7 ms·
I still don't get why people use SMS/MMS anyway? I've been using WhatsApp for ages now and so does everybody else in my country - and every country I've been in
by radiojasper 4y ago
I still don't get why people use SMS/MMS anyway? I've been using WhatsApp for ages now and so does everybody else in my country - and every country I've been in, apart from China and Japan. My friend who's from the US once said "I've paid for those text messages, so I'm going to use them!" But if I send him a text from Europe to the US, I pay 1 damn euro per delivered text. WhatsApp is free! Is there any viable reason why Apple users use SMS so much?
- lotsofpulp 4y agoThere are many people in the US who have no international contacts, and so they grew up using only the default messaging app. And they are not sufficiently incentivized to install another app like WhatsApp. Between NYC/SF, I do not know a single person that does not use both iMessage and WhatsApp. But typically it is people who are not children of immigrants and whose social circles have no one outside the country that tend to not have WhatsApp.
- themagician 4y agoApple users don't use SMS—they use iMessage. It's seamless and automatic. All your contacts are automatically there as long as you have a phone number or email address which is an AppleID. It's so seamless most people don't even realize they are using it.
- samwhiteUK 4y agoThere you go talking about the US again and assuming it represents the whole world. You Americans are so bad for that.
- stonemetal12 4y agoIt comes preinstalled, works, is free. Why would I look for a different messaging app? What does WhatsApp do that the preinstalled, free, messaging app doesn't?
- radiojasper 4y agoDeliver your messages encrypted, not mess up video quality when sending to/from Android users, sends messages over WiFi just to name a few.
- cgrealy 4y agoGroup messages to anyone regardless of platform. SMS is crap for group chats, and imessage doesn't work if someone in the group isn't using ios. Now, you absolutely might not care about those things, but millions of people definitely do.
- kelnos 4y ago> SMS is crap for group chats SMS doesn't do group chats; I think you're thinking of MMS. I agree that it's not a great experience, though. > Group messages to anyone regardless of platform. That's the thing though; that's not true. WhatsApp might be available on both Android and iOS, but it only works if the person you want to talk to has it installed and has set up an account. That requires coordination. If I meet someone new and want to get in touch with them, I'm going to ask for their phone number (or email address). I'm not going to ask them which messaging apps they have installed so we can figure out which one(s) we have in common. Sure, if later on I want to start a long-running group chat including this person, I'll absolutely go to the effort of finding a common chat platform that is not MMS, because MMS is terrible. But if I'm only doing 1-on-1 conversations, or just short one-off group chats, I won't bother. (Interestingly, for some people, even though I have group chats with them on an alternate platform, I'll still message them 1-on-1 using SMS. Not sure why that's the case, and it's not universal. I guess it's just whatever we'd gotten used to, and saw no need to change.)
- aembleton 4y agoI think this is region specific. In the UK and a lot of western Europe, you'd probably assume that the other person does have Whatsapp installed and just try messaging on that. If that didn't work, then you might try Messenger or SMS.
- 4y ago
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoSMS is the only federated messaging system guaranteed available on all cell phones. That makes it more useful than any walled garden.
- kelnos 4y agoIt's weird to me that so many people don't seem to get that. SMS/MMS are terrible in many ways, but they have the benefit of the universal network effect, without even trying. Sure, if I want to send someone videos, or do regular group chats, I'm going to find an alternative platform. But if it's just a casual contact, or I don't anticipate needing these things, I'll just stick with SMS.
- baby 4y agoNot end to end encrypted lol
- kaashif 4y agoI'll have you know all of my texts are encrypted with GPG. 90% of my time is spent copying and pastingl...help me.
- mr_toad 4y agoTrue cypherpunks encrypt their messages by hand using a one-time pad. Not having any friends makes this less of a burden than you might think.
- Andrex 4y agoThat's a hard problem that a lot of smart people are trying to figure out. I'd say there's been good progress. https://support.google.com/messages/answer/10252671?hl=en https://support.google.com/messages/answer/10252671?hl=en I think this is exclusive to Jibe and Google Messages but a widespread (in terms of installs) proof-of-concept is still pretty cool, and better than nothing. The bigger problem is adding E2E to SMS is going to attract the FBI's ire, they really really really like reading everybody's texts.
