[At-Large] DomainIncite : Is this why WhatsApp hates some TLDs but not others?

[Dev Anand Teelucksingh]

"*Developers of major pieces of internet software, including the world’s
most-popular messaging app, may be relying on seriously outdated lists of
top-level domains.*

That’s the picture that seems to be emerging from one new gTLD operator’s
quest to discover why WhatsApp doesn’t recognize its TLD, and many others
including major dot-brands, as valid."
....When most social media apps detect the user has inputted a URL or
domain name, they automatically “linkify” it so it can be easily clicked or
tapped without the need for copy/paste.

But when Rami Schwartz of new gTLD .tube discovered that .tube URLs sent
via WhatsApp, said to have two billion users, were not being linkified,
despite the TLD being delegated by ICANN almost eight years ago, he set out
to find out why.

Schwartz compiled a spreadsheet (.xlsx) listing which gTLDs are recognized
by WhatsApp and which are not and discovered a rough cut-off point in
November 2015. TLDs delegated before then are linkified, those delegated
after were not......This means that, for example, .microsoft domains
linkify but .amazon and .apple domains do not; .asia domains linkify but
.africa and .arab domains do not; .london works but .abudhabi doesn’t. Even
.verisign missed the cut-off.

If WhatsApp users include a “www.” or “http://” then the app will linkify
the domain, even if the specified TLD does not exist.

.....During the course of a discussion
<https://github.com/publicsuffix/list/issues/1807> on the web site of the
Public Suffix List — which maintains an open-source list of all TLDs and
the levels at which names may be registered — it was discovered that the
problem may be deeper rooted than the WhatsApp app.

It turns out a library in the Android operating system
<https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/main/+/main:frameworks/base/core/java/android/util/Patterns.java;l=114>
contains a hard-coded list of valid TLDs which hasn’t been updated since
November 24, 2015"
Read full article :
https://domainincite.com/29054-is-this-why-whatsapp-hates-some-tlds-but-not-others


Regards,

Dev Anand Teelucksingh
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