kataran
Ambassador
After more than 15 years covering everything Apple, it’s with a heavy heart we announce that we will no longer be publishing new content on iMore and the iMore forums will be closing as of November 1st, 2024.
I've never understood the attraction to WhatsApp. Never used it or needed it. I use iMessage and sometimes Facebook Messenger. And Slack for biz.
Most plans in the US are unlimited SMS
I can't comment on the US, but in many countries SMS is paid per message, especially on cheaper tariffs. MMS (for picture messages) is often very expensive, and is never included in tariffs. A random British network I just checked out charges 40p (USD 0.57) per MMS. And in my experience MMS often doesn't work - European networks don't seem to bother setting it up any more even for use in the home network. I've never known MMS work when roaming (and would be very wary trying, as charges would be unpredictable).
Note this story about a British operator advising people to use WhatsApp or Skype instead of MMS: Three suggests you use WhatsApp or Skype instead of expensive MMS*
They don't even mention iMessage.
Why would anyone use iMessage? Why not WhatsApp? Or just good old SMS?
Why would anyone use iMessage? Why not WhatsApp? Or just good old SMS?
Interesting. I haven't heard of anyone I know paying for SMS messages for probably ten years.
I've got Hangouts and it works ok for what it is -- basically instead of AIM at work when we're all spread out in different parts of the state/country.Hangouts suffered the same faults as Skype. They tried to do too much with one app, and it ended up smelling like a freemium offering with built in advertisements for other (or commercial) services/components.
When I asked a senior Apple executive why iMessage wasn’t being expanded to other platforms, he gave two answers. First, he said, Apple considers its own user base of 1 billion active devices to provide a large enough data set for any possible AI learning the company is working on. And, second, having a superior messaging platform that only worked on Apple devices would help sales of those devices — the company’s classic (and successful) rationale for years.
The following quote is from Walt Mossberg's piece on WWDC and Apple. You can find it on The Verge as I don't want to link outside of here.
It's pretty much what I figured.
That's pretty good that's what I figured I'm happy with that