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> This. If calls and international calls were acessible, whatsapp wouldnt exist Whatsapp offers a whole lot more: read receipts, group chats, images and video,

> This. If calls and international calls were acessible, whatsapp wouldnt exist Whatsapp offers a whole lot more: read receipts, group chats, images and video, voice notes, location sharing, a web client (albeit a quite limited one), and it has a generally pretty good UX/UI (much better than Androids stock messaging app). Regardless of the economics, on a technical level calling/texting isn't competitive with Whatsapp.

dvtrn 5y ago
What ever became of RCS? Wasn’t that supposed to support a good number of these features?
- throw0101a 5y ago
  It requires news infrastructure on the telco side as well as client-side support: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services There seems to be only lukewarm support for it from all parties involved. (Apple isn't even bothering to do much/anything, so that's a huge installed base where nothing is happening.)
- wyldfire 5y ago
  RCS tries to offer the feature set of WA and iMessage while engaging the mobile operator. WhatsApp and iMessage are "over the top" services that "only" leverage mobile data / TCP etc. RCS was an awful compromise in order to pander to the telcos. Being a simple data service avoids a lot of the problems introduced by cellular infrastructure. We can expect all of the same functionality/robustness/compatibility issues of SMS/MMS.
  - tg180 5y ago
    RCS "engaging with mobile operators" means that it will enable spam and marketing. Assuming an increase in the adoption of the technology, users will still mainly use OTT services. WhatsApp Business is a saint in comparison to the Wild West of telcos.
perryizgr8 5y ago
Whatsapp also provides a very nice payment feature in India. I use it very often.
ClumsyPilot 5y ago
"at the technical level calling/texting isn't competitive with Whatsapp." This does not seem to an a comment informed about how the network works VoLTE is better quality audio than what's app, it gracefully works in large crowds and countryside instead of degrading into individual sylabiles the way whats app does. Latency is 10x lower. There is no central server that cam fail like it did last week. Calling is an intrinsic, optimised part of the mobile network, replacing it at a higher layer will always be inferior. Its the economics that moves the needly, my mom would have neber installed an app to get all the other fluff like read reciepts
- Denvercoder9 5y ago
  With "technical" here I mean the featureset that's delivered to the user. Maybe your mom doesn't care about the "fluff", but your mom isn't the person in society that sets the standard for apps that intrinsically require a network effect, and the people that do set such a standard, do care about what you dismiss as fluff.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    "people that do set such a standard, do care about what you dismiss as fluff" Quick poll among my friends, 15% care about read reciepts but 100% care about money. My mom is about the median age of a what's app user, who are these magical people that set the standard more than she does? Based on what evidence do you believe their preferences are different to her's?

dvtrn 5y ago

What ever became of RCS? Wasn’t that supposed to support a good number of these features?

throw0101a 5y ago
It requires news infrastructure on the telco side as well as client-side support: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services There seems to be only lukewarm support for it from all parties involved. (Apple isn't even bothering to do much/anything, so that's a huge installed base where nothing is happening.)
wyldfire 5y ago
RCS tries to offer the feature set of WA and iMessage while engaging the mobile operator. WhatsApp and iMessage are "over the top" services that "only" leverage mobile data / TCP etc. RCS was an awful compromise in order to pander to the telcos. Being a simple data service avoids a lot of the problems introduced by cellular infrastructure. We can expect all of the same functionality/robustness/compatibility issues of SMS/MMS.
- tg180 5y ago
  RCS "engaging with mobile operators" means that it will enable spam and marketing. Assuming an increase in the adoption of the technology, users will still mainly use OTT services. WhatsApp Business is a saint in comparison to the Wild West of telcos.

perryizgr8 5y ago

Whatsapp also provides a very nice payment feature in India. I use it very often.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago

"at the technical level calling/texting isn't competitive with Whatsapp." This does not seem to an a comment informed about how the network works VoLTE is better quality audio than what's app, it gracefully works in large crowds and countryside instead of degrading into individual sylabiles the way whats app does. Latency is 10x lower. There is no central server that cam fail like it did last week. Calling is an intrinsic, optimised part of the mobile network, replacing it at a higher layer will always be inferior. Its the economics that moves the needly, my mom would have neber installed an app to get all the other fluff like read reciepts

Denvercoder9 5y ago
With "technical" here I mean the featureset that's delivered to the user. Maybe your mom doesn't care about the "fluff", but your mom isn't the person in society that sets the standard for apps that intrinsically require a network effect, and the people that do set such a standard, do care about what you dismiss as fluff.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  "people that do set such a standard, do care about what you dismiss as fluff" Quick poll among my friends, 15% care about read reciepts but 100% care about money. My mom is about the median age of a what's app user, who are these magical people that set the standard more than she does? Based on what evidence do you believe their preferences are different to her's?