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Reminder to everyone who wonders why WhatsApp and iMessage won: US phone carriers used to charge $0.10 to $0.25 per message. Yes, it was as ridiculous as it so

Reminder to everyone who wonders why WhatsApp and iMessage won: US phone carriers used to charge $0.10 to $0.25 per message. Yes, it was as ridiculous as it sounds. There used to be news articles about kids racking up hundreds of dollars on their phone bill. Here's one from the same year the iphone was released: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051901284.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/0...

lxgr 3y ago
Was that really a concern in the US? WhatsApp and iMessage require data plans, and as far as I can remember these have largely included unlimited SMS as well. It was definitely a factor in the EU, though: SMS still aren't free on many prepaid plans there. WhatsApp was the first popular application supporting unlimited messaging on mobile phones for many.
- swozey 3y ago
  I'm 39 and SMS not being unlimited was a huge thing. I never thought it would be unlimited, when that happened (Suncom? I forget who started it) it was huge. This was a LONG time ago though, long before WhatsApp. Probably 15-18 for me. I remember a lot of conversations in high school going "My plans maxed out can you text $friend?" IIRC you had to specifically turn off receiving texts or they'd charge you for each one and we were broke HS kids. edit: Oh that article posted above is 2007. I guess it lasted way longer than I thought.
  - earthboundkid 3y ago
    Yes, I think I got my first iPhone around 2010, and at the time I was still on limited text message plan. I don't think I got unlimited texts until 2014 or something.
    - swozey 3y ago
      Damn 2014?? My years are all skewed nowadays.
      - nerdix 3y ago
        I think he's in the minority because everyone I knew had unlimited SMS by the mid-00s before the iPhone was released.
        earthboundkid 3y ago
        The unlimited plans existed, but it was more expensive than the limited plan I used, since I didn't go over the limit.
        acdha 3y ago
        There were big variations by carriers - that certainly wasn’t ubiquitous by the time the iPhone was released, because iMessage sidestepping it was important to enough people that everyone mentioned it in their reviews. For example: > Besides ease of use, there's another side benefit to this seamless integration. If you send messages regularly to iOS 5 users, you may be able to switch to a cheaper texting plan from your carrier. Assuming you send messages exclusively to iOS 5 users, you may one day be able to ditch a texting plan altogether. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/06/more-upcoming-ios-5-features-our-top-picks/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/06/more-upcoming-ios-5-...
  - lxgr 3y ago
    I don't doubt that SMS were not always unlimited in the US. But the question here is: Were there any (reasonably popular) plans that provided data for smartphones, but not unlimited texting? If not, that couldn't have been a factor in the adoption of iMessage in the US.
    - ceejayoz 3y ago
      If you had wifi at home/work/school, you could send and receive without incurring any data usage at all.
      - lxgr 3y ago
        True, but at least in the case of iMessage, that would also mean not being able to text all while not within Wi-Fi coverage (since Apple absolutely refuses to let people actually send an SMS to a number it considers to be participating in iMessage).
        ceejayoz 3y ago
        No; the iPhone launched with data plans. It just wasn't unlimited, nor were the texts. Sending an iMessage cost a lot less than ten cents of data; you could send/receive a lot more of them within your plan without overages. (IIRC, my plan with Cingular didn't have any texts built-in, so they were 10¢ a pop, in each direction. I could send many thousands within the data plan's couple of gigabytes.)
        TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
        > since Apple absolutely refuses to let people actually send an SMS to a number it considers to be participating in iMessage Are you sure? I remember iMessage falling back to SMS if for some reason it can’t get through on iMessage.
    - jdofaz 3y ago
      I had a work blackberry on verizon that had unlimited data and no free sms texts. We used BBM and Google Voice to avoid paying sms fees
  - nilsherzig 3y ago
    I'm 21 and from Germany, I absolutely remember paying for sms in the first years of my highschool time. I can also remember killing my data plan browsing Instagram while skipping my French class ... So about 7 years ago?
- ok_dad 3y ago
  Back in my day, you used to pay per minute for calls. Then they moved to a few hundred minutes free and the new SMS system cost a few cents per text. Then it was like 1500min/100sms free. Eventually it became unlimited minutes and texts but data cost some cents per kb or mb, then eventually that ratcheted up to “unlimited” everything with some “reasonable limits”. As a kid I used to make a collect call to my mom and when they asked who was calling I’d say, “pick me up” and hang up. Free short messages even in the 90’s!
  - kstrauser 3y ago
    Ah, good ol’ Bob Wehadababyitsaboy.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    > Back in my day, you used to pay per minute for calls. Hello, fellow graybeard! This is something I pull out every once in a while to let kids these days know how rough we had it: we had to pay 10-25 cents per minute for any in-state phone calls that weren't "local", where "local" was an arbitrary boundary on the map not even related to area code. If we had to call out of state, charges started at $1 per minute. Every year at Christmas, we'd have an event where the local family would gather to make phone calls to out-of-state family. Because the cost was so high, we had to strictly ration time. Each kid (I was a kid then) got 3 minutes talk time. This was late '70s/early '80s, and the figures are not adjusted for inflation.
