[blizarre]

I guess because Whatsapp provides a unified and standard way to communicate between people on different provider networks / countries for free? You get groups, text/images/location sharing, video/audio calls, cross-countries, that works very reliably, and you only need internet (which can be found almost anywhere even if that's just wifi).

MMS still don't work reliably for me (lost a message just last week that someone swear to have sent). And for a long time they were not free as well.

[geysersam]

I'm not actually suggesting using MMS. I just wanted to illustrate that we've had instant communication technology (even "rich" multi-media) long before Whatsapp etc. Why didn't the providers of that technology (telecom companies) become Meta?

The difference is that MMS/SMS is standardized and agnostic to the client interface. While WhatsApp is proprietary and monopolizes the client.

We could easily have had a "internet direct message" standard implementing most of WhatsApps features. (Wait... Isn't that SMTP?)

Maybe I'm just ignorant, but what does WhatsApp bring that let's say email++ does not have?

[notimetorelax]

Telcos hire vendors to run their networks and services. For them WhatsApp is yet another vendor.

[smaudet]

This is still where normal phones work better (no internet).