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[Euphoria14]

Why? What can you not do in Android that you can in imessage?

Not sure honestly, imessage is seamless, built in and does not require texting plans if either or is on wifi. People don't even realize they are using imessage half the time, which shows how well it works.

Someone at my job yesterday also told me that on their android phone they need to search online to find gifs while iMessage has them all built in. Just click the button to the left, hit the button that looks like the App Store icon and enter what you're looking for in the search bar and BOOM!

It's super simple.

 

[M3d10n]

Why is that? iMessage allows me to send higher quality video to others. I've sent videos to android users that have to go through mms and it looks like balls. I love iMessage, especially since it works if you have no cell service.

Because iMessage only works fully if everyone involved is using an iPhone, which is not the case pretty much everywhere in the world that isn't the US.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Nice shitposting, though.

i am an expert on american culture and i have a compulsion to eurosplain it to EVERYONE

 

[Jonnax]

It still works with Android phones. It defaults to SMS when messaging a non-Apple device. It's ubiquitous basically. You're not switching from one messaging service to another. It's all there.

Nobody wants to receive SMS messages except for two factor.

 

[Skyr]

No metric system, no eletric kettle and now no whatsapp. The us and europe drifting apart more and more !


Had an iphone for 8 years and never used imessage. Went straight from sms to whatsapp.
Can't remember how long whatsapp is already established here but it feels like forever.

Since 1.5 years I'm on android now and didn't look back since. Transitioning was a breeze.

 

[mavericktopgun]

WhatsApp and Telegram are SO MUCH better than iMessage.

 

[cackhyena]

I still find it hilarious with people coming out saying "people use iMessage"? Like wtf.

 

[Pankratous]

People use iMessage??

 

[PantsuJo]

Telegram for work and close friends.

Old messages/mails for parents.

Whatsapp for the rest of the world.

Telegram is the best msg app out there, especially because of bots and useful group customization options. (Edit: vital features for IT jobs)

No contest here; WhatsApp is **years** behind.

 

[marrec]

Nothing at all. Imessage isn't anything special, it's an okay messaging system.

Switched from Android to Apple last year and iMessage was the biggest game changer for me. After years of texting on Android it was like waking up from a bad dream.

Never touching Android again tbh, mostly cause of iMessage 🤷*♂️

 

[Raylan Targaryen]

Because iMessage only works fully if everyone involved is using an iPhone, which is not the case pretty much everywhere in the world that isn't the US.

Not our fault you're plebs

 

[Chezzymann]

I just use discord/skype. Haven't texted people in years outside of my mom

 

[Ikuu]

iMessage lol Using SMS in 2017 lol

 

[HvySky]

I just use Facebook Messenger. Literally everyone I know has a FB account so there's no risk of not being able to contact someone, and for the rare occasions that somebody prefers SMS I can text them normally through Messenger as well. Being able to sync messages across mobile and PC is great.

 

[Gattsu25]

Not sure honestly, imessage is seamless, built in and does not require texting plans if either or is on wifi. People don't even realize they are using imessage half the time, which shows how well it works.

Someone at my job yesterday also told me that on their android phone they need to search online to find gifs while iMessage has them all built in. Just click the button to the left, hit the button that looks like the App Store icon and enter what you're looking for in the search bar and BOOM!

It's super simple.

The default android keyboard has GIF search built in :\

 

[jts]

WhatsApp and Telegram are SO MUCH better than iMessage.

Not at all.

WhatsApp can't even figure out a non-wonky solution to bring their service to desktop and tablets. Your phone died? That's too bad, you're SOL.

 

[sixteen-bit]

i message is great if you have wifi but spotty cell reception that affects sms deliverability

 

[Gandie]

I just use Facebook Messenger. Literally everyone I know has a FB account so there's no risk of not being able to contact someone, and for the rare occasions that somebody prefers SMS I can text them normally through Messenger as well.

What about the battery though? Messenger just EATS mine. Used to. I deleted it.

Not at all.

WhatsApp can't even figure out a non-wonky solution to bring their service to desktop and tablets. Your phone died? That's too bad, you're SOL.

That's a security thing, isn't it?

 

[M3d10n]

It still works with Android phones. It defaults to SMS when messaging a non-Apple device. It's ubiquitous basically. You're not switching from one messaging service to another. It's all there.

Yes, it is switching from iMessage to SMS, which loses a bunch of features like high quality video/images which might not even work for the recipient if they aren't within the particular MMS specifications of their ISP.

