kennycrudup

"Security issues"? Maybe you're an Operative but I use WA to ask friends when I'm overseas "Where are we meeting for lunch?", etc. so WGAS?! There's more-secure platforms if you're worried they're reading your messages about your friends' kids' birthday parties.

Every blue moon a Bot claiming to be an Asian girl (always an Asian, too) tells me she "loved our date and wants to see more of me", just hit the "Block and Report" button, NBD.

No, you don't need a FB account, at least when I signed up 3-4 years ago.

GUWonder

I continue to use it without a Facebook account.

There are things I do differently with it nowadays but I still use it.

gfunkdave

I have a few friends who live overseas and have iPhones. They all refuse to use iMessage and insist on using WhatsApp, despite the fact that iMessage is encrypted, just like WhatsApp, and that it seems Apple is more trustworthy from a privacy perspective than Meta.

Why don’t people use iMessage?

hfly

Because in many countries Iphones are not even close to being in the majority and no one likes green bubbles.

gfunkdave

iMessages are blue bubbles

tmiw

Additionally, there are carriers in some countries (Mexico, for example) where WhatsApp deducts from a different data bucket than general internet use, thus incentivizing use of the former.

der_saeufer

Even in rich European countries, the iPhone has only half (or less) of the market share that it does in the U.S., so even if you have an iPhone it's virtually guaranteed that a good percentage of your friends and family don't. Since you're already using WhatsApp (or Signal, Telegram, whatever) to message everyone, who would want to use a different app, even if it is built in to iOS?

Also, the iPhone messaging app is a train wreck for group chats unless everyone is using an iPhone. It either sends SMS to everyone individually (which breaks replies) or tries to send a group MMS, but a lot of European carriers deprecated MMS years ago and some of those that didn't deprecate it charge for it. Messaging apps eliminate that problem.

hfly

Here, this is what I posted more than 2 years ago..................

"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."

Since that time I would jump Whatsapp to 85+%, with the same exceptions being US and China nationals, Viber probably down to 8%, Whatsapp being the same, as other than a couple of non-Chinese people who extensively do/did business in China it is all Chinese people on Wechat, Probably 2% on Duo, Zello has fallen off the face of the Earth. The biggest changes since above are that it is probably now 20% Telegram, and 10% Signal, and maybe 2% line (all Japanese people).

DYKWIA

Of my friends and colleagues, it’s around 50/50 iOS / Android. It’s 100% WhatsApp… nobody uses iMessage. We even have WhatsApp groups set up for work related teams (easier than using the official “Teams” app).

I’m also in probably 10 other WhatsApp groups on soccer / local things etc.

WhatsApp is truly multi-platform, iMessage is not.

Need

All the adults in our family use Whatsapp, but according my teenage son, everyone in his high school uses iMessage or Instagram DM. No one at school uses Whatsapp other than with their own family. And almost none of the kids at school has Android.

DYKWIA

US I assume?

Internaut

Pretty much 100% Android in my circle of family and friends. In the UK at least, iPhone seems to lack cred in the tech business*. Almost 100% WhatsApp. We have a whinge about WhatsApp's ownership and privacy and I always suggest Signal but, inertia...

* If you've never seen a Google Pixel in the flesh, one of our company nights out would change that.

TGarza

I was at the Google Bayview campus which is on the NASA Ames center land for the GMA unveiling segment. I would disagree the iPhone lacks tech creed in the US. I have a Pixel 7 (work) and an iPhone 14 pro (personal). The Pixel 7 since Google grants Pixels more access than other android phones which is required for my work. I don’t see either eco system being superior to the other. Google doesn’t allow jail broken Androids to access their network. Google created a partition in my Pixel for work and personal.

To me the Pixel buds are better than the AirPods for bicycling and other outdoor activities.

Need

Yup. Only the older males in my immediate family uses Android phones. All the the sisters, mothers, wives, and anyone younger than 25 use iPhone. The kids won't switch because their friends use it. The female won't switch because they will have to learn a new system that they have been using for like 15+ years.

tmiw

Speaking of which, I saw this article today that basically says (among other things) that 87% of US teens use iPhones now. It wouldn't surprise me if iMessage, for all intents and purposes, ends up becoming the de facto messaging system in the US within the next 5-10 years, much like WhatsApp has elsewhere. Assuming it's not already such, of course.

Really, perhaps Google just needs to partner with one of the other messaging apps (not necessarily Meta/WhatsApp given the privacy, etc. concerns) instead of repeatedly trying and failing to stick with one messaging strategy. That's probably a conversation for a different thread, though.