We were recently made aware of a locally developed Chat App – FF Meeting – that is touted to be a creation of Young Pakistani Boy, all by himself. That’s not all, but in fact the kid claims that his “Made in Pakistan Chat App” is better than Whatsapp and that it has more features than any other chat app in the world.
The chat app in question is making rounds in Pakistan as it was picked up by Syed Zafar Abbas of JDC Foundation (of Karachi), who promoted the guy and the FF Meeting app through a video that Zafar publicized on Facebook. Since then every other digital publisher is running the story.
Pretty fascinating, as it may sound, but unfortunately the FF meeting is a scam.
Sorry for being very blunt, rude and direct about the young kid, but that’s the truth.
While we truly appreciate the kid for putting his efforts and time to bring the Chat App into life, but the fact is that he didn’t develop it. Yes, the app isn’t developed by the kid but in fact he used a wrapper to bundle the freely available Telegram APIs to build a front end that actually uses Telegram at as a service.
Even a slightest little look into the app reveals that it is a re-skinned version of Telegram, which gives its API’s to be openly used by developers.
Not only that, even the skin is used by another service “Appsgeyser” through which any chat app can be created without any coding in little to no time. The step by step solution is mentioned on this link for your reading.
It won’t be out of place to mention here that all verification SMS and emails that users may get from “”FF Meeting” or any other similar wrapper chat apps are also handled by Telegram.
As you may expect, all the features of Telegram are actually replicated in such third party wrappers apps like “FF Meeting”
Two things that “FF meeting” has of its own are the “Intro Screen” and the Google Ads that app shows to its users.
As mentioned, above, the app is Telegram itself — with a different frontend. And hence all existing Telegram users will have same contacts, chats and even the password when they will use “FF Meeting”.
Little About the Kid:
I am truly impressed by the kid, who must had put a lot of efforts and work hours to produce the skin. He definitely has good skills and potential to do wonderful things in his life.
But unfortunately he’s not advised well. He’s just a kid and I won’t blame him for lying. But he’s unlucky for not getting a mentor who could have barred him from lying; who could have asked him not to take credit for things he hasn’t developed or created.
Whilst we do feel for the young boy and wish that he will go go on to do much more, however the claim of developing FF Meeting in 3 years (which shouldn’t take more than few hours, if not minutes) and claiming it as his own is not only misleading but disappointing as well.
But nonetheless, I truly hope and wish the kid to produce wonderful things in his life, that are legitimate and his very own.
Don’t Download the App, its a Privacy Nightmare
While Telegram could be ultra secure and safe to use, but don’t forget that FF Meeting is a wrapper app, which essentially means that all your data (contacts, messages and a lot more) is routed through third party and not Telegram.
And by the way, its not only FF Meeting that’s involved here, appsgeyser is also a party and while the kid won’t consume your private data but appsgeyser has all the reasons to use your private data.
Just in case if you are wondering, here the data points that FF Meeting will have access to:
- Device ID’s
- IMEI
- Serial numbers
- MAC address
- Your entire list of contacts
- Your files
- And much more
More about what data will be collected while using FF Meeting, and what possible related threats are, read the privacy policy of appsgeyser here.
Having said all this, it is highly recommended not to use FF Meeting. If you must, then use Telegram directly, instead of using the wrapper app.
Do we have any Pakistani Chat Apps?
While it is extremely hard (and hugely expensive) to develop a Whatsapp like chatapp, we do have at least two locally developed Chat apps that are actually “Made in Pakistan”.
ZapBuddy is my personal favorite for its sleek, flawless and amazing user experience. You can go and test it out, and yes its completely developed by Pakistanis and the entire control is with-in Pakistan.
Telegram is love. Pakistan is blocking it again and again when the website is blocked.
Such a shame for us
its not shame,
The kid didn’t know the difference between “self build” app and using API
he thought, he build it.
he need to learn a lot.
And he also claimed it to be better than WhatsApp!
You can make the same app in less than 5 minutes.
1. Go to appgeyser.com
2. Click create app for free
3. Select Messenger for video calls.
4. Check “Enable dialog tabs” and then check all boxes it shows
Press Next, fill in other required fields, give it any name e.g. “My FF Meeting”, then download and install on your phone.
went to Zap Buddy’s Google Play link and there I saw that they had screen shot of their app with blonde haired Gori. lol developed entirely by Pakistanis yet couldn’t find a single local model to pose for that shot. smh.
If I remember correctly, the ownership of Zapbuddy lies in California.
No he lies in Islamabad, G-10 his name is Majid Aziz
i think your scamming us because if it was a scam app google play would have taken it down
It’s scam coz the kid is lying. Wrapper is legit and hence allowed by Google play store.
Google will take it down soon enough if the development policies are adhered to. Play store doesn’t want apps wrapping other apps only to make money from selling ads. Either the developer needs to add own features or the app will be taken down soon enough. This is something experienced by alot of mobile app developers who are only wrapping APIs to sell ads.
I would like to see you develop an app, even a wrapper such as ffmeeting, in three days. You will not able to. Building apps is hard.
so he should admit this by himself
It takes less then a minute to make apps like FF meeting.
Hey, As****e listen. I’m a developer and developer who have Git/Github knowledge they know a lot of wrapper apps have source code on Github. you just need to change the copy and remove the Owner’s name/app-name etc. So shut the f*** up.
Writer of the article is comparing himself or experts of the field with that 9th grader. It MAY take an expert few minutes to create the wrapper over an app. So, it took an under privileged, under resourced kid 3 years to build whatever he did. How is that a lie? Scam is a very strong word to use in this case. The writer feels bad for the kid for not having proper mentor, yet offers no help. And that’s ProPakistani.pk. Does the writer have other motives? What FF Meeting is being accused of doing, is WhatsApp and Facebook not doing the same? I have many friends who do not have a Facebook account to this day for the same privacy reasons. So, don’t use this app for the same reasons.
