It always freaked me out that WhatsApp found the SMS code sent to verify the phone number without requiring any action from me.

Also, WhatsApp refuses to be usable without giving it Contacts access. I had to use the app, login to the web client, and then I was finally able to type a phone number to start a new chat.

I ended up uninstalling it, but there's plenty of people AND business that nowadays mainly or even only use WhatsApp that it's painful to be on the privacy-first side.

▲

homebrewer 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

If you're on Android, it's an Android API feature, it has nothing to do with WhatsApp and is used by lots of other applications.

https://developers.google.com/identity/sms-retriever/overvie...

	▲	dietr1ch 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		That's nice for the careless user, but without any system request or notification it's impossible for the user to tell whether the app used a workaround or the system just cooperated.

▲

ornornor 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

On iOS this is an OS facility and works for all apps (also for email codes if using apple mail on the iPhone)

For WhatsApp, WhatsApp business lets you easily start conversations just by entering any phone number. But yeah it’s still WhatsApp and meta, I personally avoid it as much as I can.

▲

1vuio0pswjnm7 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In testing I did, it is possible to run WhatsApp on Android without access to "Contacts"

For example,

1. Export contacts from the Contact app to a file if it is not a new phone

2. Disable Contacts app

3. Install a different contact database such as OpenContacts from F-Droid or Github

4. Import contacts from the file into OpenContacts

WhatsApp will not import the contacts in the OpenContacts database

Further, no other app will import these contacts either

This solves the "access to contacts" issue

	▲	1vuio0pswjnm7 21 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Never had these software developer created issues with landlines.
	▲	Xelbair a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		the issue is that it shouldn't NEED to be solved by user in the first place

▲

pavel_lishin 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I share your woes regarding WhatsApp; my family overseas uses it, so I have to use it when visiting them, and I also had to do the weird workaround of creating a Whatsapp URL with the destination phone number, and then opening it in the browser, and then having it redirect me to the app.

	▲	dietr1ch a day ago \| parent [-]
		Oh, I forgot about this, yeah, you can use the links that webpages post to workaround it. Quite annoying though, I think I only used it once. Here's an example link, https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=5551112233

▲

Klonoar a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> It always freaked me out that WhatsApp found the SMS code sent to verify the phone number without requiring any action from me.

I don't fault you for not trusting Meta - I feel the same.

That said, what you're talking about here is an OS feature nowadays.