Right but WhatsApp solved a very different problem in the beginning - how do I send a message to someone who isn't online right now (or has a flaky connection).

Right but WhatsApp solved a very different problem in the beginning - how do I send a message to someone who isn't online right now (or has a flaky connection). THAT was what was needed for mobile devices. I remember trying to use MSN messenger when I was on WAP and it sucked. And then I remember Skype on iPhone sucked for messages too. SMS also wasn't great if you were remotely international and had friends and family not in the same country as you. It took two whole years for Skype to rearchitect away from peer to peer (understandably so). To this day, when you want guaranteed delivery, in order and without duplicates WhatsApp runs circles around its competitors. Compare that with Slack which both on desktop and mobile regularly has weird issues with successfully delivering a message. Ultimately avatars are nice to have and later on top of a reliable messaging service but otherwise I'd take boring old text over flaky rich messaging every day of the week.