[rootusrootus]

> I find it amusing that in 2024 people in the US still talk about WhatsApp as a future step.

One person said that. Almost nobody I know has any interest in WhatsApp. The infatuation with putting all of your messaging into Facebook's hands is a European thing. What I don't understand at all is why Europeans think Facebook is superior to Apple.

> With WhatsApp, LINE, WeChat, Telegram etc. I think this is pretty much a solved problem in the rest of the world, really only the US is behind here.

I have a hard time believing that having multiple chat apps is any kind of solution to the problem. The nice thing about iMessage in the US is that it covers about 90% of everyone I talk to. Right out of the box, no asking what ecosystem someone else is using, it just works. And if I'm talking to someone who does not have iMessage ... it still just works, albeit with fewer features.

I heartily disagree that Europe or the rest of the world has a better system. Best would be if every phone from every manufacturer supported a modern protocol equivalent to iMessage or Google's proprietary RCS. Until then, iMessage in the US is the closest things to universal modern messaging.

[sevagh]

>The nice thing about iMessage in the US is that it covers about 90% of everyone I talk to.

You are literally the caricature the OP is railing against.

"How gullible are Americans that they think Apple invented messaging?"

two posts down

"I'm not gonna use Europoor trash, only iMessage or bust"

[rootusrootus]

I've been using the Internet since the 80s, I've seen every possible incarnation of instant messaging. I have no illusions of Apple inventing messaging.

And it's pretty rude of you to resort to namecalling just because you disagree.

[00deadbeef]

WhatsApp took off in a big way in Europe before it was acquired by Meta.

Android is more popular in Europe than in the US. WhatsApp provided an early way of easy cross platform communication that was superior to SMS/MMS and didn't involve having to share new usernames or anything like that, it just relied on your existing mobile number.

[oulu2006]

The rest of the world does WhatsApp, Australia/NZ/Southeast Asia/almost all of South America, it's massive.

[vishnugupta]

You can add India to the list. WhatsApp is so popular here that people talk of recharging WhatsApp when they actually mean paying their mobile internet bill.

[yterdy]

Africa runs on WhatsApp (atleast, West Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Tanzania...) IME.

[MetallicCloud]

As an Australian, is this true? Granted, I grew up rural in Victoria, but I don't know anyone who uses it.

[troad]

It's definitely not true for Australia. WhatsApp use is marginal at best.

[tamirzb]

> it still just works, albeit with fewer features.

If it doesn't have features I rely on then I don't see how can I treat it as "it still just works".

> iMessage in the US is the closest things to universal modern messaging.

The key part here is "in the US". What if you want to message someone who is outside the US? To be honest I am not sure about carrier prices in the US, but I am sure the person on the other side of the conversation would get extremely high bills for international MMS messages. Personally I don't see how the words "universal solution" can apply to something that works well in only a single country in the entire world.

[nonseqshitter]

I don’t know if iMessage makes for an antitrust claim. But you are absolutely right: it covers the majority of my friends and family, and for folks that use Android everything still works well enough.

Why would I ever want 6 messaging apps instead of using the default?

[JoeJonathan]

Are people defending WhatsApp, or just saying its widely used? In the places I go, you use it for everything from contacting friends to messaging businesses to schedule appointments. It's unavoidable.

[dimask]

> What I don't understand at all is why Europeans think Facebook is superior to Apple.

It is not facebook vs apple, it is cross-platform vs platform specific (if you do not have an iphone imessage is not even a choice).

[rootusrootus]

Sure, I understand the point, but I just don't think it's any kind of better solution. It's different, and has pros and cons. I don't want to install multiple apps just to have cross-platform compatibility. And I have that already with Apple's solution -- sure, iMessage itself is not compatible with Android, but I can still message people on Android phones without pre-arranging a platform to communicate on. Messaging works regardless, no matter who I'm talking to, it just works a little bit better if they happen to be on an iPhone.

To me that's the ideal solution, or at least the basis for one. Would I like everyone to have iMessage capabilities (or equivalent, like Google's proprietary RCS)? You bet. Let's try for that reality. Get Google to release their upgrades to RCS so everyone can use it, make that a standard, make every phone OS support it.