2 ms·

> In 2008, Apple made it possible to text-message multiple people at the same time, moving limited SMS messaging into their iMessage system — essentially confla

> In 2008, Apple made it possible to text-message multiple people at the same time, moving limited SMS messaging into their iMessage system — essentially conflating “texting” and “messaging,” collapsing group conversation into a single organized chain. iMessage launched in 2011. MMS allowed messaging multiple people from phones before 2008. Even though I and many in my social circle have had iPhones since summer of 2008, I would say it was WhatsApp that really made group messaging on smartphones blow up, maybe ~late 2009 or 2010. Edit: Best source I can find says WhatsApp group functionality came out in 2011, so I am off on that, but I do remember WhatsApp functionality being better than iMessage for quite a few years (and I would say except for picture/video quality, it still is).

rkagerer 3y ago
I've tried WhatsApp and all kinds of other modern IM software. To be honest I still haven't found anything I liked better than ICQ (before it got enshittified). One thing I wish more apps offered is per-contact visibility.
secabeen 3y ago
MMS pre-dates iMessage, but even today MMS does not support persistent multi-party group chats. You can create a group MMS, but it's stateless; you can't change the membership in any way without creating a new entry in your chat list; this naturally fractures the community (people using old group chats instead of the one with the current membership, etc.) The specific implementation details do matter; and I think that this fundamental weakness of MMS has created the space for WhatsApp, iMessage, etc to thrive.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  Yes, the implementation matters, I just found it jarring that two trivially disproved claims from recent history start the article.
lxgr 3y ago
> MMS allowed messaging multiple people from phones before 2008. In the same way that email allows "group chat", i.e. in a painful unergonomic way that nobody would subject themselves to if it's at all avoidable. It's also incredibly expensive in many places and has never really caught on outside the US.

rkagerer 3y ago

I've tried WhatsApp and all kinds of other modern IM software. To be honest I still haven't found anything I liked better than ICQ (before it got enshittified). One thing I wish more apps offered is per-contact visibility.

secabeen 3y ago

MMS pre-dates iMessage, but even today MMS does not support persistent multi-party group chats. You can create a group MMS, but it's stateless; you can't change the membership in any way without creating a new entry in your chat list; this naturally fractures the community (people using old group chats instead of the one with the current membership, etc.) The specific implementation details do matter; and I think that this fundamental weakness of MMS has created the space for WhatsApp, iMessage, etc to thrive.

lotsofpulp 3y ago
Yes, the implementation matters, I just found it jarring that two trivially disproved claims from recent history start the article.

lxgr 3y ago

> MMS allowed messaging multiple people from phones before 2008. In the same way that email allows "group chat", i.e. in a painful unergonomic way that nobody would subject themselves to if it's at all avoidable. It's also incredibly expensive in many places and has never really caught on outside the US.