589

I asked if people chose iPhone for the blue bubbles elsewhere a couple days ago, and while there was some good discourse on that post, the blue bubbles definitely also came up as a reason.

In my experience, when people find out my texts are green, they oftentimes would rather switch to a different platform altogether like Instagram or just not text at all.

Is this actually a deal-breaker in friendships out there?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] NewNewAccount@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

in the US, for some bizarre reason

Is it really that bizarre to use the default messaging app that uses the most widespread protocol(s)?

[-] kadu@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes? SMS is ancient, limited, and Apple's added proprietary layer on top of it isn't interoperable so "most widespread protocol" doesn't even make sense.

There's a reason Asia, Europe and South America aren't using SMS in 2023.

And you know, it's a smartphone, installing apps is kinda the whole point.

[-] Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Right, the rest of the world uses…. other proprietary messaging apps that have no interoperability between them. You can’t talk from signal to WhatsApp, or WhatsApp to telegram, or telegram to signal. You all need to be using the same messaging app.

The reason why the rest of the world never really got on with SMS in general is because most providers elsewhere in the world still charge for SMS messages while they’ve been free in the US for over a decade. When you have to pay for texts, you tend to look for an alternative real quick.

[-] BackStabbath@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

The thing is the interaction between Apple and Android phones is shit through SMS, and that's entirely Apple's fault. I'm pretty sure everyone would be more happy using an app that works for everyone. If you take India for example, almost everyone uses WhatsApp. There's just straight up no concept of not having WhatsApp. It works the same for both operating systems. So the myth that it'll be difficult to unite with one app isn't really true. I don't like Meta any more than the next person, but the messages are end to end encrypted and lets iPhones and Androids communicate as equals. I'll definitely take that over one group having a superior experience and the other having a subpar one. I doubt you can really refute that, as there isn't really another solution due to Apple's pigheadedness. Sure, you could use Signal to not use a Meta app. But SMS with an uncooperative giant company isn't the way.

[-] corb3t@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

WhatsApp is great at marketing their e2ee, but nobody talks about the fact that they have so many backdoors out in the wild - they're found annually. See: How Jeff Bezos's photos were hacked.

[-] BackStabbath@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

That's fair. I'll be honest when I say that I'm ok with sacrificing some privacy for convenience. Many people on this platform wouldn't agree with that. Not using WhatsApp in my country basically isn't an option unless you just want to be a loner that doesn't contact anyone, and I'm not the type to call people all the time.

[-] gdbjr@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Apple didn’t add anything on top of SMS. iMessage users data and has all the ‘cool’ features. If it cant reach someone via iMessage it falls back to plain old SMS.

[-] kadu@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Yes. It falls back to the protocol that doesn't have any of the last 20 years worth of added features. How amazing.

[-] deweydecibel@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

I think you are misunderstanding what the average person does with their phone. The vast majority of people have phones and the vast majority of them are not tech literate enough to go into the app store looking for how to message people. They just use defaults.

[-] ABCDE@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Yes they are, they are... Everyone in Europe. I don't know a single person, including those in their 70s and 80s, without WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

[-] fluke@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Yes, because that's socially forced on us. I don't want to have multiple different messaging apps (2 of which from the same fucking megacorp) to have to navigate around.

Person A like to message via app A, but person B likes to message via app B, and person C messages via both app A and B so it's impossible to keep a fucking unbroken line of conversation going etc etc.

Not to mention that means that I HAVE to have these apps on my phone as a result. No matter how strict you set up your privacy controls to restrict their access, there's inevitably shit that they still scrape from you, even stuff you've specifically rejected access to.

And then on top of all that, you're giving them all of your conversaions with people. They may tell you it's all encrypted and all that shit, but I don't entirely believe it.

It drives me up the wall. Let me have one messaging app. Let it be the default app on the phone.

[-] kadu@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Well... If the entire world except one region manages to install a third party messaging app, I'd say I'm not misunderstanding anything and the average person is more than capable of doing so. WhatsApp is installed in over 92% of Brazilian smartphones - this includes grandmas, tech illiterate people, and all other examples you couldn think of.

[-] sauerbraten42@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago

Maybe not bizarre, but I think the regional differences are just intereting. I am living in central europe and I honestly don't know anyone who used SMS in the last 5-10 years. The only reason to use it is when your data ran out.

[-] eggest@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

Yeah my last 52 texts are all from companies about my orders or my bills etc. No actual humans use SMS anymore

[-] derpo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As someone who had visited Europe a ton , I know why you guys use Whatsapp. It’s because you all have so many weird phone numbers lol

[-] RoboticMask@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

No, it's because WhatsApp was free at a time where SMS were not (you might have a few included in your plan, but you couldn't rely on that)

[-] derpo@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

That’s actually great insight that I didn’t have. Thank you

[-] PostnataleAbtreibung@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

I think it is, especially when the default doesn’t communicate well with a different ecosystem (Android vs iOS). So installing a app that gives you more features than plain text and works with all relevant mobile os worlds absolutely makes sense.

this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
589 points (93.9% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35870 readers
733 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS