To those suggesting that messaging should be replaced by instant messengers: No thanks. WhatsApp, iMessage and this kind of solutions have one feature that they

To those suggesting that messaging should be replaced by instant messengers: No thanks. WhatsApp, iMessage and this kind of solutions have one feature that they carry over from SMS that makes all the difference to me: they don't have the concept of presence. I don't need to be "online" to receive messages, people don't know if I'm "online", "away", "offline", they just send me a message and they know I'll eventually get it. Exactly like email. That is one great feature. How many times have you found yourself or your buddies "hacking" the status indicator because you don't want to give away your real status? I hate when people are always "away" or "busy":it makes the status indicator useless and I just came to ignore it, it is just that annoying thing that when it's gray it prevents me from messaging you. If we just remove the status indicator, all that stress disappears. I don't want IM to replace SMS-like solutions.