Whatsapp should honour Do Not Disturb on phones, or introduce Do Not Disturb Function.

Whatsapp should honour Do Not Disturb on phones, or introduce Do Not Disturb Function.

Started
10 April 2019
Petition to
Signatures: 28,142Next Goal: 35,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Thomas Shuro

Whatsapp has surely taken over the telecommunications industry and has brought about so much positive change to many communities, it has managed to bridge many societies...but is it willing to conform to our needs?

It is seen as the go to app for communication needs amongst the young and old. Whatsapp has replaced both the conventional telephone call and text messaging, by being both affordable and convenient, as such users had gotten used to being able to control when they want to receive calls from people and when they needed calls to be put on hold.

Many accidents have been prevented by the introduction of the Do Not Disturb (DND) function (on some phone DND can detect if you are driving or in your car and automatically activate itself) now with Whatsapp overriding DND on phones it poses a dangerous risk to people.

This was made apparent to me when I had DND activated on my phone driving on my way to work navigating using my phone, when out of nowhere I received a Whatsapp video call....it totally took over the settings in my phone, and ignored my request not to be disturbed, this distracted me because automatically the camera opens and you see yourself, (bear in mind I'm driving here) the phones ringing and I'm thinking of the person on the other end of the line, trying to remember what Google Maps is doing, and focus on the morning traffic, before I knew it I was in a dilemma, what do I do? Slam on brakes? Have I missed my turn?...accept or be rude and decline call? (It's awkward after its actually rang, but if it just says call declined from the get go, no problem)

Another instance is when I am playing my games, I broadcast my games to my youtube channel straight from my phone, (so I have to be online)...I have DND activated but WhatsApp has no respect for this, I have had to restart matches so many times because each game is interrupted by a WhatsApp call...all that aside what about just a good nights rest, uninterrupted by Whatsapp calls, surely we deserve that. Most phones update overnight when they are charging and not in use, now for Whatsapp to suggest switching off Wifi and Data is just ingenious of them.

Earlier I mentioned the elderly that use WhatsApp, most do not know how to work their way around a Smartphone to disable data and then remember to switch it back on, or to uninstall the app and install it later, but they would be able to switch Do Not Disturb on and off with ease.

Whatsapp's go to solution is BLOCK PEOPLE THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO RECIEVE CALLS FROM....not many people tell you they are going to call you before they actually call you!....with over a thousand contacts, WhatsApp expects users to Block them all when they you not want to receive calls from them??? What a huge inconvenience for something that they can fix, something that is already being done by apps like WhatsAppGB (of which Whatsapp will ban your number if you use non official copies of their app to access their platform), their other solution is to switch of mobile data / Wifi ....this is not a solution to the problem it defeats the purpose of having a smartphone in the first place. Bear in mind blocking people and then unlocking them means you do not receive any messages they may have sent you whilst they were blocked, and I thought it went without saying that Blocking is reserved for "certain individuals".

I believe that this is a very pressing issue because many telecommunication companies have embraced WhatsApp as the new "thing" ....by creating data bundles just to access their platform I think Whatsapp should also embrace the people by being able to do all that the conventional telephone calls could do.

It's only a matter of time before this becomes a grave issue and it would be great if Whatsapp would acknowledge this and fix this before lives are lost.

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Signatures: 28,142Next Goal: 35,000
Support now
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