatsApp looked up your phone number and said "I'm sending you an SMS, enter the number you received to check we got it right". And then, it never asked for anything ever again.

You're wrong that it's bad. Clearly it cannot be that bad if even your 80 yo grandma can get the gist of how to use it properly.

Can it be better? Probably. Does it need to be better? Clearly not.

WhatsApp was the first messaging app I remember that didn't require a user account.

People already had the phone numbers of people they knew so they just had to install the app and could immediately chat with any of their contacts.

Compared to chat apps with usernames where you started with an empty contact list, the barrier to start using it was very low. It was basically a drop-in replacement for SMS. Group chat and free messages were the reason to switch.

The UX is pretty good. At least as good as any competitor. There are no ads. It's cross-platform. It's secure. Group chats work.

WhatsApp gained dominance when the alternatives were still SMS and BBM! You don't have to resort to ego-boosting put-downs to explain why it is so popular.

Whatsapp has absolutely taken over communication in the world (aside from the US for some reason)? Funerals, trips, fund-raisers, even interacting with businesses is now done on WhatsApp in my country. When briefly I decided to try to de-Meta my life, I found that it was one service I absolutely cannot do without and still function as a member of my family and community.

Even within the Netherlands there are pockets of Signal users, Telegram users, and in rare occasions even people using SMS or iMessage. Facebook Messenger also has a foothold in some circles.

That said, you'd be an outlier if you have a mobile phone but no WhatsApp. Everyone has WhatsApp, but fortunately not everyone is using it for everything. Unfortunately, that usually means using an even less secure and trustworthy messenger service.