Originally Posted by
RobOnLI
But that's wrong. WhatsApp is a separate app. Yes, it's owned by Facebook but the two are wholly separate and FB is not required to use WhatsApp.
I never said that Facebook is required to WhatsApp or that it wasn't a "separate" app. It collects the same data that Facebook does, and that data is further sold and used by Facebook. There's no difference between installing the two if you're interested in not handing over everything about yourself to Facebook.
Furthermore, Meta is merging all three messaging platforms (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram). They use separate front-ends for now, but if a person isn't interested in handing over all their information to Zuckerberg and Co. it's a moot point altogether.
SMS relies on the carrier which isn't available via WiFi so that's not going to work. But iMessage can be sent via WiFi.
-RM
Android has had the ability to send SMS over WiFi for many years now (my first phone with the feature was in 2017). There's no reason it can't work with in-flight wifi, and does work with paid wifi. There was a conscious decision to cater this free feature only to iPhones.