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I ask this as a non-Whatsapp user. I have read the comments and I understand in some countries (Brazil, Netherlands, etc.) that Whatsapp is the main tool for p

I ask this as a non-Whatsapp user. I have read the comments and I understand in some countries (Brazil, Netherlands, etc.) that Whatsapp is the main tool for person to person and person to business communications. What I can't figure out is why did it displace "plain SMS" or other tools. What drove the adoption? I'd love to hear more about that - was Whatsapp just the first mover?

airstrike 6y ago
Free VoIP, first and foremost. I remember when my dad told me his cousin from Venezuela suggested an app to him that allowed him to make free calls to anyone who also has it. I told him that was probably not right and he might have downloaded malware on his Android... Turns out he was right and the app took Brazil by storm On top of that, media, voice clips and cross-platform compatibility.
- jolmg 6y ago
  Yeah, some countries don't charge premiums for long-distance and roaming between each other, but among those that do charge such premiums, this would be another killer feature.
jolmg 6y ago
> What I can't figure out is why did it displace "plain SMS" or other tools. SMS was unreliable, at least back when it was used. It was common for someone to receive it hours later or at least many minutes later, when it was too late. Informing someone you just got the message they told you about in-person a while back was a common occurrence. You also don't know when a person received your message, so you would opt to call them anyways if they take too long to reply with something even if they were just busy. Basically, the 2 checkmarks on each message is the killer feature. Spam is also a problem with SMS. Email is something that never really took off in mobile devices. I suppose everyone saw it as the same thing as SMS, with the same issues. Perhaps worse, since an email client needed to poll the server for new messages. SMS is something people did since before smartphones. Dumbphones didn't commonly have real support for email. Also, email on a mobile device meant you had to setup the mail client, and you didn't have to setup anything with SMS, just give people your number.
FalconSensei 6y ago
SMS: Pricy, no audio messages and no pictures/videos (also no documents). Whatsapp: free (besides internet usage - but some providers offered unlimited/extended whatsapp data), audio messages, send photos/videos/audios (not from audio message)/documents, can do video and audio calls from the same screen, without moving away from the app There's just no competitor with same parity of features (with the same quality) and easiness to use. Telegram has calls, but they just don't work for me: either my parents can't hear me properly, or there's a HUGE delay in the audio call, I keep hearing the reconnection beeps... I'm just off an audio call to my parents on Telegram, had to drop off and use whatsapp because it was unusable
x4j91 6y ago
Price! While my current phone plan includes "unlimited text messaging" ... this wasn't always the case. And even today, if I am roaming out of region, I get charged anywhere between 10 - 45 cents per text message. All here in Canada!

airstrike 6y ago

Free VoIP, first and foremost. I remember when my dad told me his cousin from Venezuela suggested an app to him that allowed him to make free calls to anyone who also has it. I told him that was probably not right and he might have downloaded malware on his Android... Turns out he was right and the app took Brazil by storm On top of that, media, voice clips and cross-platform compatibility.

jolmg 6y ago
Yeah, some countries don't charge premiums for long-distance and roaming between each other, but among those that do charge such premiums, this would be another killer feature.

jolmg 6y ago

> What I can't figure out is why did it displace "plain SMS" or other tools. SMS was unreliable, at least back when it was used. It was common for someone to receive it hours later or at least many minutes later, when it was too late. Informing someone you just got the message they told you about in-person a while back was a common occurrence. You also don't know when a person received your message, so you would opt to call them anyways if they take too long to reply with something even if they were just busy. Basically, the 2 checkmarks on each message is the killer feature. Spam is also a problem with SMS. Email is something that never really took off in mobile devices. I suppose everyone saw it as the same thing as SMS, with the same issues. Perhaps worse, since an email client needed to poll the server for new messages. SMS is something people did since before smartphones. Dumbphones didn't commonly have real support for email. Also, email on a mobile device meant you had to setup the mail client, and you didn't have to setup anything with SMS, just give people your number.

FalconSensei 6y ago

SMS: Pricy, no audio messages and no pictures/videos (also no documents). Whatsapp: free (besides internet usage - but some providers offered unlimited/extended whatsapp data), audio messages, send photos/videos/audios (not from audio message)/documents, can do video and audio calls from the same screen, without moving away from the app There's just no competitor with same parity of features (with the same quality) and easiness to use. Telegram has calls, but they just don't work for me: either my parents can't hear me properly, or there's a HUGE delay in the audio call, I keep hearing the reconnection beeps... I'm just off an audio call to my parents on Telegram, had to drop off and use whatsapp because it was unusable

x4j91 6y ago

Price! While my current phone plan includes "unlimited text messaging" ... this wasn't always the case. And even today, if I am roaming out of region, I get charged anywhere between 10 - 45 cents per text message. All here in Canada!