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That's not entirely true - even though 99% of the people I work with outside the US (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, Kolkata, Mexico) use Whatsapp, ther

That's not entirely true - even though 99% of the people I work with outside the US (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, Kolkata, Mexico) use Whatsapp, there is a tendency to start comms off with SMS before moving over to Whatsapp (no idea why). So - in the event (about 20% of the time, astonishingly enough - but it could be bias for the people I work with) the person talking to me has an iPhone we start off with iMessage. And of course, the other 80% of the time it's SMS coming through iMessage. So, iMessage has it's place initiating conversations. After that it's a [pick your regional chat app that isn't iMessage] . I'm stunned at the number of people who use Apple Maps in Singapore. Google Maps is much better here - but about 50-70% of the people I know who have an iPhone just use the Map App that is installed on it. Kills me. I don't know any english speakers with an iPhone who have changed out their keyboard - I've played with the others, but perhaps it's a foreign language thing?

cageface 10y ago
iPhone stock keyboard is horrible for foreign languages, and just flat out doesn't offer auto suggest for a lot of them. And since their third party keyboard API is still very buggy after two major iOS releases you really don't have any good alternatives. My experience is mostly focused on SE Asia but nobody here sends an SMS if they can help it at all. They're fairly expensive, especially given that monthly 3g plans are as cheap as $3. Whatsapp, Facebook and Viber own messaging here.
- stephenr 10y ago
  I have literally never seen anyone using anything but the stock keyboard in iOS, and I live in Thailand, surrounded by locals who more often than not don't speak English. Line is popular here, but only because it has stickers and iMessage doesn't.
- eridius 10y ago
  > iPhone stock keyboard is horrible for foreign languages, and just flat out doesn't offer auto suggest for a lot of them. That's not true. Why do you say that? I've used the foreign keyboards for Spanish and for Korean, and both keyboards are excellent and offer good autocorrect. I've also never heard anyone complain about the foreign keyboards being bad before.

cageface 10y ago

iPhone stock keyboard is horrible for foreign languages, and just flat out doesn't offer auto suggest for a lot of them. And since their third party keyboard API is still very buggy after two major iOS releases you really don't have any good alternatives. My experience is mostly focused on SE Asia but nobody here sends an SMS if they can help it at all. They're fairly expensive, especially given that monthly 3g plans are as cheap as $3. Whatsapp, Facebook and Viber own messaging here.

stephenr 10y ago
I have literally never seen anyone using anything but the stock keyboard in iOS, and I live in Thailand, surrounded by locals who more often than not don't speak English. Line is popular here, but only because it has stickers and iMessage doesn't.
eridius 10y ago
> iPhone stock keyboard is horrible for foreign languages, and just flat out doesn't offer auto suggest for a lot of them. That's not true. Why do you say that? I've used the foreign keyboards for Spanish and for Korean, and both keyboards are excellent and offer good autocorrect. I've also never heard anyone complain about the foreign keyboards being bad before.