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[Vivalaraza]

It's not "really easy", though.

I have WhatsApp installed on my iPhone. I talk to one friend in Canada with it, nobody else was interested in using it, and even my Canadian friend and I have moved to Facebook Messenger to keep in touch.

It's not just persuading your family to install it. It's persuading my parents and my wife's parents to use it, who barely understand texting as it is. It's persuading them to remember to text me (and only me) using WhatsApp and everyone else using Messages. It's explaining to them why WhatsApp is a "better" solution, and if it's so much better, why does her church group use the other thing, which works just as well?

It's not just getting your friends and family to use WhatsApp. It's getting your friends and family's friends and family to use it. And that's a tough hill to climb when Messages is right there, default, and works great out of the box. I really don't understand why this is so confusing.

GAF is in it's bubble again. I guarantee you most users don't see or understand the difference between WhatsApp, Messages, Facebook Messenger, or SMS. They use what's right in front of them.



That's extremely reductive.

Good post but I disagree with the bolded bit - because the world over people are using something like WhatsApp. And they don't understand 90% of what their phone can do, but they know they want and need WhatsApp, because it has built up such a large user base for whatever reason.

 

[The Wraith]

Considering 90% of the people in my social circle use iPhones I'm stuck with the iPhone. iMessage is too good for me to not use. Only like 2 people I know use what's app.

 

[g11]

I use Telegram. Not a fan of iMessage.

 

[jrcbandit]

I use SMS primarily with Android. I have WhatsApp installed but only like 2-3 of my contacts also have it installed and still don't really use it, lol. I minimize my use of Facebook so I don't have it or Messenger installed on my phone ;p.

 

[Battlezone]

Good post but I disagree with the bolded bit - because the world over people are using something like WhatsApp. And they don't understand 90% of what their phone can do, but they know they want and need WhatsApp, because it has built up such a large user base for whatever reason.

None of that contradicts what I said though. People "the world over" are using WhatsApp because that's what their friends use. People in the US use Messages because it's what their friends use. Neither of them are wrong; and most people in either camp don't know or care about the differences between the two, let alone the differences between those, SMS, MMS, RCS, and the rest of the alphabet soup being thrown around in this thread.

 

[Hasney]

It was easy for me. iMessage stopped working so I had to turn it off for the last 6 months of owning an iPhone 4S.

 

[TheCochese]

WhatsApp is objectively superior to iMessage though. The only feature WhatsApp does have is... SMS integration which is the most asinine and archaic thing to want.

Hmm. I wonder if there's still a country around who uses this...





Hmmm.......

 

[diaspora]

Hmm. I wonder if there's still a country around who uses this...





Hmmm.......

Dunno, what country is so backwoods that it's even something people would even consider using?

 

[pswii60]

All my friends use Facebook Messenger for group messages and everyone else I chat to uses WhatsApp. But I'm in the UK, I appreciate in the US everyone uses iMessage for this stuff, whereas here iMessage has really just become a SMS replacement and little more than that.

 

[TheCochese]

Dunno, what country is so backwoods that it's even something people would even consider using?

The country's infrastructure is not something that is the average cell phone user's responsibility. We use what will reach the majority of people.

Here, that's some form of SMS.

If you want to keep stanning for a product we don't use and are upset about it, I can give you some Senators names. But then again, they aren't going to be using WhatsApp either, so you might just be out of luck.

 

[mid83]

It’s not hard to realize why iMessage is popular in the US. All you need is a phone number and using the default messaging app on your iPhone you can send a message that can be read by 99.999% of smart or dumb phones out there. As long as there is a texting/SMS capability, it works. No extra downloads or accounts needed. This is how most people who aren’t more into tech like the average GAFer like it.

Take my job for example. If they need extra coverage in the hospital overnight, they send a mass text message to everybody’s cell phone number. It works with everyone's phone without having to coordinate people installing another app on their devices.

People really take these issues a bit too serious.

 

[diaspora]

The country's infrastructure is not something that is the average cell phone user's responsibility. We use what will reach the majority of people.

Here, that's some form of SMS.

If you want to keep stanning for a product we don't use and are upset about it, I can give you some Senators names. But then again, they aren't going to be using WhatsApp either, so you might just be out of luck.

If messaging politicians was something anyone ever did outside of dick pics you'd almost sound half-way clever, but...

