5 ms·

Unless you live outside of the US in which nobody gives a damn and they all use WhatsApp. After moving, I only get sms messages from the doctors office and my f

Unless you live outside of the US in which nobody gives a damn and they all use WhatsApp. After moving, I only get sms messages from the doctors office and my friends back in America.

omnimus 2y ago
Not true at all. This effect is pretty common in countries outside of US. It makes sense. WhatsApp is just another messaging app thats popular depending on a local whim. Where as iMessages get sent automatically between iOS users.
- beAbU 2y ago
  What countries other than US is this so prevalent?
  - jbarham 2y ago
    According to https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/iphone-market-share-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/iphone-ma... iPhone also has > 50% market share in Canada, Norway, Sweden, Australia and Japan. FWIW I live in Australia and most group chats are via WhatsApp vs SMS/iMessage.
  - omnimus 2y ago
    I didnt say this is so prevalent. Just that it exists. My experience from few european countries is that middle class - tech/business/law people have iOS. Go to tech or business conference and its all iphones. So its really easy to be in such circles. I live in EU country and its all iMessage or Signal. Nobody uses WhatsApp if something its Facebook Messenger or Instagram messages.
- NBJack 2y ago
  Outside the US, and a handful of other countries, Android is far more dominant than iOS (75% vs 25%). [1] WhatsApp has an estimated active userbase of approximately 3 billion. [2] The number of iMessage users is estimated to be about 1 billion. [3] [1] https://explodingtopics.com/blog/iphone-android-users#iphone-vs-android-global-market-share https://explodingtopics.com/blog/iphone-android-users#iphone... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1306022/whatsapp-global-unique-users/#:~:text=WhatsApp%20is%20estimated%20to%20have%20reached%20almost,channel%20for%20global%20smartphone%20users%20in%202024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1306022/whatsapp-global-... [3] https://usesignhouse.com/blog/imessage-stats/#:~:text=iMessage%3A%20Number%20of%20users,-Want%20a%20link&text=of%20this%20article%3F-,The%20number%20of%20iMessage%20users%20around%20the%20world%20was%20estimated,the%201%20billion%20user%20milestone. https://usesignhouse.com/blog/imessage-stats/#:~:text=iMessa...
  - ksec 2y ago
    On [1], If you only look at countries with decent GDP per Capita. iOS will have anywhere from 40 to 65% market share. Even in China iOS is well over 30%. When you consider Africa + ASEAN + India has 3.5B population and has very low iPhone market share that sort of Skew the figures.
    - oasisaimlessly 2y ago
      Yeah, weighting the figures by GDP makes sense. Indeed, poor people aren't really people at all.
      - ksec 2y ago
        [flagged]
      - hownotai 2y ago
        Because it doesn't show an accurate representation. iOS is growing at a faster rate than ever before in developing countries, Apple achieved 11% shipment market share for the first time in India in Q424.
  - omnimus 2y ago
    Sorry but how that invalidates that in my country nobody uses WhatsApp? It doesn't matter at all if they are on Android or iOS. And since iMessages are seamless they are used very often between iOS users.
- 31337Logic 2y ago
  Y'all bitches gotta get on Signal. ;-)
  - dividedbyzero 2y ago
    I hear even the US government trusts Signal
- dividedbyzero 2y ago
  I'm sure there are dozens of people in Germany who actively prefer iMessage but I haven't met one yet. Whatsapp achieved pretty much total market capture here back when SMS still were costly and the network effects that arose from that are among the strongest I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure if someone was to do a survey, almost everyone would say Messages is for SMS only and I think most of them wouldn't know it can do more than that.
