7 ms·

In countries where SMS isn't as widespread as it is in the US, the use of WhatsApp is much more common. I live in one of those countries, and I don't think I'v

In countries where SMS isn't as widespread as it is in the US, the use of WhatsApp is much more common. I live in one of those countries, and I don't think I've ever had to use it to communicate with someone on another continent. I think most of its use is simply local, for your community or friend group. The downside for me is basically the lack of appeal for a non-tech user (like my parents) to voluntarily want to stop using an app they've been using for, what, 10-12 years? It’s not that big of a deal; everyone uses Instagram or Facebook (maybe)... WhatsApp is definitely going to make the process difficult, too.

thevillagechief 9mo ago
Whatsapp is more popular in the US than you'd think. Probably due to a large immigrant population. I'm in several groups that use the channels feature to organize things like soccer, game nights etc. Most people with family abroad use Whatsapp, and that's a huge portion of the US.
- abustamam 9mo ago
  I belong to two Toastmasters groups. One is majority non-immigrant American/caucasian, one is majority immigrant (from India, Pakistan, etc). The first one does club communication primarily via email. The second does club communication exclusively thru WhatsApp. It's an interesting divide. I do have some Caucasian friends who use WhatsApp. One stopped using it when FB purchased it, which I can respect. Most people I know in the states though just use iMessage or signal.
- hei-lima 8mo ago
  It's surprising but makes a lot of sense
nozzlegear 9mo ago
SMS isn't widespread in the US, iMessage is.
- xvedejas 9mo ago
  It all depends on age group in my experience. My friends all a bit older than me prefer Messenger for everything. My friends all younger than me prefer Discord. I think my parents and their generation use iMessage, but I use WhatsApp with them. My generation used to use snapchat a lot, I think, but I never got on that boat.
  - nozzlegear 9mo ago
    > My friends all younger than me prefer Discord. That's interesting; I have and use discord myself (owner of a 300+ member server for my WoW guild), but I've never really considered it a messaging app in the same way I do iMessage, WhatsApp, and so on. I think because everyone is pseudo anonymous, it's more like social media to me. Plus I've got the phone numbers and iMessage groups for close friends I've made over discord. Given its popularity among gamers of all nationalities, I wonder where discord stacks up in relation to the EU's DMA?
    - miki123211 9mo ago
      Discord is popping up as shadow IT in some places. Because of all the server admin stuff (bot APIs, Github bots, pretty advanced RBAC etc), it's basically "Slack but for free, and without the annoying SSO."
      - nozzlegear 9mo ago
        That sounds like my personal hell lol. Slack for free without the SSO, sure, but also Slack with constant annoying Nitro upsells and flashy gamer bullshit. (I just really don't like Discord and I'm bitter that it's what my guild de facto has to use because it's what gamers have standardized on.)
    - efreak 9mo ago
      Being pseudonymous doesn't prevent you from using it to contact people you actually know offline. I used Steam to talk with my group members about a project in college a couple times. Other times I used Google chat/talk/whatever it was called at the time (embedded in the browser inbox). I had a flip phone at the time, so pretty much anything I could use on desktop was easier.
stef25 9mo ago
> SMS Here in EU you pay for that. Soon as you send an image, you get charged extra. Completely useless compared to Whatsapp
- franga2000 9mo ago
  Here in EU even the 5 €/month phone plans have unlimited SMS. As soon as you want to talk to someone without Whatsapp, you need to figure out which other apps they're on. Completely useless compared to SMS Have you considered that the EU isn't one country?
  - thedonncha 9mo ago
    In Ireland on my otherwise very generous mobile phone account I'm charged for multimedia SMS texts. They're not included in my SMS bundle.
    - B1FIDO 9mo ago
      Multimedia "texts" are actually MMS. In fact, if you send more than 160 characters, those are also MMS because it's an extension of the SMS standard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service It is not unusual for there to be hosting or intermediate storage of images and other files, and from the phone you may tap a link or something to download/access that file, instead of having it automatically download and appear immediately, due to bandwidth and resource constraints.
      - WesolyKubeczek 9mo ago
        Aren’t SMS that are over 160 characters being concatenated? There used to be a standard for that.
        AnssiH 9mo ago
        Generally yes. I guess a phone/app could exist that does convert to MMS instead, though, since the app can make that decision.
vladvasiliu 9mo ago
> I think most of its use is simply local, for your community or friend group. I live in one such country, and indeed, the bulk of my usage is to coordinate with local groups based in the same city. But tend to meet many people from the US who don't live here, and they all straight up ask for my whatsapp. I'm also a heavy telegram and signal user, and can't recall a single instance of anybody mentioning these.
wolvoleo 9mo ago
Yeah I hate SMS. I don't want my carrier to be involved in the content of my communications. Also I normally use the computer when at home, no point using a tiny mobile device obviously. I don't use Google or Apple accounts either so RCS is out too. WhatsApp is meta now unfortunately but for historical reasons there's no avoiding it here. I use WhatsApp and Telegram pretty much exclusively (telegram more for group chats)

thevillagechief 9mo ago

Whatsapp is more popular in the US than you'd think. Probably due to a large immigrant population. I'm in several groups that use the channels feature to organize things like soccer, game nights etc. Most people with family abroad use Whatsapp, and that's a huge portion of the US.

