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SMS used to often cost money, even for plans with gigabytes of internet data. iMessage helped break that.

• jcrites 5y ago
  This is a US-centric point of view. For most of the world, WhatsApp was the key communication app that broke the SMS monopoly. Furthermore, it's not part of a walled garden, being available on all platforms - unlike iMessage which Apple intentionally makes available only on Mac platforms. By comparison, WhatsApp is available on Android and various feature phones, as well as the iPhone, and provides a web client (web.whatsapp.com) and native clients for Windows and Mac (whatsapp.com/download) (and Linux too, though that software is business-oriented).
  • ummonk 5y ago
    That’s why I said “helped break that” rather than “single-handedly broke that”.
  • gsinclair 5y ago
    WhatsApp isn’t as heroic as that: for a long time it was phone-only.