Clearly it could have taken the kid three years, and thats not the lie.
The lie is that he developed the chat app himself, which he clearly didn’t.
Such a waste of time effort by just another writer from india. That kid is 15 years old and getting so much attention alone is a milestone
You can make the same app in under 5 minutes.
1. Go to appgeyser.com
2. Click create app for free
3. Select Messenger for video calls.
4. Check “Enable dialog tabs” and then check all boxes it shows
Press Next, fill in other required fields, give it any name e.g. “My FF Meeting”, then download and install on your phone.
Again disgusting journalism!!
Indian’s and other nations encourage their talent and here we are, dragging them through mud. How shameful!!
Half the world works on open source! There is no major firm or government that does not leverages open source in their products/solutions and quite a few are just a skin.
When is this country is going to grow up and make educated arguments before dragging someone through the mud, specially the future talent on Pakistan.
لوگ بچے کو ڈیفینڈ کر رہے ٹھیک ہے اس نے سکن بنائی مگر۔ کیا اب اس کو جھوٹ سے کریڈٹ چاہیے؟
میں بھی کل سے kinemaster ڈاؤنلوڈ کر کے خود کو professional ویڈیو ایڈیٹر بولوں تو یہ قابلِ قبول ہوگا؟ 😕
Permote talent not lies. Jiyee bhutto
You know what India and other nations promote? Education. And you know what comes with that? innovative apps like Saavn, Paytm, Uber etc. They don’t promote apps where you take the code from telegram and just use another service that automatically builds apps. They ACTUALLY build apps.
You want to encourage something? encourage the actual solution that is good education which is frankly one of the worst in the world.
Underneath every modern App is a net of diverse APIs. Many a times these APIs are owned by different vendors. That is the modern architecture. Build Apps rapidly using API, cut through the chase of setting up your own “platform”.
Telegram has “Open APIs” and anyone can build their own solution with customized login, security etc. The final App can be while labeled as a new branded App. Perfectly legal and standard practice in the global marketplace.
All what this 15 year old kid need to do is to White label it and he can call his App “Made with Love in Pakistan”. Great be credit to Telegram for their Open APIs.
This article is misleading and reflect author’s lack of understanding of modern API and Microservices based architecture. Scratch the surface of any modern App and you will find a similar architecture.
yes, i have to agree with this, most coding these days is being done by 3rd party developers, many developers in pakistan use open APIs and build upon it, so lets appreciate the kid, atleast ‘scam alert’ is just as misleading a headline to be prominently featured on a well established page, and the privacy threat the writer mentions is with every other app that we download.
While the kid has done a good job, remember that India never wants any Pakistani talent to get into App developing market. The writer clearly lacks enough knowledge himself about Apps development and could not come up with a solution. It is easy to criticize negatively, Mr. writer!!
In my opinion Writer also cross his limit to criticized poor kid in a very suffisticated manner where he or she can promote emphasize and encourage his (kid) effort in a positive manner.
I will encourage writer to Go back and check any single apps root where it’s roots belong to even check apple whattsapp and face book history and early developments and real founders.
Shameful article by ProPakistani clearly depicting disgusting and hate mogering people/writer they have. Thanks for showing us your poisnous mind set . Never ever visit here from now onwards
Hey Guys, Please do Not give so much time and energy to this Article. It seems like a Camouflaged Ad of ZapBuddy; so this is basically a ‘Scam’ in itself…
You can make the same app in under 5 minutes.
1. Go to appgeyser.com
2. Click create app for free
3. Select Messenger for video calls.
4. Check “Enable dialog tabs” and then check all boxes it shows
Press Next, fill in other required fields, give it any name e.g. “My FF Meeting”, then download and install on your phone.
I never thought Pakistanis will prove themselves such big idiots. BC bachpan say hee bacha corrupt hai kal ko barra scammer banay ga… aur yeh khotay usay tab b support karen gay…. Kanjro talent ka matlab hota hai innovation. tutorials dekh k app bana lena koi talent ni hai
Very harsh words used in the write-up of this article.
Has anyone even gone and checked out the links mentioned in the article.. Its a simple Drag and Drop function from AppGeyer.. Not even coding.. All in exchange for data..The kid claims it is secure which it is clearly not as even in the terms and privacy of AppGeyser. That is why its a scam for data theft
The writer probably got paid by zap buddy and other chat apps. Nothing more in it.
Dear brother, writer is 100% right.. research before blaming anyone.. this app is a scam and not even a better copy of its parenr..
It won’t be out of place to mention here that all verification SMS and emails that users may get from “”FF Meeting” or any other similar wrapper chat apps are also handled by Telegram.
There is a reason we don’t read propakistan articles. They don’t reveal their authors names. This article could be written by any bafoon that infact has no expertise in this particular field whatsoever yet here it is published for the world to see. They don’t even write exact time and date of the article being punished hence being less legitimate. May need to learn lessons from authentic news sources.
You can make the same app in under 5 minutes.
1. Go to appgeyser.com
2. Click create app for free
3. Select Messenger for video calls.
4. Check “Enable dialog tabs” and then check all boxes it shows
Press Next, fill in other required fields, give it any name e.g. “My FF Meeting”, then download and install on your phone.
He didn’t even made the skin himself. Lier.
1. Go to appgeyser.com
2. Click create app for free
3. Select Messenger for video calls.
4. Check “Enable dialog tabs” and then check all boxes it shows
Press Next, fill in other required fields, give it any name e.g. “FF Meeting”, then download and install on your phone.
Please update your article.