abustamam 9mo ago
I belong to two Toastmasters groups. One is majority non-immigrant American/caucasian, one is majority immigrant (from India, Pakistan, etc). The first one does club communication primarily via email. The second does club communication exclusively thru WhatsApp. It's an interesting divide. I do have some Caucasian friends who use WhatsApp. One stopped using it when FB purchased it, which I can respect. Most people I know in the states though just use iMessage or signal.
hei-lima 8mo ago
It's surprising but makes a lot of sense

nozzlegear 9mo ago

SMS isn't widespread in the US, iMessage is.

xvedejas 9mo ago
It all depends on age group in my experience. My friends all a bit older than me prefer Messenger for everything. My friends all younger than me prefer Discord. I think my parents and their generation use iMessage, but I use WhatsApp with them. My generation used to use snapchat a lot, I think, but I never got on that boat.
- nozzlegear 9mo ago
  > My friends all younger than me prefer Discord. That's interesting; I have and use discord myself (owner of a 300+ member server for my WoW guild), but I've never really considered it a messaging app in the same way I do iMessage, WhatsApp, and so on. I think because everyone is pseudo anonymous, it's more like social media to me. Plus I've got the phone numbers and iMessage groups for close friends I've made over discord. Given its popularity among gamers of all nationalities, I wonder where discord stacks up in relation to the EU's DMA?
  - miki123211 9mo ago
    Discord is popping up as shadow IT in some places. Because of all the server admin stuff (bot APIs, Github bots, pretty advanced RBAC etc), it's basically "Slack but for free, and without the annoying SSO."
    - nozzlegear 9mo ago
      That sounds like my personal hell lol. Slack for free without the SSO, sure, but also Slack with constant annoying Nitro upsells and flashy gamer bullshit. (I just really don't like Discord and I'm bitter that it's what my guild de facto has to use because it's what gamers have standardized on.)
  - efreak 9mo ago
    Being pseudonymous doesn't prevent you from using it to contact people you actually know offline. I used Steam to talk with my group members about a project in college a couple times. Other times I used Google chat/talk/whatever it was called at the time (embedded in the browser inbox). I had a flip phone at the time, so pretty much anything I could use on desktop was easier.

stef25 9mo ago

> SMS Here in EU you pay for that. Soon as you send an image, you get charged extra. Completely useless compared to Whatsapp

franga2000 9mo ago
Here in EU even the 5 €/month phone plans have unlimited SMS. As soon as you want to talk to someone without Whatsapp, you need to figure out which other apps they're on. Completely useless compared to SMS Have you considered that the EU isn't one country?
- thedonncha 9mo ago
  In Ireland on my otherwise very generous mobile phone account I'm charged for multimedia SMS texts. They're not included in my SMS bundle.
  - B1FIDO 9mo ago
    Multimedia "texts" are actually MMS. In fact, if you send more than 160 characters, those are also MMS because it's an extension of the SMS standard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Messaging_Service It is not unusual for there to be hosting or intermediate storage of images and other files, and from the phone you may tap a link or something to download/access that file, instead of having it automatically download and appear immediately, due to bandwidth and resource constraints.
    - WesolyKubeczek 9mo ago
      Aren’t SMS that are over 160 characters being concatenated? There used to be a standard for that.
      - AnssiH 9mo ago
        Generally yes. I guess a phone/app could exist that does convert to MMS instead, though, since the app can make that decision.

vladvasiliu 9mo ago

> I think most of its use is simply local, for your community or friend group. I live in one such country, and indeed, the bulk of my usage is to coordinate with local groups based in the same city. But tend to meet many people from the US who don't live here, and they all straight up ask for my whatsapp. I'm also a heavy telegram and signal user, and can't recall a single instance of anybody mentioning these.

wolvoleo 9mo ago

Yeah I hate SMS. I don't want my carrier to be involved in the content of my communications. Also I normally use the computer when at home, no point using a tiny mobile device obviously. I don't use Google or Apple accounts either so RCS is out too. WhatsApp is meta now unfortunately but for historical reasons there's no avoiding it here. I use WhatsApp and Telegram pretty much exclusively (telegram more for group chats)