photo #8942958

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND LOYALTY! You all have been incredibly awesome while we rebuild. I just wanted to address the two complaints I see most often: live stream buffering and typing lag. Both are real. Both are measurable. And neither is random. Plainly put, it sucks for you and is even worse for us. What follows is not a PR response. It’s a technical explanation in plain English.Live streaming is a real-time distributed system(Real world: it’s the hardest thing a social platform can do)A live stream is not a video file being played. It is a continuously generated data signal that must be captured, encoded, transmitted, processed, redistributed, and rendered without stopping.There is no rewind, no preload, and no safety net.Real world:If even one part of that chain slows down — the streamer’s internet, a mobile network handoff, a server, or your phone — the video has to pause or fall behind. That’s buffering.Live systems operate under latency-stability tradeoffs(Real world: you can’t have “instant,” “perfect,” and “high quality” at the same time)Physics and network theory impose a hard constraint:You can optimize for low delay, high quality, or high stability — but not all three simultaneously.When conditions fluctuate, the system must choose:increase delay (you fall behind live),lower quality,or briefly pause to recover.Real world:When you see buffering, the system is choosing stability over crashing or desyncing completely.Mobile operating systems aggressively throttle real-time apps(Real world: your phone is actively limiting us)Modern iOS and Android versions prioritize battery life and thermal limits by:throttling CPU usage,limiting background threads,restricting persistent network connections,deprioritizing non-system apps during heavy workloads.Live video decoding and real-time networking trigger these limits.Real world:Your phone is intentionally slowing the app to protect itself — not because the app is broken. The newer your phone, the harder it is for us to deliver. Typing lag is a real-time synchronization issue(Real world: typing is not “just typing” in a live environment)In a live context, keystrokes are:encrypted,transmitted,synchronized with server state,validated,and rendered alongside video playback.When video decoding and network I/O spike, UI threads can be momentarily deprioritized.Real world:Your text is competing with live video for system resources. Sometimes video wins.Live video is uniquely sensitive to upload quality(Real world: the streamer’s internet matters more than viewers think)Live streams depend on the broadcaster’s upload stability, not just speed.Packet loss, jitter, or bitrate spikes upstream force the system to compensate downstream.Real world:If the streamer’s internet hiccups, everyone feels it — even if your connection is perfect.Scale changes probabilities, not physics(Real world: Facebook doesn’t “defy” buffering — they outspend it)Large platforms reduce failure rates by:running massive server redundancy,deploying hardware encoders everywhere,owning private network routes,and receiving OS-level, big tech and app store privileges smaller platforms do not get.They don’t eliminate buffering — they statistically suppress it.Real world:They throw billions of dollars at the problem. We engineer around it. Do you remember the last time you bought a phone? Most likely, it had Facebook and YouTube already installed... It's monopolistic, and we are forced to face it all the while these same partners want this platform dead, and have tried constantly to kill it for years. App stores impose hard constraints on deployment(Real world: fixes are not instant)Every change must:comply with Apple and Google policies,pass review,work across thousands of devices - not just a few phone brands or models,and not regress stability elsewhere.Fast fixes that aren’t tested properly make things worse, not better.Real world:Rushing updates breaks apps. We have done that in the past, and will never do it again. Why Wimkin operates differently — by design(Real world: independence has technical costs)We do not:harvest user data to fund unlimited infrastructure - we don't sell you out,receive special OS exemptions, custom APIs or access from Apple or Android,operate private global networks.We choose:privacy,independence,and long-term stability.Those choices have consequences — but they also have value.Real world:We are not trillionaires, and we refuse to pretend we are. What we are actively optimizing(Real world: this is not ignored)We are continuously improving:live latency variance,adaptive bitrate behavior,UI thread scheduling,real-time input handling,and mobile performance under massive, ever-evolving OS constraints.Each improvement is measured, staged, and deployed responsibly.Real world:This will get better over time — not worse.Final truthIf you want a platform that:speaks freely,doesn’t sell you,isn’t controlled by Big Tech,and operates honestly about its limits —then understand this:Real-time systems at independent scale are hard.Not because of incompetence.Because of physics, operating systems, and economics. Simply put, if you do not have billions in the coffers, this is VERY hard to do. To try and make a sticking point: All of the above is just ONE component. Posting photos, videos, simple posts, commenting, and messenger are their own respective beasts. Getting them all working in harmony is nearly impossible which is why you see Rumble not act as a social platform, or Truth Social offering live videos or long video uploads. We will continue improving — without compromising what makes Wimkin worth building in the first place.Once again, THANK YOU for hanging in there with us. You all mean the world to me. What we are doing isn't easy at all, and 100 times harder with the platform being live.