Categories PRIVATE and PUBLIC for contacts

just out of curiosity- what generates that pressure?? for private contacts i keep telling them plain no. no reson. use mail or call me. easy.

for official- they need to make more than just whatsapp groups available for planning meetings etc. the pressure is on them there. businesswise no company will use it anyway.

Maybe a stupid question (I'm not using whatsapp): isn't it possible to use whatsapp without access to the contacts? Meaning, other users establish a chat with you (like in the case you don't have them in your contact list)?

@bomo: I was thinking the same. With Viber it works like you suggested. Haven't tried with WA.

I think this is a super idea.

Those considering it should not think about WhatsApp, but about any and all applications that want access to the contacts list (except, I guess, the native contacts app that allows you to set contacts as PRIVATE or not...). I would see this as a differentiating feature.

The App-permissions architecture, as implemented in Android, IME, is too blunt (and sometimes too obscure: http://www.gibiris.org/eo-blog/posts/2014/12/17_app-permissions-architecture.html). Applications expect an all-or-nothing level of access on contacts. I'd put this down to a limit on analysis, rather than any determined decision not to be concerned about this.

But, that's not how contacts are managed, surely. Some of those contacts are friends, some work colleagues, some belong to the same soccer club, others to the same chess club, some are family, others belong to that estranged branch of the family that you don't want your nearest and dearest to know at this point that you're in contact with them.

Some contacts are, indeed, private, but it's useful to share some others with relevant apps, like WhatsApp, Gnu Ring, Facebook messenger, etc.

This request gets an up-vote for me.

@kaktux: you don't have kids, do you? Whatsapp seems to be the only communication channel used by parents (mainly mothers) about kindergarten or school. If there's some new activity for the kids, some meetups by parents, any problems - all is handled in Whatsapp. To tell them to use email instead is pointless. If you stay out you just don't get all the relevant informations ... crazy as it is!