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Whenever I hear this iMessage thing I’m surprised. Is that a US / Canada thing? Here in Europe, everybody uses WhatsApp and/or similar products for chat and th

Whenever I hear this iMessage thing I’m surprised. Is that a US / Canada thing? Here in Europe, everybody uses WhatsApp and/or similar products for chat and they are all multi platform.

herbst 1y ago
This. In 98% of all cases I get away with only having telegram (no phone number even) most people have one or multiple IMs
hylaride 1y ago
iOS/iPhones are the majority of phones in Canada and the US (~60%). However, if you take the upper half of household incomes that number skyrockets to 80-90%. Comparatively, in the UK it's 50/50. In the rest of europe android mostly has a 60-75% market share (tends to drift more towards android the more eastern you go - signalling wealth has a lot to do with it). The reasons why are varied (everything from wealth signalling to switching being a pain and iphone mostly had a first mover advantage for quality and availability for the first several years), but it's only in the last two years that I've seen people start to use multi-platform chat apps here. Most of my peer group with other parents all default to imessage group chats for sharing photos, stories of our kids. I am also starting to notice a loosening on apple's services. Spotify is used by more people than Apple music even amungst the apple households I know.
- Der_Einzige 1y ago
  Kids are ruthless about anti green bubble discrimination and it’s part of the reason for the rise of incels. The overwhelming majority of incels are android users, and the mainstream cultural media likes to make clear that one of the reason for being incels is them using a “poordroid” https://leafandcore.com/2019/08/24/green-bubbles-are-a-turn-off-why-some-iphone-users-wont-date-android-users/ https://leafandcore.com/2019/08/24/green-bubbles-are-a-turn-... https://outsidethebeltway.com/the-dreaded-green-bubble/ https://outsidethebeltway.com/the-dreaded-green-bubble/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-teens-dread-the-green-text-bubble-11641618009 https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-... https://gizmodo.com/im-buying-an-iphone-because-im-ashamed-of-my-green-bubb-1787965756 https://gizmodo.com/im-buying-an-iphone-because-im-ashamed-o... https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1241473453/why-green-text-bubble-stigma-is-part-of-the-anti-trust-case-against-apple https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1241473453/why-green-text-bub... https://www.fastcompany.com/90391587/why-we-dont-want-you-and-your-android-green-bubbles-in-our-imessage-chat https://www.fastcompany.com/90391587/why-we-dont-want-you-an...
  - oenton 1y ago
    Whoa hold on. I was with you until “the overwhelming majority of incels are android users.” How did you draw that conclusion?
    - Der_Einzige 1y ago
      The countless myriad number of TikTok’s, reels, etc from women calling out how using an android is a dealer breaker. The community made polls of “incels.us” about this exact question, and the other links I cited showing green bubble social discrimination. My original post has enough receipts. If you don’t believe me you’re free to remain wrong. But here’s more anyway: https://www.joe.co.uk/life/sex/owning-an-android-is-officially-the-uks-biggest-turn-off-for-2021-307627 https://www.joe.co.uk/life/sex/owning-an-android-is-official... https://www.dailydot.com/debug/android-relationship-iphone/ https://www.dailydot.com/debug/android-relationship-iphone/ https://www.studentbeans.com/blog/uk/the-biggest-student-dating-icks-revealed/ https://www.studentbeans.com/blog/uk/the-biggest-student-dat... https://archive.thetab.com/uk/2020/10/16/girls-are-sharing-what-gives-them-the-ick-and-some-of-them-are-absolutely-ridiculous-178902 https://archive.thetab.com/uk/2020/10/16/girls-are-sharing-w... These memes posted on short video sites also have parallel ones of women making fun of guys who try to do the whole “hold on let me pirate this movie and HDMI connect it to the TV thing” instead of having Netflix.
      - frollogaston 1y ago
        I don't doubt that some women make fun of men for green bubbles, but this doesn't mean the vast majority of incels are Android users. If that were true, wouldn't they just get an iPhone? Also the HDMI thing is hilarious because it's exactly what my wife would say about me.
        palata 1y ago
        > but this doesn't mean the vast majority of incels are Android users Is there such a thing as incels? I thought it was just a stupid concept to bully people. Not that it doesn't exist, but I wouldn't think that there is a category of people (kids, I guess?) who "are" incels, is there? In some contexts, some kids are "considered" incels by bullies. Or do I get it wrong?
bluGill 1y ago
WhatsApp never caught on in the US since cell phones and SMS were a great deal for keeping in touch. By the time WhatsApp arrived US carriers were not raping their customers for phone calls or SMS messages (in the early days of cell phones they were - be very careful responding as the state of the world has changed many times over the years and so it is quite possible you remember a time where your country was better than the US for reasons that are no longer true!). Note in particular calls and SMS to a different state is included, and typically Canada is included as well. As such we never developed the WhatsApp habbit as it didn't give us anything.
frollogaston 1y ago
Yes. WhatsApp isn't nearly as popular in the US as in many other countries. Idk what the stats are on this, but anecdotally, all my friends use FB Messenger if they want cross-platform group chat, but that's slowly changing to some fragmented list of alternatives. And usually it's not for semi-important things like get-together plans.