 

[TheCochese]

If messaging politicians was something anyone ever did outside of dick pics you'd almost sound half-way clever, but...

It'd still be one-up on whatever you're trying to do.

It's not hard to realize why iMessage is popular in the US. All you need is a phone number and using the default messaging app on your iPhone you can send a message that can be read by 99.999% of smart or dumb phones out there. As long as there is a texting/SMS capability, it works. No extra downloads or accounts needed. This is how most people who aren't more into tech like the average GAFer like it.

Take my job for example. If they need extra coverage in the hospital overnight, they send a mass text message to everybody's cell phone number. It works with everyone's phone without having to coordinate people installing another app on their devices.

People really take these issues a bit too serious.

This is an entirely sensible post and will be summarily dismissed.

 

[M3d10n]

Well, it already has caught on apparently with probably a larger subscriber base than iPhones.

So what were you saying?

A guy named Dean saying it's dead doesn't mean it is.

It's been ten years. It was designed before the iPhone caught on, before OTT services took over the world, as a way for carriers to "fight back" against OTT. This "guy named Dean" has been covering RCS for 10 years already. Read the whole thing. RCS "usage" numbers are heavily inflated, it's all hot air. The whole thing is full of fundamental problems, one being Apple having zero interest in supporting it.

In 10 years, only 49 carriers implemented RCS, many are incompatible with each other and some even silently dropped it. Many smartphone manufacturers never bothered adding support for it on their phones (it's not just a software update).

The rest of the world outside the US moved away from SMS and RCS won't bring them back. At best, what happens is that US Android users will get slightly better messaging among themselves via the default texting app. Texting with iPhone users will still be limited to 70's era SMS tech and 80's era MMS outside from OTT apps like Messenger. The rest of the world will keep using whatever OTT service gained popularity in each particular region.

 

[Peltz]

so people actually use iMessage?

Nearly everyone I know seems to use it.

 

[Ghazi]

It's not hard to realize why iMessage is popular in the US. All you need is a phone number and using the default messaging app on your iPhone you can send a message that can be read by 99.999% of smart or dumb phones out there.

Not the default messaging app, the only messaging (SMS) app

 

[finalflame]

WhatsApp is objectively superior to iMessage though. The only feature WhatsApp does have is... SMS integration which is the most asinine and archaic thing to want.

I've used both extensively, having family in Brazil and spending two years of my life working at WhatsApp and helping with production of the Android client.

I prefer iMessage for numerous reasons, but the biggest of them is the fact I live in the U.S. and most people here have iPhones, so it's a given whoever you're messaging is most likely on iMessage.

This is totally different in places outside of the U.S., though. For most other regions WhatsApp is the standard, except for places like JP/KR/CN which have their own national messenger preferences.

 

[this_guy]

It's been ten years. It was designed before the iPhone caught on, before OTT services took over the world, as a way for carriers to "fight back" against OTT. This "guy named Dean" has been covering RCS for 10 years already. Read the whole thing. RCS "usage" numbers are heavily inflated, it's all hot air. The whole thing is full of fundamental problems, one being Apple having zero interest in supporting it.

In 10 years, only 49 carriers implemented RCS, many are incompatible with each other and some even silently dropped it. Many smartphone manufacturers never bothered adding support for it on their phones (it's not just a software update).

The rest of the world outside the US moved away from SMS and RCS won't bring them back. At best, what happens is that US Android users will get slightly better messaging among themselves via the default texting app. Texting with iPhone users will still be limited to 70's era SMS tech and 80's era MMS outside from OTT apps like Messenger.

The U.S. still relies on sms, and all four major US carriers are planning to upgrade sms to rcs so it'll be fine. If people in the US haven't moved to ott they won't start now.

 

[M3d10n]

The U.S. still relies on sms, and all four major US carriers are planning to upgrade sms to rcs so it'll be fine. If people in the US haven't moved to ott they won't start now.

That's what I'm saying: at best it will upgrade the US SMS infrastructure. For Android users, that is, because Apple has zero incentives to support RCS. And God help you if you try to send an RCS to an overseas phone number. Worldwide it's destined to fail: carriers are destined to become bit pipes, it's a fate they cannot avoid for long.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

People want to communicate, so barring a compelling reason not to, they'll use the easiest method. In the US, where SMS was cheap, if not unlimited, using the pre-installed default SMS program is a no-brainer. iMessage seamlessly integrates SMS, so no one had a reason to care. Elsewhere, carriers gouged for SMS, and users had a compelling reason (cost) to find another option. This is just Metcalfe's law (value of a network is proportional to the square of the nodes) in action.

