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You do know why a lot of people moved away from SMS? hint: https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/141867-price-gouging-it-costs-more-to-send-a-text-message-on-earth

You do know why a lot of people moved away from SMS? hint: https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/141867-price-gouging-it-costs-more-to-send-a-text-message-on-earth-than-from-mars https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/141867-price-gouging-it-c...

ghaff 5y ago
That article is from 2012. Admittedly a lot of people moved off for the pricing reasons but essentially everyone I communicate with in the US uses SMS/iMessage today.
- 1_player 5y ago
  Well, the world is a bit bigger than the US. Everywhere, apart from the US and a few other (East Asian?) countries, WhatsApp usage is widespread.
- dividedbyzero 5y ago
  That seems to be a US-specific oddity. My German mobile plan still charges per SMS (a few cents per message), and apart from verification codes or delivery notices, I never receive any SMS at all. No one uses them for personal communication over here, to the point where people don't know how to send them and I wouldn't know of another country apart from the US where SMS are still widely used.
  - progval 5y ago
    I'm French and SMS are ubiquitous here; sometimes even more so than email. All operators offer unlimited free SMS, even the cheapest 2€/month subscriptions. I'm not sure I personally know anyone who uses WhatsApp. SMS used to be priced like you describe until a new operator (aptly named "Free") entered the market in 2012 with free SMS plans and forced the other three operators to align.
    - paganel 5y ago
      Whatsapp is (and especially was) way better at sending photos than whatever SMS app installed on one's phone. It also used to work with crappier phones, for which there was no easy way (that I know of) of installing a SMS app that would send photos. Plus, you have Whatsapp private groups, which I don't know if you can emulate using SMS.
    - 6510 5y ago
      Almost all plans offer free sms in the Netherlands.
- officeplant 5y ago
  Which sucks because SMS is an increasing attack vector in current times and iMessage had a fun pile of zero days this year. Also US based here luckily everyone I talk to is spread across signal/telegram/discord/googlechat for the most part.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    I use Gchat at work as essentially an adjunct to Gmail. I don't even have any of the other apps installed. I do use Facebook Messenger for one good friend who lives in Europe. But, in general TBH, I don't use texting all that much day to day.

ghaff 5y ago

That article is from 2012. Admittedly a lot of people moved off for the pricing reasons but essentially everyone I communicate with in the US uses SMS/iMessage today.

1_player 5y ago
Well, the world is a bit bigger than the US. Everywhere, apart from the US and a few other (East Asian?) countries, WhatsApp usage is widespread.
dividedbyzero 5y ago
That seems to be a US-specific oddity. My German mobile plan still charges per SMS (a few cents per message), and apart from verification codes or delivery notices, I never receive any SMS at all. No one uses them for personal communication over here, to the point where people don't know how to send them and I wouldn't know of another country apart from the US where SMS are still widely used.
- progval 5y ago
  I'm French and SMS are ubiquitous here; sometimes even more so than email. All operators offer unlimited free SMS, even the cheapest 2€/month subscriptions. I'm not sure I personally know anyone who uses WhatsApp. SMS used to be priced like you describe until a new operator (aptly named "Free") entered the market in 2012 with free SMS plans and forced the other three operators to align.
  - paganel 5y ago
    Whatsapp is (and especially was) way better at sending photos than whatever SMS app installed on one's phone. It also used to work with crappier phones, for which there was no easy way (that I know of) of installing a SMS app that would send photos. Plus, you have Whatsapp private groups, which I don't know if you can emulate using SMS.
  - 6510 5y ago
    Almost all plans offer free sms in the Netherlands.
officeplant 5y ago
Which sucks because SMS is an increasing attack vector in current times and iMessage had a fun pile of zero days this year. Also US based here luckily everyone I talk to is spread across signal/telegram/discord/googlechat for the most part.
- ghaff 5y ago
  I use Gchat at work as essentially an adjunct to Gmail. I don't even have any of the other apps installed. I do use Facebook Messenger for one good friend who lives in Europe. But, in general TBH, I don't use texting all that much day to day.