4 ms·

Facebook Messenger, SMS and iMessage

4 points by showngo 15y ago

Mr_Ed 15y ago
People (in the UK at least) have grown so 'comfortable' with using SMS - I'll admit to it myself, I could easily fire up the Facebook and send a message to any one of my friends, all of whom have smartphones and would undoubtedly receive the message within a minute of it being sent. However, for whatever reason, I'll still just send an SMS. Apple have realised that the only way of replacing this (and eventually killing SMS) is to provide a messaging service which is inherently invisible or 'passive' from a UX point of view. Yes, it is tied into iOS, but the critical thing to consider is that users are required to put in zero effort to send an iMessage. With this in mind, I don't see how Facebook Messenger is any different to the likes of [insert free web messaging service here], admittedly with a lot more users.
- robgough 15y ago
  While I agree that integrated and invisible is the way to go, the popularity of iMessage will be limited by how many people actually have iPhones. While I know of a lot of people with them, it's certainly not the majority of people I know. Whereas with Facebook, just about everyone has an account. The killer feature really is group messaging on-the-go with all of your friends, regardless of their phone. As it stands right now, I have a feeling Facebook are the only ones really going for this.
sebbi 15y ago
I don't know about other countries, but here in Germany an app called "Whatsapp" was on #1 in the Appstore for the last X months (can't really remember). Everybody is using it and it is cross plattform. One could easily use Facebook chat (or huddle, or push emails), but we don't. And to get with the theme of the article, I rarely open the normal messaging app and whatsapp (or any other messenger) is just another icon in the launcher which works as a total replacement of SMS ... seamlessly. iMessage has already lost with working on one plattform only. Apple also promised that facetime would be an open standard, but it doesn't work with any other device yet. If iMessage takes this long to be adopted (if at all) by other manufacturers, than it's of no use ...

4 points by showngo 15y ago

Mr_Ed 15y ago

People (in the UK at least) have grown so 'comfortable' with using SMS - I'll admit to it myself, I could easily fire up the Facebook and send a message to any one of my friends, all of whom have smartphones and would undoubtedly receive the message within a minute of it being sent. However, for whatever reason, I'll still just send an SMS. Apple have realised that the only way of replacing this (and eventually killing SMS) is to provide a messaging service which is inherently invisible or 'passive' from a UX point of view. Yes, it is tied into iOS, but the critical thing to consider is that users are required to put in zero effort to send an iMessage. With this in mind, I don't see how Facebook Messenger is any different to the likes of [insert free web messaging service here], admittedly with a lot more users.

robgough 15y ago
While I agree that integrated and invisible is the way to go, the popularity of iMessage will be limited by how many people actually have iPhones. While I know of a lot of people with them, it's certainly not the majority of people I know. Whereas with Facebook, just about everyone has an account. The killer feature really is group messaging on-the-go with all of your friends, regardless of their phone. As it stands right now, I have a feeling Facebook are the only ones really going for this.

sebbi 15y ago

I don't know about other countries, but here in Germany an app called "Whatsapp" was on #1 in the Appstore for the last X months (can't really remember). Everybody is using it and it is cross plattform. One could easily use Facebook chat (or huddle, or push emails), but we don't. And to get with the theme of the article, I rarely open the normal messaging app and whatsapp (or any other messenger) is just another icon in the launcher which works as a total replacement of SMS ... seamlessly. iMessage has already lost with working on one plattform only. Apple also promised that facetime would be an open standard, but it doesn't work with any other device yet. If iMessage takes this long to be adopted (if at all) by other manufacturers, than it's of no use ...