If MMS was any good, apps like WhatsApp and Line would have never caught up pretty much everywhere in the world.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

america is really weird about iphones

flagship androids are objectively better and cheaper yet the american compulsion to keep up with the joneses and not being taken for a POOR makes people use iphones anyway

or maybe it's the buy 'murican thing like with xbox

 

[mavericktopgun]

Not at all.

WhatsApp can't even figure out a non-wonky solution to bring their service to desktop and tablets. Your phone died? That's too bad, you're SOL.

That's why I prefer Telegram. The apps and their Desktop Client are top notch.

 

[Gravy Boat]

It amazes me that people actually use iMessage

I use iMessage because I don't see the point in downloading a 3rd party app to do something my phone already does.

 

[Shanlei91]

iMessage is the only reason I switched from Android. Everyone I know has an iPhone and won't use a separate app. And of course, now whenever I see green text from messaging an android user I get slightly annoyed. "Was it delivered?!"

 

[Pyrokai]

What is the inherent advantage of using iMessage? What if you're texting someone who doesn't have an iPhone?

I'm legitimately asking because I turned it off when I had an iPhone because the only advantage I saw was that I could see when other people were typing. I have unlimited texts, but limited data....so I was actually using data.

I have an Android phone now, and I pretty much only use basic text messages now. Sure, I'd prefer to use something like Allo or Hangouts or WhatsApp, but because no one else uses the same messenger, I can't contain it all in the same ecosystem. My one friend uses WhatsApp, and another uses Facebook Messenger, so I just use my boring text messages for a group chat because no one uses the same thing.

iMessage is the only reason I switched from Android. Everyone I know has an iPhone and won't use a separate app. And of course, now whenever I see green text from messaging an android user I get slightly annoyed. "Was it delivered?!"

See, on Android it tells me if it was delivered in my basic text messaging app. But this illustrates why I would never use iMessage. If half your friends have iPhones and the other half don't, why would you use iMessage?

I guess I just want a standard, and since the only golden standard is regular text messages, I can't use anything else.

 

[Charles Brandon]

I'm sure iMessage is fine for apple users but it's not really a cross platform solution.

OP needs to either get his groups onto a multiplatform service like Whatsapp, FB Messenger or whatever.

 

[HvySky]

What about the battery though? Messenger just EATS mine. Used to. I deleted it.

Haven't noticed it running low any faster than it used to, granted my phone's battery has been shit for a while, before I installed Messenger. The regular Facebook app on the other hand is terrible.

 

[Euphoria14]

.

Okay, you clicked the left icon and intentionally chose to search for photos or gifs.

What's the problem? Can you search on WhatsApp and they invisible or something?

 

[Your Entertainer]

iMessage is there and it works seamlessly. Defaults to SMS seamlessly if the other person doesn’t have it.

Not having to download some wonky third party messanging app that can potentially eat your battery is niceeee

 

[M3d10n]

Not our fault you're plebs

Jokes on you, the US population is nose diving into plebdom faster every year.

 

[cwmartin]

Can someone explain because im an idiot? I send gifs, pictures, emojis, and group chat all through my default messenger app with other iphone and non-iphone users.

 

[GSG Flash]

WhatsApp.

99% of my contacts in Canada use WhatsApp, there's always that oddball sucker still using iMessage or SMS.

Yup, literally the only people I know that use iMessage here are older people who don't know any better. Everyone else uses Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger thankfully. Even most of my family members in the US use Whatsapp.

A messaging protocol that is limited to only ~15-20% of the market is automatically inferior regardless of whatever shiny feature it has.

 

[pwack]

Tried to send a gif I made from a video and it was too big for mms. So I had to send it to them on Facebook messenger

Which has been an ok stop gap I guess

I also switched last week from iOS to Andorid. I had the same issue, but then was able to log onto the Play store and download my choice of messaging apps that could send the gifs and pics I wanted. I think I'm currently using Android Messages from Google; it seems to work fine.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Not sure honestly, imessage is seamless, built in and does not require texting plans if either or is on wifi. People don't even realize they are using imessage half the time, which shows how well it works.

Someone at my job yesterday also told me that on their android phone they need to search online to find gifs while iMessage has them all built in. Just click the button to the left, hit the button that looks like the App Store icon and enter what you're looking for in the search bar and BOOM!

It's super simple.

But android also has gifs, they added it awhile ago. It's still hit the button and boom.

 

[Euphoria14]

The default android keyboard has GIF search built in :

LOL!

Guess I need to speak to my buddy then because he is keeps searching with Chrome and doing a copy/paste.

 

[Dalek]

I use iMessage because I don't see the point in downloading a 3rd party app to do something my phone already does.

