Interesting ty!
So before you can message anyone you have to download whatsapp? iMessage is preinstalled and is also e2e encrypted. Idk if I’d rather Facebook or Apple (who can access iCloud backups of normally otherwise encrypted data, etc.) in charge of my messaging infrastructure, honestly.
Americans with Android are left to use literal SMS which is atrocious, or a different messaging solution, probably whatsapp I guess
edit: I don’t like iMessage or the current state of messaging in the US. I feel like all the default messaging apps should be able to communicate e2e encrypted via some shared standard or something-- it’s weird to have to go third party
Americans with Android are stuck using SMS half the time because Americans with iPhones are literally holding us back. If it wasn’t for iMessage, we would have ditched SMS years ago, but when you suggest to an iPhone user that they use something other than iMessage their head explodes, apparently.
when you suggest to an iPhone user that they use something other than iMessage their head explodes, apparently.
Android users aren’t in such a tiny minority over there. Even by pure chance, there should be a decent number of Android users initiating events but since even they are so obsessed with iMessage, they don’t even try to use something else.
iMessage is preinstalled
The whole point is: it isn’t more often than not. And unlike Whatsapp, you can’t even install it.
Android users get to use the default messages app, with the whole e2e encryption, reactions, full sized photos etc… SMS is used for advertisements, and sending messages to iphone users… SMS is only used by old people for 2fa as 2fa apps usualy have superior security and are now systematically prefered by companies.
Both iphone users and android users need to download an extra app if they want E2E, full graphic images and videos, reactions etc…
Just as people aren’t content with iWork and usually download Office because it works the same and can be read with the same formatting everywhere.
So before you can message anyone you have to download whatsapp?
I love how this seems like a near insurmountable hurdle. Install an app?? On a phone?!
I have a relative who is ~85 years old; he uses WhatsApp. It’s really not that hard.
It must be so difficult to spend 2 whole seconds downloading an app to use for messaging. and yes it’s end to end encrypted too.
There’s no need to be a jerk. For some of us it is just unexpected to hear that folks have phones where they download their primary messaging app. It would be like downloading an app to make calls - it’s just such a fundamental, core feature, that I wouldn’t really think to go third-party for my daily usage. It’s not that it makes no sense, but I hope you can understand why that is a little surprising to some people.
I know that in the 20 years or so since I first got a cellphone I have just used whatever is on the phone natively. Nothing wrong with using WhatsApp, you do you. But that was how it used to be, and WhatsApp did not become so dominant until recently.
Not hard! Just unfamiliar that’s all. Seems weird to me having just always used iMessage here in the states, which has awful interoperability with Android devices
WhatsApp became the dominant messaging platform in Europe before Facebook bought them. Most people are locked in to it because change is hard and they don’t care that much about privacy.
Most people are locked in to it because change is hard and they don’t care that much about privacy.
WhatsApp uses Signal’s encryption and according to https://signal.org/blog/there-is-no-whatsapp-backdoor/ has no backdoor.
