Today is day two of the Gizmodo March Madness Group Challenge, designed to crown the greatest app of all time!The Powerful Fart App Has Been Beaten on Our Instagram first round Today’s challengers are WhatsApp and Dark Sky. Will Mark Zuckerberg win again? It’s up to you.
If you’re just tuning in, you can read all of our selection criteria for this historic match Right here. Now, let’s get into today’s contestants.
In this corner of the world with some 2 billion users, we have the rulers of messaging apps. Launched in 2009, WhatsApp was originally designed to protect user privacy through a barebones platform focused exclusively on encryption. But its popularity grew explosively, and capital’s vultures began circling.
Facebook acquired the platform in 2014 for $19 billion, and co-founder Jan Koum publicly announced the news shortly after. admit He sold his soul to the devil and the user’s privacy to Zuckerberg. Another co-founder, Brian Acton, who later took a senior role at Signal, hopes to continue WhatsApp’s original dream, but the app has yet to achieve the same footing.
To be fair, WhatsApp is changing at about the same pace as other products Facebook has acquired, and it still doesn’t even include ads (Although they are here). In some ways, WhatsApp fulfills Facebook’s original mission: it’s a place for friends.
Compared to WhatsApp, we have Dark Sky, considered by many to be the best weather app ever. When Apple acquired their beloved app in 2020, Android users mourned the impending loss of it, and eventually, Dark Sky was lost to all users. But its influence still affects billions of people today because at its core it’s integrated with Apple’s Weather app.
So, readers, it’s time to make your voice heard. Scroll down to the poll below and let us know if WhatsApp or Dark Sky should advance to the next round and possibly be voted the greatest app of all time.
