WhatsApp has an exciting new rival built by ex-WhatsApp employees, and you can try it now

“Where you hoped to find your friends, instead you found ads, bots, likes, filters, influencers, followers, misinformation, and more. Where you hoped to have meaningful conversations, instead you found yourself falling down the rabbit hole of blinking red notifications and an algorithmic feed of meaningless content.

“Where you hoped for a safe space to keep in touch with your siblings, family members, neighbours, and friends from college, you found content from people you’ve never met before—the whole thing feeling invasive, even creepy.”

Without adverts, how does HalloApp plan to keep itself afloat? Well, the business model will be immediately familiar to anyone who used WhatsApp before it was acquired by Facebook.

Writing in the company blog, Arora explains: “Unlike legacy social networks, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right. HalloApp uses your phone address book to connect you with the real relationships in your life, and that’s it. Beyond that, we never collect, store, or use any personal information (we have no idea where you live, what you do for work, or how likely you are to consume a certain type of content). More importantly, we will never show you ads. Ever.

“Instead, we plan to eventually offer additional features at a small cost.”