  - virtualritz 2y ago
    In Berlin everyone seems to be on Telegram these days. People leaning more left and/or are privacy-aware and/or hate FB/Meta/big tech use Signal. WhatsApp seems only to be used by the elderly/old in my circle of friends lately. The transition has been gradual; started during the pandemic, I'd say.
    - AlexKir 2y ago
      It doesn't surprise me. Telegram is surerior both technologically and UX side. I have impression that WhatsApp team just dont do anything for years.
  - omnimus 2y ago
    Yet i write with most of my German friends using iMessages because its automatic and i dont have Telegram or WhatsApp because nobody uses it in my european country.
oska 2y ago
> Unless you live outside of the US [...] and they all use WhatsApp This is such a ridiculously incorrect over-generalisation. China, Japan & Russia are obvious counter-examples, plus many others.
- homarp 2y ago
  i don't think China uses SMS though.
- needlesslygrim 2y ago
  In China WeChat is the dominant messaging platform, SMS is only used for delivery notifications, spam, etc.
  - Macha 2y ago
    My understanding is Line is on top in Japan.
  - oska 2y ago
    I understand that. My point was that the original comment was grossly overstating the supposed 'dominance' of WhatsApp.
    - thebytefairy 2y ago
      The real point of the original comment was that outside the US iMessage is not dominant and so nobody cares about what color a chat bubble is.
      - oska 2y ago
        I appreciate that I was a bit too confrontational in my first reply and should have just added that WeChat, Line and Telegram are also used (plus many others), not just WhatsApp. Why I think I (over) reacted is that it was, to me, an example of only partial escape from US American insularity. They understood that ppl outside the USA don't use SMS much, but only suggested a US American messaging platform as what was used instead.
colonial 2y ago
True, but God does WhatsApp suck. They've got a billion-strong userbase and yet the Android app still dumped literally every attachment I received into my camera roll until I manually added '.nomedia' files in the right places. And, oh man, the API for businesses is a Kafkaesque nightmare. Maybe it was good before it got Zucked, but I had to fight with their support for over a week to get an automated ban-hammer overturned... only for it to get auto-banned again two days later. We hadn't even deployed the damn thing yet!
- ksec 2y ago
  Dont know about Andriod but iOS you can select not to save images into camera roll.
- joseda-hg 2y ago
  That's a feature, not a bug Users are conditioned to look there for any kind of image on their device
- hu3 2y ago
  > literally every attachment I received into my camera roll There's a global setting for this: media visibility: off. Then you can enable that per chat. I have all chat images contained to only Whatsapp by default. Then I only enable some chats (family, friends) to expose images/videos to the phone. Google Photos scoops those and backsup all family pictures shared to whatsapp to my Google Photos. I'm the family's reliable source of truth when it comes to family photos.
- viraptor 2y ago
  What's "camera roll"? WA images go into the "WhatsApp Images" folder. They're separate from "Camera".
  - colonial 2y ago
    Every Android "gallery"-type app I've ever used defaults to a view that mixes together every known album/folder on the device. That works fine (and is in fact easier than remembering the exact album) when I get to pick and choose exactly what I photograph/save, but it became borderline unusable once WhatsApp started vomiting hundreds of stupid GIFs and throwaway screenshots into it.

