GUWonder

Not being owned and operated by Facebook?

Not being tied to a phone number?

Being able to be used on multiple devices at once without being tied to a single device and phone number? [Says the person using WhatsApp on a variety of devices anyway. ]

I use both, even as a bunch of the WhatsApp messages/calls are to/from people with iOS devices loaded with WhatsApp. I would assume that most of the people with whom I communicate via WhatsApp have no clue I'm on iOS devices when using WhatsApp.

DYKWIA

OK - I can see the "not being tied to a phone number" as being an advantage, the others not so much.

hfly

'Not being tied to a phone number" as opposed to "being tied to an Apple product?". At least with the first, you are choosing from hundreds or thousands of models/designs, etc, rather than just Apple products?! As for not wanting to be in bed with Facebook or whoever.........laudable, but instead one is in bed with Apple (or both).............

GUWonder

An increased ability to seamlessly continue a conversation/message stream across more devices and device types simultaneously is a plus. Works better with iMessage/Facetime than with WhatsApp.

hfly

There are actually ways to root many android devices to give Whatsapp access across phone numbers/devices, etc. But not something I suggest anyone does unless they really know what they are doing.....

DYKWIA

That's straight out of a marketing brochure Sounds great, but who actually ever does this?

I'll have a conversation on my iPhone, and then seamlessly transfer it to my iMac.... Nah, it'll be a case of "Hang on, I've just got home, let me call you back in 2 minutes when I've had a pee".

GUWonder

I am on four devices with iMessages from the very same iMessage/Facetime account at this very moment. Only two of these four devices have WhatsApp on them, and WhatsApp on one of them only works when it's in close proximity to my phone with WhatsApp. I wish I could as easily and reliably do the same thing with WhatsApp as I do with iMessage in this regard, but any workaround to do so is neither elegant nor ideal for me.

I see a lot of kids in my family for example doing this nowadays: playing around and messaging from an iPad and then hitting the road running to message and play with their iPhones. Could they make regular calls instead? Yes and no, depending on what the phones are enabled to do and some other things. Could they SMS instead? Yes and no, depending on what the phones are enabled to do and some other things. A lot of kids really dislike chatting on the phone and try to migrate everything to messages. Even many adults are increasingly like that.

LordHamster

User base is the #1 advantage for Whatsapp. If most of your contacts use it, then everything else is moot. That said, I have contacts on both systems and prefer some aspects of iMessage:

iMessage Advantages:
#1 . Full-resolution Photos/Videos. If I go to an event, I can share the photos and videos with everyone from the event (or in a group) seamlessly and in full quality. With Whatsapp this isn't possible and requires use of something like a google Photos. Not a fan of the compression.
#2 . Auto-play of GIFS - If I send a reaction GIF, it actually plays as intended on iMessage. Whatsapp requires the recipient to press "play"
#3 . Apple Pay: convenient alternative to venmo baked right into imessage.
#4 . Integrated Apps/mini-apps (not sure of the name): for example, in iMessage, I can press the United Airlines app button... it then shows all my flights and allows me to share interactive flight details. Recipients get a nice little card with United airlines showing a plane and my current arrival/delay status. Clicking on the card shows up-to-date flight details right in iMessage (no downloads required for recipient).
#5 . All apple devices get and can send imessages without being tied to the phone. This is super convenient. WhatsApp web or Desktop app ain't the same
#6 . SMS fallback: At times when there is no data connection, iMessage can fall back to SMS
#7 . WhatsApp calls (incoming video calls) are a mess on iPhone. They aren't properly implemented to use callkit. Google Duo on the other hand works flawlessly.

Other than those I think both platforms are about equal. I will say, I prefer the Checkmark status on WhatsApp more. I also LOVE the fact that Whatsapp is cross platform. But overall, the installed userbase is the ONLY advantage WhatsApp currently has. In nearly every other aspect, it has been outpaced by other messenger apps, it feels stagnant. I'm surprised Facebook has let it languish, because other platforms like Telegram are nipping at its heels.

Of course none of that matters if you can't get folks to download an app, or if people are using 12,000 different apps.

DYKWIA

Yes - I suppose Facebook don't see the need to upgrade / fix WhatsApp issues until people start moving away from it. This may start to happen once Ads start appearing...

Based on this thread, I've had a look at Signal. On paper it looks good... I now just need to persuade somebody to downloaded it so I can test it out

LordHamster

I LOVE signal. Problem is, only my wife (I stole her phone and installed it for her), and my tin-foil-hat wearing friend use it. I have conversations with people who fear "big brother" and data leaks... yet refuse to download Signal because they can't be bothered. :/

hfly

If I buy a new phone, import my global contact(s) to it and do a search of who has what. 80+% are on Whatsapp (with the only big exceptions being US and China nationals), 12% are on Viber (with more being from Eastern Europe and Korea, however without exception every single Eastern European is ALSO on Whatsapp), 5% on Wechat (all but one Chinese), 5% on Duo, and about 2% on Zello, 1% on Signal, 1% Telegram,1% Wire, and less than 1% Skype.

DenverBrian

Still on Whatsapp with my BF, mainly because Delta allows it free on flights.

Textra for everyone else.

gya007

Whatsapp + Whatsapp Desktop rocks - even as a work/business focussed solution; I'm an iphone user - but have had numerous problems when I land in a different country- sometimes iMessage signs me out (this has reduced over the years).

Whatsapp has terrific features and ease of use - simple things like 'reply to a particular message' - along with file-transfer - and the ability to create groups across iphone/android community; plus the easy way to tell if someone has read your message or not...(Imessage has this, but it's a pain).

These new apps you all mention - I haven't heard of them. I guess i just crawled out from under the whatsapp rock :-)

worldwidedreamer

For what it is worth I use a bunch of different messaging platforms. My preferred is Signal, an open source free platform, which happened to be funded by the OP to the tune of $50m.

hfly

No the OP is not Brian Acton.