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Anecdotally, among my (20 something year old) friends, the iPhone used to be a must-have for many reasons; now, it's only a must-have for imessage. If android p

Anecdotally, among my (20 something year old) friends, the iPhone used to be a must-have for many reasons; now, it's only a must-have for imessage. If android phones could send "blue texts" than I'm sure many would switch over.

dopamean 10y ago
Blackberries were a must have among my friends because we all wanted BBM. Some of us were pretty late getting off of Blackberry because of it.
etatoby 10y ago
Isn't WhatsApp widespread enough in your circles, as a IM replacement? I thought it was quite universal. Or is it a particular feature of iMessage that WhatsApp is missing?
- mikestew 10y ago
  Or is it a particular feature of iMessage that WhatsApp is missing? The feature called "Built into the ROM of every iPhone".
  - swolchok 10y ago
    It's not built into the ROM. iMessage got a huge update with iOS 10. If it was built into the ROM, that wouldn't be possible, because the old version would be, well, read-only.
    - artmageddon 10y ago
      Either way, iMessage comes by default, and every iPhone is guaranteed to have it. Using iMessage instead of say, Whatsapp means I don't have to download yet another app and sign up for yet another service and search for yet another user(not to mention possibly giving away personal information to Facebook) when I can already use what's already on my phone.
    - mikestew 10y ago
      Thanks, Captain Pedantic. Pretty sure folks get the idea despite the egregious inaccuracies in what I wrote. (And, as an aside, I knew that when I wrote it.)
- epmatsw 10y ago
  In the US, I know 0 users of WhatsApp (excluding work friends from other countries). It doesn't have nearly the market penetration of even something like GroupMe as far as I can tell.
  - dajohnson89 10y ago
    I know lots of people here in the US who use WhatsApp, but yeah, many of them are from other countries. Even people born in the US, with families/friends outside the US, use it heavily.
- zachwood 10y ago
  For me, the main feature of iMessage is that Facebook isn't gobbling up all of my metadata.
- zeroer 10y ago
  I change sim card (and hence phone number) frequently for international travel. WhatsApp is horrendous for this use case. It makes me re-authenticate (or something) each time, and people have a hard time finding me. Identity should not be linked to phone number.
  - dcohenp 10y ago
    I do this often, too. Just FYI: all you need to do is tell WhatsApp "Never mind, I'm not actually changing my number" when prompted (which should only happen once per SIM card change). That's it. You'll continue being identified to your WhatsApp contacts by your "home" phone number (not your temporary one).
    - zeroer 10y ago
      I don't have a home phone number.
      - saghm 10y ago
        I think from the fact that it was in quotes, "home" just means your default number
        zeroer 10y ago
        I don't have a default number. You can see why I might think that forcing phone number to equal identify might be a bad idea. I understand that I'm an unusual case, but I'm sure plenty of other people go through something similar this every couple years if and when they switch phone numbers or providers or move.
        etatoby 10y ago
        I have had the same mobile number for the past 20 years, throughout dozens of different phones and operators. This is very typical where I live (Southern Europe) where, in fact, WhatsApp is very popular. Question: how do people you haven't been in contact with manage to find you, if you change your number every 2 years?
- econnors 10y ago
  Sorry for late reply, just saw this. Nobody in my circles uses WhatsApp, so nobody uses WhatsApp.
WayneBro 10y ago
The non-iPhone users don't send the blue text. Your sent texts are blue on your iPhone if you're messaging another iPhone user and it's green if not. Though, who actually cares about this and why? Anyway, I recently switched to iOS for an experiment and my biggest gripe is: no back button. Instead of a conveniently placed button, I have to always reach up to the upper left corner of the app to go back. My second biggest gripe is that links from Apple's shitty programs only want to open in Safari instead of my browser. And third, I can't organize my icons the way I want to. Typical Apple: No choices. Their way or the highway. Fuck you power-users and people who know what they want.
- mikeash 10y ago
  It's getting less common, but some people still pay exorbitant per-message rates for SMS. I no longer care, but when iMessage first came out I was really happy that I could finally text (some) people freely.
  - smpetrey 10y ago
    I'm floating in the same social circle right now. 99% of my friends and family have an apple device to communicate. I just kicked the text-messaging subscription bucket.
    - mikeash 10y ago
      I only have unlimited texting because it ended up being cheaper for me to get a package that included it. It's nice to be able to sign up for SMS alerts and such without worrying about the cost, but if it hadn't been cheaper I'd still be relying on iMessage for everything.
- rajathagasthya 10y ago
  > Anyway, I recently switched to iOS for an experiment and my biggest gripe is: no back button. Instead of a conveniently placed button, I have to always reach up to the upper left corner of the app to go back. You can swipe from the left corner of the screen to go back (do this with 3D touch and it switches to your previous app). You don't need to reach the top for the back button every time.