- rootusrootus 4y agoAlmost nobody I know uses WhatsApp. On the other hand, a significant number of people I meet do have iMessage. There's no incentive for me to install WhatsApp. Even my friends internationally all have iPhones. I don't install third-party apps unless there is a very good reason. SMS is an inferior but acceptable fallback for edge cases.
- simonjgreen 4y agoYour bubble is not representative of the whole world though. >80% of mobile devices are not iPhones. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/272307/market-share-forecast-for-smartphone-operating-systems/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/272307/market-share-fore...) 80% is not an edge case.
- kelnos 4y agoThis is a subthread about someone not from the US being surprised at the messaging habits of people in the US, so I think quoting a stat about iPhone/iMessage penetration in the US is perfectly relevant. The US "bubble" is the only one that matters in this particular conversation, as it's specifically what this conversation is about.
- simonjgreen 4y agoNothing in the comment I've replied to quotes a stat or references the US, and nothing in the grandparent comment references stats or talks about the habits of the US specifically either. I'm also not questioning the relevance of any posted stats. I'm really confused by this comment, is it a mis post from another thread?
- kelnos 4y agoNot sure what you mean. The originator of this thread[0] is mostly talking about being surprised at US messaging habits. Agreed that the person you replied to did not specifically mention the US, but their comment is consistent with a US user's experience, which makes sense since the thread is about US messaging. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32405042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32405042
- cgrealy 4y ago> Is there any viable reason why Apple users use SMS so much? They don't. At least not in my experience. I have an iPhone, but there's about a 50/50 split ios/android in my friends and family. Group chats are almost entirely WhatsApp, and single messages are a blend of WhatsApp, iMessage and SMS. I probably use SMS/MMS once a week
- kelnos 4y agoAs counterpoint, I am an Android user in the US, and 90%+ of my contacts are US-based iPhone users. While I do use Signal, WhatsApp, or GChat for nearly all of my group chats, I have 1-on-1 conversations over SMS daily, with quite a few people. I've managed to move a few of the 1-on-1 chats to Signal, but not many.
- cgrealy 4y agoI'm not sure I understand.... if 90%+ of your contacts are on iOS, why are you using SMS instead of iMessage? I wonder if that's a US based thing (I'm in NZ)?
- kelnos 4y agoI use WhatsApp as well, but not many of the people I communicate with have it. SMS/MMS is a common denominator that everyone with a phone number has, and can always be relied upon to work without foreknowledge that the other party has a particular app installed. > But if I send him a text from Europe to the US, I pay 1 damn euro per delivered text How the tables have turned! It's no secret that the US has more expensive cellular plans than the rest of the world, but with my carrier, international texting is free.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- macintux 4y agoWhatsApp was appealing before it got sucked into the FB vortex. Thanks, but no thanks. If there were a single 3rd-party messaging platform that I trusted, and my friends started using it, sure. But since 75% use iPhones/iMessage, and the rest SMS, why in the world would I use WhatsApp?
- abawany 4y agoI've seen this position a lot throughout this thread and I have a question: all of these apps (whatsapp, signal, etc.) appear to be "free" - how do you suppose they will make money? In the US, the users of sms/mms/imessage paid in some way for this service and can have some reasonable expectation for delivery and availability.
- simonjgreen 4y agoIn the case of WhatsApp they charge businesses for business features. https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408818454938-WhatsApp-pricing-change-announcement https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408818454938-... Prior to business features a long time ago they used to charge a one time $1 fee to download then $1 per year.
- kelnos 4y agoI believe the Signal Foundation runs on donations. So far this appears to have been sustainable, but of course you could make the argument that we don't know if that will always be the case. But that's the case for any business, even one for which users directly pay for the service.
- asdff 4y agoBecause most Americans are texting for free
- nr2x 4y agoThe USA is very much iMessage driven relative to rest of the world.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- parkingrift 4y agoI’d rather skip messaging friends and family altogether than use a service owned and operated by sociopath anti-human Mark Zuckerberg.