  - matwood 3y ago
    And early 'unlimited' cell plans required the user to be 'local' usually in a city. Leave the city and boom, back to charge per minute because of 'roaming'.
- qingcharles 3y ago
  RCS requires a data plan, and certainly Google's Messages app doesn't handle it well when there is no data. I know a lot of people who are too poor to afford data on their phones and they are regularly losing all their messages because of RCS.
- throw0101b 3y ago
  > WhatsApp and iMessage require data plans, and as far as I can remember these have largely included unlimited SMS as well. The reason why WhatsApp was huge internationally (like, 10^8 users huge) was because many teclos in developing countries included data usage in their plans but SMS was extra (and talking minutes were finite), so people used WhatsApp for all comms. WhatsApp's had a free tier, but their basic plan was (IIRC) $1/month, and they many (tens/hundreds) of millions of users that paid it. Facebook bought WhatsApp for $20B: * https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-whatsapp-idUSKCN0HV1Q820141006/ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-whatsapp-idUSKCN... > Evidently, Zuckerberg lied to the European and American trade commissions. It was in fact possible to interface Facebook and WhatsApp platforms to mine data. Facebook has been doing it since day one of its acquisition. As always, Zuckerberg admitted to the misdeed, apologized and paid the fine. He got away scot-free. > Months later, co-founder Jan Koum discovered that Facebook’s management weakened WhatsApp encryption system to make it easier for them to mine data. Koum resigned too. > Fast forward to today and Zuckerberg continues to mine our data through Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram (which he acquired in 2012). Facebook has become a surveillance behemoth – arguably the biggest surveillance organization in the world. * https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2023/04/05/2256935/real-reason-why-facebook-bought-whatsapp https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2023/04/05/2256935/real-rea...
daft_pink 3y ago
I don't think that's true. I think the fees are why Whatsapp won outside of the US. US users quickly had access to unlimited SMS and calling on most phone plans, which is why Whatsapp never took root.
no_wizard 3y ago
While its true that SMS used to cost per message (and outrageously at that) unlimited SMS/MMS (AKA, unlimited text) plans were cheaper (and on some carriers, predate) than unlimited data, often being only $10 a month or so as an add-on. Unlimited talk & text plans were relatively common as well. In the EU for instance, the reverse was true. Particularly, unlimited data was cheap and affordable, where as SMS was quite costly (even more than in the US in some cases) so data heavy apps were easier to adopt. Hence, WhatsApp, Telegram etc. gaining so much popularity. iMessage was introduced much later to the rich messaging market than these apps in those countries (because mobile messaging apps were cheap to adopt in markets where mobile data is cheap). There is much more competition in those countries with cheap mobile data in the rich messaging services space. In the US, unlimited data has had a more sordid history, and SMS / MMS had a much bigger adoption rate early on
- doublerabbit 3y ago
  The days when each vendor of mobile phone were different from all the rest. Now all of them are Android and just unappealing.
- MBCook 3y ago
  Sure it was $10/line. iMessage was free once you had a smartphone plan. And no, smartphone plans didn’t automatically come with unlimited SMS. I had to “upgrade” for that.
  - ImJamal 3y ago
    >iMessage was free once you had a smartphone plan. Unless you went over your data limit.
    - MBCook 3y ago
      Good point. If you stick to text (like SMS was) that would be extremely difficult. Start sending any kind of media and all bets are off.
    - giantrobot 3y ago
duped 3y ago
My recollection is that unlimited text plans became the standard around 2008ish, well before iMessage came out. iMessage "won" because it was the default for iPhone users in the US. Similarly, Whatsapp is the default nowhere and I don't know anyone who uses it, but that might be a generational thing. Whatsapp has always struck me as common in Europe, but rare in the US. We just use text and FB Messenger.
lotsofpulp 3y ago
I disagree, unlimited domestic SMS/MMS was common by iPhone 3G (summer 2008) I specifically remember getting an unlimited plan from ATT, which was novel. However, international SMS/MMS was extremely expensive, and that was the main impetus for WhatsApp. It required no password or making accounts or remembering all of that, hence all non tech savvy people could easily use it. And it worked flawlessly, with zero exorbitant international charges, because you knew everything was going via data.
userinanother 3y ago
By the time I message became big it was a non issue. SMS is a garbage standard in comparison. I send full pictures and movies via I message if there is a Android phone on the chat they all turn to garbage tiny images

lxgr 3y ago

Was that really a concern in the US? WhatsApp and iMessage require data plans, and as far as I can remember these have largely included unlimited SMS as well. It was definitely a factor in the EU, though: SMS still aren't free on many prepaid plans there. WhatsApp was the first popular application supporting unlimited messaging on mobile phones for many.

