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> But it's such a visible signifier of being in an in-group. It also works really well and is a lot of fun for interacting. Many people aren't just using "text

> But it's such a visible signifier of being in an in-group. It also works really well and is a lot of fun for interacting. Many people aren't just using "text", its quite rich forms of interacting. Enough people have grown up with that now to not care about the more rudimentary way form of communication you associate with "texting". It also signifies that there are even MORE ways you can communicate, with the integrated location sharing when desired, video chat, video voicemails, and more. (I'm sure android users have the possibility of all these things, but not as deeply integrated or without any other app.) > and also don't really participate in any group texts shocked /s

drcongo 2y ago
Google Messages actually lets you use green bubbles too.
lxgr 2y ago
It's almost exactly as fun as WhatsApp, except that that's available on Android as well. Which arguably makes it more than twice as fun (based on the number of people you can reach with it globally) :) So literally every non-US phone user just installs it as the first app whenever they get a new phone and that's that. Having grown up on XMPP, I don't love that it's not federated, but at least it's available to everybody, and reasonably secure at that.
- vundercind 2y ago
  I mostly message over WhatsApp but iMessage has a lot more features, and especially fun (e.g. multiplayer games directly in the messaging program) and useful (e.g. very slick location sharing) ones.
  - lxgr 2y ago
    I use both, and I find WhatsApp much more fun, so maybe this is just a matter of habit/convenience. iMessage is regularly glitching out for me, doesn't work in the browser, has a more confusing sent/received/read indicator system than WhatsApp in group chats (not that I particularly care about the "read" part, but knowing who actually had signal and received the message is useful when traveling internationally), and most importantly isn't available with all of my contacts. WhatsApp location sharing works just as well in my experience.
- yieldcrv 2y ago
  You’re right, they all do the same things in some way. I’m in America communicating with Americans Apple, Google and ironically European regulators felt this is a big enough audience to cater to
  - lxgr 2y ago
    What are you referring to with European regulators? They're forcing WhatsApp to provide interoperability, but not iMessage, nor are they forcing Apple to support RCS (since only relatively few people use iMessage in Europe, and absolutely nobody knows what RCS even is).
recursive 2y ago
> but not as deeply integrated or without any other app Deeply integrated? How about a button that just does that? My android messaging app (that came with the phone) has a video call button in it. It works. Is it an app? What app is it? I don't know. I never installed it. It's just called "Video Call". It seems that the main reason you can't video call or send emojis across Apple's garden wall is that Apple doesn't want you to. As you note, all the MORE ways you can communicate are things that I've done without an Apple product. I'm not sure what "without any other app" means. Other than what? Is Facetime a separate app from iMessage? Are those even the right names?

drcongo 2y ago

Google Messages actually lets you use green bubbles too.

lxgr 2y ago

It's almost exactly as fun as WhatsApp, except that that's available on Android as well. Which arguably makes it more than twice as fun (based on the number of people you can reach with it globally) :) So literally every non-US phone user just installs it as the first app whenever they get a new phone and that's that. Having grown up on XMPP, I don't love that it's not federated, but at least it's available to everybody, and reasonably secure at that.

vundercind 2y ago
I mostly message over WhatsApp but iMessage has a lot more features, and especially fun (e.g. multiplayer games directly in the messaging program) and useful (e.g. very slick location sharing) ones.
- lxgr 2y ago
  I use both, and I find WhatsApp much more fun, so maybe this is just a matter of habit/convenience. iMessage is regularly glitching out for me, doesn't work in the browser, has a more confusing sent/received/read indicator system than WhatsApp in group chats (not that I particularly care about the "read" part, but knowing who actually had signal and received the message is useful when traveling internationally), and most importantly isn't available with all of my contacts. WhatsApp location sharing works just as well in my experience.
yieldcrv 2y ago
You’re right, they all do the same things in some way. I’m in America communicating with Americans Apple, Google and ironically European regulators felt this is a big enough audience to cater to
- lxgr 2y ago
  What are you referring to with European regulators? They're forcing WhatsApp to provide interoperability, but not iMessage, nor are they forcing Apple to support RCS (since only relatively few people use iMessage in Europe, and absolutely nobody knows what RCS even is).

recursive 2y ago

> but not as deeply integrated or without any other app Deeply integrated? How about a button that just does that? My android messaging app (that came with the phone) has a video call button in it. It works. Is it an app? What app is it? I don't know. I never installed it. It's just called "Video Call". It seems that the main reason you can't video call or send emojis across Apple's garden wall is that Apple doesn't want you to. As you note, all the MORE ways you can communicate are things that I've done without an Apple product. I'm not sure what "without any other app" means. Other than what? Is Facetime a separate app from iMessage? Are those even the right names?