4 ms·

Yep, it's totally an American thing. The rest of the world uses WhatsApp, so it's much less of a big deal. But people actually do leave other people out of grou

by snazz 6y ago

Yep, it's totally an American thing. The rest of the world uses WhatsApp, so it's much less of a big deal. But people actually do leave other people out of group chats because it would downgrade the experience from iMessage to MMS. The green bubble is just a reminder of the terrible photo/video quality and poor group features.

cgriswald 6y ago
It’s not just an American thing. It’s a younger-demo-American thing.
- snazz 6y ago
  Ok, it’s a young, relatively privileged, “conformist” American thing. I think that just about covers the demographic.
  - RubberShoes 6y ago
    It's very likely I'm out of touch but from everyone and everything I see this is definitely an American thing. More than half the country is on some type of Apple device https://www.statista.com/statistics/266572/market-share-held-by-smartphone-platforms-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/266572/market-share-held...
dash2 6y ago
Are Americans still using MMS? Nobody in the UK uses it because of costs... are MMS free there? My impression is that WhatsApp is much better (and Wechat better still). Privacy questions aside.
- jcrites 6y ago
  As an American, my entire circle communicates almost exclusively using services like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. iMessage shows up occasionally while forming initial connections, but I tend to move the conversation to one of these other services as soon as possible and the other party is almost always OK with that. (I do this in part because I don't regularly use my Mac and these other programs have web versions that can be used on all platforms including Windows PC.) If you're curious about demographics I'm in my mid 30s. My particular social group is not big into Facebook or Facebook Messenger (though I know they own WhatsApp) since we are techies and privacy-conscious. I'd rather have a 1on1 or small group chat than blast thoughts out into the ether when in that mode of communication. (Hacker News is different. It's cultivated, moderated, and oriented around exploring curiosity.)
Gwypaas 6y ago
WhatsApp isn't as common as you might think, although still the largest. It's either Messenger or WhatsApp, so still Facebook. [0] My personal pet theory is that it depends on when the country got free text messages. For example in Sweden everyone already had unlimited texts before smartphones were ubiquitous, therefore WhatsApp never really had a purpose and Messenger became the supplementary app. [0]: https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/popular-messaging-apps-by-country/ https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/popular-messaging-apps-... (Not sure about the source but the countries I know are reflected correctly.)
- rswail 6y ago
  Whatsapp is common in Anglo and EU. India is a big messenger user. Asia is LINE/WeChat. Very few use either FB or Whatsapp.
  - culturestate 6y ago
    > Asia is LINE/WeChat. Very few use either FB or Whatsapp. This is...not true. Line has Japan and Thailand, WeChat has China and the mainland diaspora, and the rest is mostly dominated by Messenger, WhatsApp, or a local app (e.g. Zalo in Vietnam or KakaoTalk in South Korea). Source: me, a person who has lived in Asia for a long time, and the bulging folder of messaging apps on my phone.

by snazz 6y ago

cgriswald 6y ago

It’s not just an American thing. It’s a younger-demo-American thing.

snazz 6y ago
Ok, it’s a young, relatively privileged, “conformist” American thing. I think that just about covers the demographic.
- RubberShoes 6y ago
  It's very likely I'm out of touch but from everyone and everything I see this is definitely an American thing. More than half the country is on some type of Apple device https://www.statista.com/statistics/266572/market-share-held-by-smartphone-platforms-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/266572/market-share-held...

dash2 6y ago

Are Americans still using MMS? Nobody in the UK uses it because of costs... are MMS free there? My impression is that WhatsApp is much better (and Wechat better still). Privacy questions aside.

jcrites 6y ago
As an American, my entire circle communicates almost exclusively using services like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. iMessage shows up occasionally while forming initial connections, but I tend to move the conversation to one of these other services as soon as possible and the other party is almost always OK with that. (I do this in part because I don't regularly use my Mac and these other programs have web versions that can be used on all platforms including Windows PC.) If you're curious about demographics I'm in my mid 30s. My particular social group is not big into Facebook or Facebook Messenger (though I know they own WhatsApp) since we are techies and privacy-conscious. I'd rather have a 1on1 or small group chat than blast thoughts out into the ether when in that mode of communication. (Hacker News is different. It's cultivated, moderated, and oriented around exploring curiosity.)

Gwypaas 6y ago

WhatsApp isn't as common as you might think, although still the largest. It's either Messenger or WhatsApp, so still Facebook. [0] My personal pet theory is that it depends on when the country got free text messages. For example in Sweden everyone already had unlimited texts before smartphones were ubiquitous, therefore WhatsApp never really had a purpose and Messenger became the supplementary app. [0]: https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/popular-messaging-apps-by-country/ https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/popular-messaging-apps-... (Not sure about the source but the countries I know are reflected correctly.)

rswail 6y ago
Whatsapp is common in Anglo and EU. India is a big messenger user. Asia is LINE/WeChat. Very few use either FB or Whatsapp.
- culturestate 6y ago
  > Asia is LINE/WeChat. Very few use either FB or Whatsapp. This is...not true. Line has Japan and Thailand, WeChat has China and the mainland diaspora, and the rest is mostly dominated by Messenger, WhatsApp, or a local app (e.g. Zalo in Vietnam or KakaoTalk in South Korea). Source: me, a person who has lived in Asia for a long time, and the bulging folder of messaging apps on my phone.