this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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I really don't get the need to have an app that does messaging. My phone DOES messaging, built in. Why do I need another one?
I assume you're American? When you need to talk to people across borders you need something like WhatsApp. SMS doesn't cut it.
I'd rather use Signal but whatever.. I'm being practical. Everyone I know is on WhatsApp.
The moment when I hear someone talking about SMS it is almost always an American. Can’t recall the last time I sent a text message to someone like that, wouldn’t surprise me if it was 10 years ago (for context: am Dutch)
For most of us Europeans, SMS is like using smoke signs or pigeons
True
I send SM's to my kids when they're on the go, as they religiously disable gsm data and only use wifi, which means they regularly don't get my WhatsApp messages.
Before they got their own smartphone I was scared that their data plans would cost me an arm and a leg, but it turns out they're extremely stingy with their data 🤷♂️
GSM data? Is this 2005? Ahahahahahahah
Why do they they disable data?
An irrational fear of suddenly using all of it up. Before they got their phones, we drilled it into them to be conservative in their data usage. It's not that they complain that they have too little data, or how annoying it is that they have to leave it switched off to conserve it, they somehow are convinced that it is pointless to leave it on. We have mentioned numerous times that we'd be fine with upgrading their data plan, but they don't want to. It's like us in the nineties dialing into our ISP to download e-mail. Weird. Cheap. But weird.
Saves battery too if on a trip.
I think there is plenty of SMS usage in Europe.
It's easy as a technically savy user to lose sight on what less proficient users are using.
Yes, my parents both use perfectly fine their WhatsApp but they still send/receive a lot of SMS.
For context, I'm in France.
That’s interesting. I know a lot of people who WhatsApp with their grandparents though. All you have to do is install it on their phones once and then their phone becomes “the WhatsApp” in my experience