B-b-but don't you care what someone in Europe is using??

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

I'm with you 100% OP.

I've been on iPhone since the very first original, but occasionally buy an Android phone to the side to see where things have gone on that side of the fence. A galaxy Nexus, a Nexus 5, a Nexus 6...

When the S8 came out, I fell in love with the hardware. Between the screen and body, it is leaps ahead of my 7 Plus. So, you know what, I'll buy one and sell my 7 Plus and use it for a few months, right?

Wrong.

The S8 - within 10 minutes - was driving me nuts on texting.

It had THREE messaging apps built-in on the AT&T phone.

some of my texts went to one. Groups to another. A random mix on others. The group chat had a box that took up space asking if you wanted to send to everyone or individually. Even with iMessage completely disabled on all of my devices, some texts wouldn't receive on my S8 and some would - regardless of the sending device (iOS or Android). Send/receive is MUCH slower. No built-in GIF keyboard - I followed the steps on Google and it striahgt up didn't give me GIFs. Even had my buddy on a Note 6 show me and he was stumped, as he said they added it recently. And while subjective - a very ugly UI.

I returned it 2 days later.

 

[Junior Mint]

Okay, you clicked the left icon and intentionally chose to search for photos or gifs.

What's the problem? Can you search on WhatsApp and they invisible or something?

Huh? I googled those image btw. The image on the left is literally what you see by default when you open a message in iOS 11.

 

[kikiribu]

WhatsApp is ugly and nowhere near as elegant as iMessage.

 

[Cotton McKnight]

I just text people. What am I missing out on?

This right here.
Until I got a message from someone at my church via my child's iPad. I guess he looked me up via email? I was just like dude, just text me, it's built into every phone, as the default, every phone can text (ok if you're still rocking a phone that can't text, share some pictures of that piece of history).

Oh for the folks who have an adroid that came with more than one text app to begin with. Disable the ones you don't need, and for the love of God don't sign your credentials into all the apps (or blindly accept Hangouts to be your messaging service when it asks you, it's a trainwreck).

My wife ran into that with her now ancient S5.

I like android, but sometimes I wish my wife just let me get her an iPhone to begin with. It would have simplified my support of her phone usage. But noooooooo, she thinks I'm trying to pull one over on her if I don't get her the same ecosystem as what I'm using. lol

 

[Gravy Boat]

B-b-but don't you care what someone in Europe is using??

I'm in Europe!

 

[Squirrel Killer]

Don't get the eyesore comment either. I think it's fine.

This is the app's screenshot on the Whatsapp home page:

I mean, I guess it's not completely awful, but for a glamour shot, it's close to triggering my MSN PTSD. Contrast that to iMessage which is so much cleaner (even if Apple is doing it's best to clutter it up with animojis and crap.)

 

[Your Entertainer]

Okay, you clicked the left icon and intentionally chose to search for photos or gifs.

What's the problem? Can you search on WhatsApp and they invisible or something?

Are you on iOS 11? It changed things bro

 

[M3d10n]

Can someone explain because im an idiot? I send gifs, pictures, emojis, and group chat all through my default messenger app with other iphone and non-iphone users.

Try sending those gifs to someone in another country and see how well that goes.

 

[ISee]

Everybody I know uses WhatsApp, even people on iphones. I guess that's really an EU thing.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

LOL!

Guess I need to speak to my buddy then because he is keeps searching with Chrome and doing a copy/paste.

Maybe he's using some phone makers default keyboard but official Google stuff has had gifs for a while now.

 

[Euphoria14]

i message is great if you have wifi but spotty cell reception that affects sms deliverability

This is true and I've seen it personally.

There is an option (that I believe isn't set by default) that has it auto switch to SMS if iMessage fails.

I ended up setting mine up to do so.

 

[bennywhatever]

I feel like that's not Android's fault, OP. If you used iMessage so much and switched to a platform that doesn't and will never have it, you can't really complain about it because that's a decision you willingly made. It's no fault of Android; it's something you should have accounted for before switching.

I just use text message or FB messenger to send messages to people. I don't know anyone that uses iMessage. Granted, my group of friends is a healthy mix of iOS and Android users.

 

[FonkyByNature]

I feel you OP. My family members all have iPhones and only one has an Android phone. iMessage and Facetime are really the only things keeping me on the iPhone. It makes communication just that much easier between important people. No hassle, no 3rd party apps, no account creation which people hate to bother with...

 

[Redd]

I use textra for messages. No I don't have facebook. Yes I'm in the USA. Fight me.

 

[Euphoria14]

Are you on iOS 11? It changed things bro

10.3.2