swozey 3y ago
I'm 39 and SMS not being unlimited was a huge thing. I never thought it would be unlimited, when that happened (Suncom? I forget who started it) it was huge. This was a LONG time ago though, long before WhatsApp. Probably 15-18 for me. I remember a lot of conversations in high school going "My plans maxed out can you text $friend?" IIRC you had to specifically turn off receiving texts or they'd charge you for each one and we were broke HS kids. edit: Oh that article posted above is 2007. I guess it lasted way longer than I thought.
- earthboundkid 3y ago
  Yes, I think I got my first iPhone around 2010, and at the time I was still on limited text message plan. I don't think I got unlimited texts until 2014 or something.
  - swozey 3y ago
    Damn 2014?? My years are all skewed nowadays.
    - nerdix 3y ago
      I think he's in the minority because everyone I knew had unlimited SMS by the mid-00s before the iPhone was released.
      - earthboundkid 3y ago
        The unlimited plans existed, but it was more expensive than the limited plan I used, since I didn't go over the limit.
      - acdha 3y ago
        There were big variations by carriers - that certainly wasn’t ubiquitous by the time the iPhone was released, because iMessage sidestepping it was important to enough people that everyone mentioned it in their reviews. For example: > Besides ease of use, there's another side benefit to this seamless integration. If you send messages regularly to iOS 5 users, you may be able to switch to a cheaper texting plan from your carrier. Assuming you send messages exclusively to iOS 5 users, you may one day be able to ditch a texting plan altogether. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/06/more-upcoming-ios-5-features-our-top-picks/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/06/more-upcoming-ios-5-...
- lxgr 3y ago
  I don't doubt that SMS were not always unlimited in the US. But the question here is: Were there any (reasonably popular) plans that provided data for smartphones, but not unlimited texting? If not, that couldn't have been a factor in the adoption of iMessage in the US.
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    If you had wifi at home/work/school, you could send and receive without incurring any data usage at all.
    - lxgr 3y ago
      True, but at least in the case of iMessage, that would also mean not being able to text all while not within Wi-Fi coverage (since Apple absolutely refuses to let people actually send an SMS to a number it considers to be participating in iMessage).
      - ceejayoz 3y ago
        No; the iPhone launched with data plans. It just wasn't unlimited, nor were the texts. Sending an iMessage cost a lot less than ten cents of data; you could send/receive a lot more of them within your plan without overages. (IIRC, my plan with Cingular didn't have any texts built-in, so they were 10¢ a pop, in each direction. I could send many thousands within the data plan's couple of gigabytes.)
      - TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
        > since Apple absolutely refuses to let people actually send an SMS to a number it considers to be participating in iMessage Are you sure? I remember iMessage falling back to SMS if for some reason it can’t get through on iMessage.
  - jdofaz 3y ago
    I had a work blackberry on verizon that had unlimited data and no free sms texts. We used BBM and Google Voice to avoid paying sms fees
- nilsherzig 3y ago
  I'm 21 and from Germany, I absolutely remember paying for sms in the first years of my highschool time. I can also remember killing my data plan browsing Instagram while skipping my French class ... So about 7 years ago?
ok_dad 3y ago
Back in my day, you used to pay per minute for calls. Then they moved to a few hundred minutes free and the new SMS system cost a few cents per text. Then it was like 1500min/100sms free. Eventually it became unlimited minutes and texts but data cost some cents per kb or mb, then eventually that ratcheted up to “unlimited” everything with some “reasonable limits”. As a kid I used to make a collect call to my mom and when they asked who was calling I’d say, “pick me up” and hang up. Free short messages even in the 90’s!
- kstrauser 3y ago
  Ah, good ol’ Bob Wehadababyitsaboy.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > Back in my day, you used to pay per minute for calls. Hello, fellow graybeard! This is something I pull out every once in a while to let kids these days know how rough we had it: we had to pay 10-25 cents per minute for any in-state phone calls that weren't "local", where "local" was an arbitrary boundary on the map not even related to area code. If we had to call out of state, charges started at $1 per minute. Every year at Christmas, we'd have an event where the local family would gather to make phone calls to out-of-state family. Because the cost was so high, we had to strictly ration time. Each kid (I was a kid then) got 3 minutes talk time. This was late '70s/early '80s, and the figures are not adjusted for inflation.
- matwood 3y ago
  And early 'unlimited' cell plans required the user to be 'local' usually in a city. Leave the city and boom, back to charge per minute because of 'roaming'.
qingcharles 3y ago
RCS requires a data plan, and certainly Google's Messages app doesn't handle it well when there is no data. I know a lot of people who are too poor to afford data on their phones and they are regularly losing all their messages because of RCS.
throw0101b 3y ago
> WhatsApp and iMessage require data plans, and as far as I can remember these have largely included unlimited SMS as well. The reason why WhatsApp was huge internationally (like, 10^8 users huge) was because many teclos in developing countries included data usage in their plans but SMS was extra (and talking minutes were finite), so people used WhatsApp for all comms. WhatsApp's had a free tier, but their basic plan was (IIRC) $1/month, and they many (tens/hundreds) of millions of users that paid it. Facebook bought WhatsApp for $20B: * https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-whatsapp-idUSKCN0HV1Q820141006/ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-whatsapp-idUSKCN... > Evidently, Zuckerberg lied to the European and American trade commissions. It was in fact possible to interface Facebook and WhatsApp platforms to mine data. Facebook has been doing it since day one of its acquisition. As always, Zuckerberg admitted to the misdeed, apologized and paid the fine. He got away scot-free. > Months later, co-founder Jan Koum discovered that Facebook’s management weakened WhatsApp encryption system to make it easier for them to mine data. Koum resigned too. > Fast forward to today and Zuckerberg continues to mine our data through Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram (which he acquired in 2012). Facebook has become a surveillance behemoth – arguably the biggest surveillance organization in the world. * https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2023/04/05/2256935/real-reason-why-facebook-bought-whatsapp https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2023/04/05/2256935/real-rea...