 

[Aomber]

Unfortunately, this might be the thing that forces me to switch to iPhone in the end =\ I live in the US

It's not just iMessage either, FaceTime is a big deal as well.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Unfortunately, this might be the thing that forces me to switch to iPhone in the end =\ I live in the US

It's not just iMessage either, FaceTime is a big deal as well.

I live in the US, I've never felt any need. Do you have friends that only use iMessage?

 

[thetrin]

I never predicted that when I left America, everyone would switch to Whatsapp. Before I left, everyone I knew used Hangouts. What a bizarre shift.

I just use LINE now, but thats because I live in Japan.

 

[Aomber]

I live in the US, I've never felt any need. Do you have friends that only use iMessage?

Currently no, that's why I said might be. At some point I'm going to be moving to a major city, meeting a lot of new people, etc. so I don't know what their situation is gonna be. It's always in the back of my mind that's just what I mean

 

[andythinkpad]

I use google voice, can continue the conversation on all my phones and computers.

 

[Scully Scully Scoo]

wow i never knew about this usa not using whatsapp thing, i just assumed whatapp was the global default. imessage is really good and easily the best default messaging apps on phones but everyone uses whatsapps.

google needs to consolidate all these different messaging apps they have created, thing i like about apple is simplicity, imessage/face time are very easy to grasp, google has too many things like allo, android messages, hangouts wtf is all this shit? what is googles facetime competitor? its very confusing

 

[chromhound]

Google need to force Samsung and etc to use one messenger app that will become the standard for android devices because right now it's a mess

 

[Aomber]

wow i never knew about this usa not using whatsapp thing, i just assumed whatapp was the global default. imessage is really good and easily the best default messaging apps on phones but everyone uses whatsapps.

google needs to consolidate all these different messaging apps they have created, thing i like about apple is simplicity, imessage/face time are very easy to grasp, google has too many things like allo, android messages, hangouts wtf is all this shit? what is googles facetime competitor? its very confusing

To be honest, Android might never have an iMessage competitor because of the open source and fragmentation nature of it. (Competitor meaning something just like an iMessage equivalent, no extra app store download or anything)

Maybe like the guy above said, if they get Samsung or someone like that to implement something it's possible, but I can't see it being as smooth as they made it happen on iOS.

 

[mid83]

Not the default messaging app, the only messaging (SMS) app

You can download WhatsApp and everything else as well.

 

[TheCochese]

You can download WhatsApp and everything else as well.

I thought we just covered that WhatsApp didn't do SMS.

 

[this_guy]

Google need to force Samsung and etc to use one messenger app that will become the standard for android devices because right now it's a mess

That doesn't matter. Both will be compatible with RCS once your respective carrier moves to RCS universal profile.

 

[bernardobri]

I'm not surprised that US based people stick to iMessage given phone plans with SMS must be very cheap there. It's not the case in other countries, which is why Whatsapp is king everywhere else.

For reference, my current (and very cheap) monthly data plan is 600 minutes, 700 sms and 12 gb with unlimited data for social apps such as Whastapp, plus Spotify, all of that for 45 usd. If I used SMS with the same frequency that I talk to people in Whastapp I'd probably run out of messages each month.

 

[Z..]

So North America doesn't use Whatsapp? Learn something new every day. Europe wins again.

 

[TheCochese]

I'm not surprised that US based people stick to iMessage given that SMS plans must be very cheap. It's not the case in other countries, which is why Whatsapp is king everywhere else.

For reference, my current (and very cheap) monthly data plan is 600 minutes, 700 sms and 12 gb with unlimited data for social apps such as Whastapp, plus Spotify, all of that for 45 usd. If I used SMS with the same frequency that I talk to people in Whastapp I'd probably run out of messages each month.

The cheapness - no, gratis - nature of SMS is what some of us have been attempting to explain. Paying for SMS/MMS in the US is very rare at this point. iMessage, at least in my memory, was the death blow to carriers being able to charge for texts. The iPhone was too popular and with the release of iOS5, meant that a sizeable portion of people who would pay for texts went away almost overnight.

With that charge dead, there wasn't much need to move to alternate platforms.

 

[Baroquemantic]

Return your S8+ and get an iPhone.

