It’s day 2 of Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to crown the greatest app of all time! The mighty Fart App has fallen to Instagram in our first round and today’s challengers are WhatsApp vs Dark Sky. Will Mark Zuckerberg win again? That’s up to you.
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If you’re just tuning in, you can read all about our selection criteria for this historic contest right here. Now, let’s get into today’s contestants.
In this corner, with around 2 billion global users, we have the reigning king of messaging apps. Launched in 2009, WhatsApp started as an altruistic attempt at protecting users’ privacy with a barebones platform that was singularly focused on encryption. But its popularity exploded and the vultures of capital began to circle.
In 2014, Facebook scooped up the platform for a cool $19 billion and it wasn’t long until co-founder Jan Koum publicly admitted he’d sold his soul to the devil and his users’ privacy to Zuckerberg. Brian Acton, the other co-founder, went on to take a senior role at Signal where he hopes to keep the original dream of WhatsApp alive but that app hasn’t been able to get the same kind of foothold.
To be fair to Zuck, WhatsApp hasn’t changed at nearly the same rate as other Facebook acquisitions and it still doesn’t even include ads (they are coming though). In some ways, WhatsApp has achieved the original mission of Facebook: It’s a place for friends.
Squaring off against WhatsApp, we have what many consider to be the best weather app of all time, Dark Sky. Android users mourned the coming loss of their beloved app when Apple purchased it in 2020 and eventually, Dark Sky disappeared for all users. But its influence still lingers for billions of people today as its guts were integrated with Apple’s Weather App.
So, reader, it’s time to make your voice heard. Scroll down to the poll below and let us know whether WhatsApp or Dark Sky should advance to the next round and possibly be anointed as The Greatest App of All Time.
Update: Voting has closed and while it was a bit of a squeaker, WhatsApp advances to the next round. RIP Dark Sky.