dopamean 10y ago

Blackberries were a must have among my friends because we all wanted BBM. Some of us were pretty late getting off of Blackberry because of it.

etatoby 10y ago

Isn't WhatsApp widespread enough in your circles, as a IM replacement? I thought it was quite universal. Or is it a particular feature of iMessage that WhatsApp is missing?

mikestew 10y ago
Or is it a particular feature of iMessage that WhatsApp is missing? The feature called "Built into the ROM of every iPhone".
- swolchok 10y ago
  It's not built into the ROM. iMessage got a huge update with iOS 10. If it was built into the ROM, that wouldn't be possible, because the old version would be, well, read-only.
  - artmageddon 10y ago
    Either way, iMessage comes by default, and every iPhone is guaranteed to have it. Using iMessage instead of say, Whatsapp means I don't have to download yet another app and sign up for yet another service and search for yet another user(not to mention possibly giving away personal information to Facebook) when I can already use what's already on my phone.
  - mikestew 10y ago
    Thanks, Captain Pedantic. Pretty sure folks get the idea despite the egregious inaccuracies in what I wrote. (And, as an aside, I knew that when I wrote it.)
epmatsw 10y ago
In the US, I know 0 users of WhatsApp (excluding work friends from other countries). It doesn't have nearly the market penetration of even something like GroupMe as far as I can tell.
- dajohnson89 10y ago
  I know lots of people here in the US who use WhatsApp, but yeah, many of them are from other countries. Even people born in the US, with families/friends outside the US, use it heavily.
zachwood 10y ago
For me, the main feature of iMessage is that Facebook isn't gobbling up all of my metadata.
zeroer 10y ago
I change sim card (and hence phone number) frequently for international travel. WhatsApp is horrendous for this use case. It makes me re-authenticate (or something) each time, and people have a hard time finding me. Identity should not be linked to phone number.
- dcohenp 10y ago
  I do this often, too. Just FYI: all you need to do is tell WhatsApp "Never mind, I'm not actually changing my number" when prompted (which should only happen once per SIM card change). That's it. You'll continue being identified to your WhatsApp contacts by your "home" phone number (not your temporary one).
  - zeroer 10y ago
    I don't have a home phone number.
    - saghm 10y ago
      I think from the fact that it was in quotes, "home" just means your default number
      - zeroer 10y ago
        I don't have a default number. You can see why I might think that forcing phone number to equal identify might be a bad idea. I understand that I'm an unusual case, but I'm sure plenty of other people go through something similar this every couple years if and when they switch phone numbers or providers or move.
        etatoby 10y ago
        I have had the same mobile number for the past 20 years, throughout dozens of different phones and operators. This is very typical where I live (Southern Europe) where, in fact, WhatsApp is very popular. Question: how do people you haven't been in contact with manage to find you, if you change your number every 2 years?
econnors 10y ago
Sorry for late reply, just saw this. Nobody in my circles uses WhatsApp, so nobody uses WhatsApp.

WayneBro 10y ago

The non-iPhone users don't send the blue text. Your sent texts are blue on your iPhone if you're messaging another iPhone user and it's green if not. Though, who actually cares about this and why? Anyway, I recently switched to iOS for an experiment and my biggest gripe is: no back button. Instead of a conveniently placed button, I have to always reach up to the upper left corner of the app to go back. My second biggest gripe is that links from Apple's shitty programs only want to open in Safari instead of my browser. And third, I can't organize my icons the way I want to. Typical Apple: No choices. Their way or the highway. Fuck you power-users and people who know what they want.

mikeash 10y ago
It's getting less common, but some people still pay exorbitant per-message rates for SMS. I no longer care, but when iMessage first came out I was really happy that I could finally text (some) people freely.
- smpetrey 10y ago
  I'm floating in the same social circle right now. 99% of my friends and family have an apple device to communicate. I just kicked the text-messaging subscription bucket.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    I only have unlimited texting because it ended up being cheaper for me to get a package that included it. It's nice to be able to sign up for SMS alerts and such without worrying about the cost, but if it hadn't been cheaper I'd still be relying on iMessage for everything.
rajathagasthya 10y ago
> Anyway, I recently switched to iOS for an experiment and my biggest gripe is: no back button. Instead of a conveniently placed button, I have to always reach up to the upper left corner of the app to go back. You can swipe from the left corner of the screen to go back (do this with 3D touch and it switches to your previous app). You don't need to reach the top for the back button every time.