daft_pink 3y ago

I don't think that's true. I think the fees are why Whatsapp won outside of the US. US users quickly had access to unlimited SMS and calling on most phone plans, which is why Whatsapp never took root.

no_wizard 3y ago

While its true that SMS used to cost per message (and outrageously at that) unlimited SMS/MMS (AKA, unlimited text) plans were cheaper (and on some carriers, predate) than unlimited data, often being only $10 a month or so as an add-on. Unlimited talk & text plans were relatively common as well. In the EU for instance, the reverse was true. Particularly, unlimited data was cheap and affordable, where as SMS was quite costly (even more than in the US in some cases) so data heavy apps were easier to adopt. Hence, WhatsApp, Telegram etc. gaining so much popularity. iMessage was introduced much later to the rich messaging market than these apps in those countries (because mobile messaging apps were cheap to adopt in markets where mobile data is cheap). There is much more competition in those countries with cheap mobile data in the rich messaging services space. In the US, unlimited data has had a more sordid history, and SMS / MMS had a much bigger adoption rate early on

doublerabbit 3y ago
The days when each vendor of mobile phone were different from all the rest. Now all of them are Android and just unappealing.
MBCook 3y ago
Sure it was $10/line. iMessage was free once you had a smartphone plan. And no, smartphone plans didn’t automatically come with unlimited SMS. I had to “upgrade” for that.
- ImJamal 3y ago
  >iMessage was free once you had a smartphone plan. Unless you went over your data limit.
  - MBCook 3y ago
    Good point. If you stick to text (like SMS was) that would be extremely difficult. Start sending any kind of media and all bets are off.
  - giantrobot 3y ago

duped 3y ago

My recollection is that unlimited text plans became the standard around 2008ish, well before iMessage came out. iMessage "won" because it was the default for iPhone users in the US. Similarly, Whatsapp is the default nowhere and I don't know anyone who uses it, but that might be a generational thing. Whatsapp has always struck me as common in Europe, but rare in the US. We just use text and FB Messenger.

lotsofpulp 3y ago

I disagree, unlimited domestic SMS/MMS was common by iPhone 3G (summer 2008) I specifically remember getting an unlimited plan from ATT, which was novel. However, international SMS/MMS was extremely expensive, and that was the main impetus for WhatsApp. It required no password or making accounts or remembering all of that, hence all non tech savvy people could easily use it. And it worked flawlessly, with zero exorbitant international charges, because you knew everything was going via data.

userinanother 3y ago

By the time I message became big it was a non issue. SMS is a garbage standard in comparison. I send full pictures and movies via I message if there is a Android phone on the chat they all turn to garbage tiny images