When you’re obviously blocking a specific app from fully functioning on your own app, and said app is a direct competitor, you may very well be within your rights, but this would also result in an unfair locking in of your users. This is what WhatsApp users are feeling right now as reports are saying that it is not allowing links to Telegram, a fellow messaging app, to generate a hyperlink, making it more difficult to directly go to links that will lead users to that other app.
And as inconvenient as that is already, you still won’t be able to copy or long press any link that has telegram.me in it. So this means you would have to manually type out the url that someone sent you in order to view whatever it is they wanted you to see on the Telegram app. What’s funny (although not funny haha) is that they also blocked Telegram.com, which is a website totally different from the messaging app.
Some might say that maybe this is not deliberate or purposeful move by WhatsApp against a direct competitor, but consider that any other links to anything in the world (well, so far as we can see) other than Telegram.me is not affected by this silently pushed update, even “illegal” or “unethical” series like Pirate Bay (which was also infamously blocked by WhatsApp owner Facebook a few years back).
There is still not official word from WhatsApp on this “glitch” but Telegram has confirmed that they are aware of this activity. A spokesperson from the messaging app says they are not worried and they’re already expecting that this will be blamed on “intelligent filtering”, which is what FB usually does.
VIA: Android Police, The Verge