 

[Aomber]

I'm not surprised that US based people stick to iMessage given phone plans with SMS must be very cheap there. It's not the case in other countries, which is why Whatsapp is king everywhere else.

For reference, my current (and very cheap) monthly data plan is 600 minutes, 700 sms and 12 gb with unlimited data for social apps such as Whastapp, plus Spotify, all of that for 45 usd. If I used SMS with the same frequency that I talk to people in Whastapp I'd probably run out of messages each month.

Yes and no. Pretty much every carrier has unlimited calling and SMS, but at a cost. Major carriers are extremely expensive with my shared 5 GB plan (not unlimited) costing $100 a month on AT&T.

 

[Akira]

The people asking if people are using iMessage actually want to say "Ew, people actually use THAT thing?"

 

[Condom]

SMS sucks balls and allows for nothing. US has a dated infrastructure if they still feel the need to use that. imessage also breaks healthy competition, like in the case of the OP.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

SMS sucks balls and allows for nothing. US has a dated infrastructure if they still feel the need to use that. imessage also breaks healthy competition, like in the case of the OP.

It's not infrastructure that's an issue, it's adoption. There's no reason for users to adopt a communication platform, like Whatsapp, that doesn't have the near universal adoption of SMS.

You guys keep saying Whatsapp is the best evar, but the best communication platform is the one that reaches almost everyone. In the US, that's not Whatsapp.

 

[TheCochese]

SMS sucks balls and allows for nothing. US has a dated infrastructure if they still feel the need to use that. imessage also breaks healthy competition, like in the case of the OP.

Hold up, sport.

From what I've read here, you have the same infrastructure we have here. WhatsApp didn't gain adoption to get around an infrastructure issue, but a pricing one. We don't have that particular pricing issue here (of the few we can say that about), so the adoption hasn't been as needed.

 

[RedShift]

It's not infrastructure that's an issue, it's adoption. There's no reason for users to adopt a communication platform, like Whatsapp, that doesn't have the near universal adoption of SMS.

You guys keep saying Whatsapp is the best evar, but the best communication platform is the one that reaches almost everyone. In the US, that's not Whatsapp.

Right but wouldn't it better if it was? Or any other platform that worked on more than one brand of phone.

 

[JaseMath]

I'll be switching to iOS solely because of messaging issues between iOS and Android. It sucks because I hate Apple.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

Right but wouldn't it better if it was? Or any other platform that worked on more than one brand of phone.

iMessage works virtually seamlessly with SMS.

 

[Oxn]

So North America doesn't use Whatsapp? Learn something new every day. Europe wins again.

Again? You never won in the first place.

 

[Tony Redgrave]

European here, everybody and their mom uses whatsapp, even those with iphones. Basically couldn't get through university without it and even some of our friends who are residing in the Philippines now keep regular tabs with us through it. We don't talk so much over the phone anymore but we're all in constant communication.

 

[katsubento]

this is another one of those weird americanisms

just like not using the metric system, insisting on everyone being allowed to own guns (even though the kill thousands every year), hating the very idea of universal healthcare, and refusing to ever in the history of ever raise any sorts of taxes

choosing not to use whatsapp is just one of those objectively stupid decisions that the americans made for who knows what reason

Really?

 

[HF2014]

I think NextPlus is an amazing app if your not using iMessage. But if its on android, i dont know, im using it to contact people if not on imessage.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

So North America doesn't use Whatsapp? Learn something new every day. Europe wins again.

Why use WhatsApp when the company that owns it has their own messenger? Most people here use Facebook messenger, or Google Hangouts. Or now, something like Slack.

 

[finalflame]

Why use WhatsApp when the company that owns it has their own messenger? Most people here use Facebook messenger, or Google Hangouts. Or now, something like Slack.

WhatsApp's social graph differs pretty wildly from Facebook for most people.

Not only that, but Messenger is filled with bloat that is not present in WhatsApp, not to mention it's a different product entirely, developed by a different team, with different priorities, and a different level of reliability.

 

[Buba Big Guns]

I'm in Canada and only a couple people in my contact list had it when I checked. I've rarely encountered anyone using it unless they're from out of county. Canada is like the US when it comes to text. iMessage or sms.

Wut

Every single person I know uses WhatsApp, including every iPhone user.


Didn't even know people used iMessage that much. Only my American friends, and they have WhatsApp too.