3 ms·
> Microsoft refuse to accept Smartphone is the future of computing hence there never was MSN on Smartphone. This. When WhatsApp came around, it wasn't free, bu
by signal11 6y ago
> Microsoft refuse to accept Smartphone is the future of computing hence there never was MSN on Smartphone.
This. When WhatsApp came around, it wasn't free, but it was the a lightweight cross-platform mobile chat that worked. The only other smartphone-friendly chat app was Blackberry Messenger (BBM) -- and only on Blackberry. iMessage didn't exist.
Google Chat was light and unobtrusive on the desktop, and there were some 3rd party clients for GChat on iOS, but Google then decided to throw out GChat and build a few new chat systems from scratch. MSN Messenger never worked IIRC, and improvements to Skype came too little too late.
- mrighele 6y ago> When WhatsApp came around, it wasn't free. For me, the fact that WhatsApp wasn't free was a plus. "Hey, maybe for once I am not the product". How naive of me.
- signal11 6y agoTo clarify, the fact that WhatsApp wasn’t free (but very cheap) was a positive in my mind as well. I didn’t intend “not free” in my comment above to be derisory. Also, to add some nuance: WhatsApp wasn’t free (ie it was a subscription based app) mainly in US / Western Europe IIRC; but was in fact free, as in no subscription charges, in some lower-income country app stores, eg India.
- kwanbix 6y agoWhatsApp was free. At least for the 1st year it was, and then you were supposed to pay 1 USD per year. 0.084 cents per month, which was also basically free. I paid till FB made it totally free, but I know a lot of friends that did not pay and they had their "free-year" extended. At least in Android.