As of 2022, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world. Everyone relies on it. WhatsApp is generally stable, but we have come to depend on it so much that outages become significant global events. And such events do happen.
WhatsApp is a centralized messaging service, and therefore servers need to be up and running all the time for messages to come through. If the server fails, so does the app. This is just one of three possible reasons you may not be able to use this messenger.
The second reason is network failure. This may come as a result of natural disasters, technical malfunctions in the network, or a government-mandated shutdown. When you have no Internet connection, you obviously cannot use a messaging service that relies on the Internet. You will not even be able to send messages to someone across the room, or across the street from you.
We have come to accept such reliance on Internet availability. We are not surprised that a glitch in a server on the other side of the world may prevent us from sending a message to someone who may be only a short distance away from us.
The third reason is censorship. Entire countries (such as Iran) are blocking WhatsApp.
NewNode to the rescue
NewNode is a peer-to-peer messenger. While it’s not as well-known as WhatsApp, it can help you stay in touch when WhatsApp is not working.
Its peer-to-peer architecture ensures that there is no “single point of failure.” There is no such thing as a “NewNode server” - all messages are routed between “nodes” on the NewNode network. If an asteroid hits our HQ (which it hopefully won’t), this will have zero impact on delivering messages.
The same architecture provides resilience to network outages and shutdowns. NewNode uses the local radio (WiFi and Bluetooth) built into every smartphone on the planet. When networks fail, NewNode establishes its own peer-to-peer network. You can send your message across town even if that town has zero Internet coverage.
Finally, NewNode is resilient to censorship. Since there are no servers, there’s no “server name” or “server IP address” that censors might block. To the censors NewNode traffic looks just like normal HTTP (website) traffic, with data traveling to and from tens of thousands unknown “web server” addresses. They will have no idea how to block it.
Try NewNode as a backup
While we at the NewNode team would love for you to switch from WhatsApp to NewNode as your main messenger, we don’t expect that to happen soon. However, we strongly recommend that you download and try out NewNode and add important contacts to it just in case you find yourself in a situation when WhatsApp isn’t working for one of the reasons mentioned above.
Download NewNode (link)