Whenever I hear this iMessage thing I’m surprised. Is that a US / Canada thing? Here in Europe, everybody uses WhatsApp and/or similar products for chat and they are all multi platform.

herbst 1y ago

This. In 98% of all cases I get away with only having telegram (no phone number even) most people have one or multiple IMs

hylaride 1y ago

iOS/iPhones are the majority of phones in Canada and the US (~60%). However, if you take the upper half of household incomes that number skyrockets to 80-90%. Comparatively, in the UK it's 50/50. In the rest of europe android mostly has a 60-75% market share (tends to drift more towards android the more eastern you go - signalling wealth has a lot to do with it). The reasons why are varied (everything from wealth signalling to switching being a pain and iphone mostly had a first mover advantage for quality and availability for the first several years), but it's only in the last two years that I've seen people start to use multi-platform chat apps here. Most of my peer group with other parents all default to imessage group chats for sharing photos, stories of our kids. I am also starting to notice a loosening on apple's services. Spotify is used by more people than Apple music even amungst the apple households I know.

Der_Einzige 1y ago
Kids are ruthless about anti green bubble discrimination and it’s part of the reason for the rise of incels. The overwhelming majority of incels are android users, and the mainstream cultural media likes to make clear that one of the reason for being incels is them using a “poordroid” https://leafandcore.com/2019/08/24/green-bubbles-are-a-turn-off-why-some-iphone-users-wont-date-android-users/ https://leafandcore.com/2019/08/24/green-bubbles-are-a-turn-... https://outsidethebeltway.com/the-dreaded-green-bubble/ https://outsidethebeltway.com/the-dreaded-green-bubble/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-teens-dread-the-green-text-bubble-11641618009 https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-... https://gizmodo.com/im-buying-an-iphone-because-im-ashamed-of-my-green-bubb-1787965756 https://gizmodo.com/im-buying-an-iphone-because-im-ashamed-o... https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1241473453/why-green-text-bubble-stigma-is-part-of-the-anti-trust-case-against-apple https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1241473453/why-green-text-bub... https://www.fastcompany.com/90391587/why-we-dont-want-you-and-your-android-green-bubbles-in-our-imessage-chat https://www.fastcompany.com/90391587/why-we-dont-want-you-an...
- oenton 1y ago
  Whoa hold on. I was with you until “the overwhelming majority of incels are android users.” How did you draw that conclusion?
  - Der_Einzige 1y ago
    The countless myriad number of TikTok’s, reels, etc from women calling out how using an android is a dealer breaker. The community made polls of “incels.us” about this exact question, and the other links I cited showing green bubble social discrimination. My original post has enough receipts. If you don’t believe me you’re free to remain wrong. But here’s more anyway: https://www.joe.co.uk/life/sex/owning-an-android-is-officially-the-uks-biggest-turn-off-for-2021-307627 https://www.joe.co.uk/life/sex/owning-an-android-is-official... https://www.dailydot.com/debug/android-relationship-iphone/ https://www.dailydot.com/debug/android-relationship-iphone/ https://www.studentbeans.com/blog/uk/the-biggest-student-dating-icks-revealed/ https://www.studentbeans.com/blog/uk/the-biggest-student-dat... https://archive.thetab.com/uk/2020/10/16/girls-are-sharing-what-gives-them-the-ick-and-some-of-them-are-absolutely-ridiculous-178902 https://archive.thetab.com/uk/2020/10/16/girls-are-sharing-w... These memes posted on short video sites also have parallel ones of women making fun of guys who try to do the whole “hold on let me pirate this movie and HDMI connect it to the TV thing” instead of having Netflix.
    - frollogaston 1y ago
      I don't doubt that some women make fun of men for green bubbles, but this doesn't mean the vast majority of incels are Android users. If that were true, wouldn't they just get an iPhone? Also the HDMI thing is hilarious because it's exactly what my wife would say about me.
      - palata 1y ago
        > but this doesn't mean the vast majority of incels are Android users Is there such a thing as incels? I thought it was just a stupid concept to bully people. Not that it doesn't exist, but I wouldn't think that there is a category of people (kids, I guess?) who "are" incels, is there? In some contexts, some kids are "considered" incels by bullies. Or do I get it wrong?

bluGill 1y ago

WhatsApp never caught on in the US since cell phones and SMS were a great deal for keeping in touch. By the time WhatsApp arrived US carriers were not raping their customers for phone calls or SMS messages (in the early days of cell phones they were - be very careful responding as the state of the world has changed many times over the years and so it is quite possible you remember a time where your country was better than the US for reasons that are no longer true!). Note in particular calls and SMS to a different state is included, and typically Canada is included as well. As such we never developed the WhatsApp habbit as it didn't give us anything.

frollogaston 1y ago

Yes. WhatsApp isn't nearly as popular in the US as in many other countries. Idk what the stats are on this, but anecdotally, all my friends use FB Messenger if they want cross-platform group chat, but that's slowly changing to some fragmented list of alternatives. And usually it's not for semi-important things like get-together plans.