Unless you live outside of the US in which nobody gives a damn and they all use WhatsApp. After moving, I only get sms messages from the doctors office and my friends back in America.

omnimus 2y ago

Not true at all. This effect is pretty common in countries outside of US. It makes sense. WhatsApp is just another messaging app thats popular depending on a local whim. Where as iMessages get sent automatically between iOS users.

beAbU 2y ago
What countries other than US is this so prevalent?
- jbarham 2y ago
  According to https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/iphone-market-share-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/iphone-ma... iPhone also has > 50% market share in Canada, Norway, Sweden, Australia and Japan. FWIW I live in Australia and most group chats are via WhatsApp vs SMS/iMessage.
- omnimus 2y ago
  I didnt say this is so prevalent. Just that it exists. My experience from few european countries is that middle class - tech/business/law people have iOS. Go to tech or business conference and its all iphones. So its really easy to be in such circles. I live in EU country and its all iMessage or Signal. Nobody uses WhatsApp if something its Facebook Messenger or Instagram messages.
NBJack 2y ago
Outside the US, and a handful of other countries, Android is far more dominant than iOS (75% vs 25%). [1] WhatsApp has an estimated active userbase of approximately 3 billion. [2] The number of iMessage users is estimated to be about 1 billion. [3] [1] https://explodingtopics.com/blog/iphone-android-users#iphone-vs-android-global-market-share https://explodingtopics.com/blog/iphone-android-users#iphone... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1306022/whatsapp-global-unique-users/#:~:text=WhatsApp%20is%20estimated%20to%20have%20reached%20almost,channel%20for%20global%20smartphone%20users%20in%202024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1306022/whatsapp-global-... [3] https://usesignhouse.com/blog/imessage-stats/#:~:text=iMessage%3A%20Number%20of%20users,-Want%20a%20link&text=of%20this%20article%3F-,The%20number%20of%20iMessage%20users%20around%20the%20world%20was%20estimated,the%201%20billion%20user%20milestone. https://usesignhouse.com/blog/imessage-stats/#:~:text=iMessa...
- ksec 2y ago
  On [1], If you only look at countries with decent GDP per Capita. iOS will have anywhere from 40 to 65% market share. Even in China iOS is well over 30%. When you consider Africa + ASEAN + India has 3.5B population and has very low iPhone market share that sort of Skew the figures.
  - oasisaimlessly 2y ago
    Yeah, weighting the figures by GDP makes sense. Indeed, poor people aren't really people at all.
    - ksec 2y ago
      [flagged]
    - hownotai 2y ago
      Because it doesn't show an accurate representation. iOS is growing at a faster rate than ever before in developing countries, Apple achieved 11% shipment market share for the first time in India in Q424.
- omnimus 2y ago
  Sorry but how that invalidates that in my country nobody uses WhatsApp? It doesn't matter at all if they are on Android or iOS. And since iMessages are seamless they are used very often between iOS users.
31337Logic 2y ago
Y'all bitches gotta get on Signal. ;-)
- dividedbyzero 2y ago
  I hear even the US government trusts Signal
dividedbyzero 2y ago
I'm sure there are dozens of people in Germany who actively prefer iMessage but I haven't met one yet. Whatsapp achieved pretty much total market capture here back when SMS still were costly and the network effects that arose from that are among the strongest I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure if someone was to do a survey, almost everyone would say Messages is for SMS only and I think most of them wouldn't know it can do more than that.
- virtualritz 2y ago
  In Berlin everyone seems to be on Telegram these days. People leaning more left and/or are privacy-aware and/or hate FB/Meta/big tech use Signal. WhatsApp seems only to be used by the elderly/old in my circle of friends lately. The transition has been gradual; started during the pandemic, I'd say.
  - AlexKir 2y ago
    It doesn't surprise me. Telegram is surerior both technologically and UX side. I have impression that WhatsApp team just dont do anything for years.
- omnimus 2y ago
  Yet i write with most of my German friends using iMessages because its automatic and i dont have Telegram or WhatsApp because nobody uses it in my european country.

oska 2y ago

> Unless you live outside of the US [...] and they all use WhatsApp This is such a ridiculously incorrect over-generalisation. China, Japan & Russia are obvious counter-examples, plus many others.

homarp 2y ago
i don't think China uses SMS though.
needlesslygrim 2y ago
In China WeChat is the dominant messaging platform, SMS is only used for delivery notifications, spam, etc.
- Macha 2y ago
  My understanding is Line is on top in Japan.
- oska 2y ago
  I understand that. My point was that the original comment was grossly overstating the supposed 'dominance' of WhatsApp.
  - thebytefairy 2y ago
    The real point of the original comment was that outside the US iMessage is not dominant and so nobody cares about what color a chat bubble is.
    - oska 2y ago
      I appreciate that I was a bit too confrontational in my first reply and should have just added that WeChat, Line and Telegram are also used (plus many others), not just WhatsApp. Why I think I (over) reacted is that it was, to me, an example of only partial escape from US American insularity. They understood that ppl outside the USA don't use SMS much, but only suggested a US American messaging platform as what was used instead.

colonial 2y ago

True, but God does WhatsApp suck. They've got a billion-strong userbase and yet the Android app still dumped literally every attachment I received into my camera roll until I manually added '.nomedia' files in the right places. And, oh man, the API for businesses is a Kafkaesque nightmare. Maybe it was good before it got Zucked, but I had to fight with their support for over a week to get an automated ban-hammer overturned... only for it to get auto-banned again two days later. We hadn't even deployed the damn thing yet!

ksec 2y ago
Dont know about Andriod but iOS you can select not to save images into camera roll.
joseda-hg 2y ago
That's a feature, not a bug Users are conditioned to look there for any kind of image on their device
hu3 2y ago
> literally every attachment I received into my camera roll There's a global setting for this: media visibility: off. Then you can enable that per chat. I have all chat images contained to only Whatsapp by default. Then I only enable some chats (family, friends) to expose images/videos to the phone. Google Photos scoops those and backsup all family pictures shared to whatsapp to my Google Photos. I'm the family's reliable source of truth when it comes to family photos.
viraptor 2y ago
What's "camera roll"? WA images go into the "WhatsApp Images" folder. They're separate from "Camera".
- colonial 2y ago
  Every Android "gallery"-type app I've ever used defaults to a view that mixes together every known album/folder on the device. That works fine (and is in fact easier than remembering the exact album) when I get to pick and choose exactly what I photograph/save, but it became borderline unusable once WhatsApp started vomiting hundreds of stupid GIFs and throwaway screenshots into it.