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5105973

Cancelled
Sep 11, 2014
12,132
19,733
I don't see any issues with WhatsApp except for talking friends and family into downloading the app? What are the other complaints about messaging with WhatsApp other than the fact it doesn't synch with iPad and Mac except through the web method? Just curious...
You kind of answered your own questions. Point one is pretty huge barrier for most people because people don’t like to change what they are doing especially if they are not confident in their tech skills. Most people I know thought my HTC 10 was an iPhone with a funky case. They don’t like to think about their technology at all, just use it. Even my husband’s friends who are developers don’t like to be bothered with this sort of thing. They get their iPhones, there’s iMessage. Boom, it’s done. Why on earth would they download WhatsApp just for a few people who want to use Android, especially since these guys text through enterprise solutions anyway. Some of them may have families overseas they talk to using something else. But in our region..not going to speak for all of a huge country like USA, it’s an iOS world mostly.
 

tbayrgs

macrumors 604
Jul 5, 2009
7,467
5,097
Don't you ever send images? The quality degratation with MMS should be more than a good reason to look for alternative means of communication.

Well, I’ve spent far more time on iOS over the years with iMessage being one of the primary reasons why. When I’m on Android or sharing from iOS to an Android user, I’ll share photos using another method, most often Google Photos or maybe FB messenger (which I hate using). It is quite easy to share photos with other iOS users from an iPhone (iMessage, AirDrop, iCloud Photo Sharing).

If I keep the Pixel 2 XL I have being delivered this week, I’ll at least have all my immediate family start using Allo too.
 

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,877
10,987
WhatsApp and Skype are my most common messenger services. I've also been using Telegram a lot lately.

I like the Allo UI the best, but it's not widely used.

I only get SMS text messages from my CC and financial companies, or when sent a code for logging in from a new device. Even the elders in my family don't use SMS socially anymore.

I don't even turn iMessage back on anymore, when I use my iP7+.
 

DakotaGuy

macrumors 601
Jan 14, 2002
4,294
3,913
South Dakota, USA
I think it was the Android Central podcast last week that had this very discussion, specifically in regards to Allo/Duo. What it comes straight down to is unless Google integrates SMS with Allo, says a big ‘**** you’ to the carriers and makes it the default messaging solution on Android, Google will never replicate what Apple has with iMessage. And Google simply won’t go this route, I suspect primarily due to the anti-trust attention it would draw.

If Google won't do it why doesn't Samsung? I mean they've done Bixby so why not do something like an imessage competitor. Hand out Samsung points for each message sent on the system and watch it take off.
 

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,877
10,987
If Google won't do it why doesn't Samsung? I mean they've done Bixby so why not do something like an imessage competitor. Hand out Samsung points for each message sent on the system and watch it take off.

Samsung tried a messenger before called Chat On. It was actually pretty good, but most people just seen viewed it as bloatware on their phones and never used it. It was just the wrong era for it, especially since Android had battery woes with stand-by.
 

DakotaGuy

macrumors 601
Jan 14, 2002
4,294
3,913
South Dakota, USA
Samsung tried a messenger before called Chat On. It was actually pretty good, but most people just seen viewed it as bloatware on their phones and never used it. It was just the wrong era for it, especially since Android had battery woes with stand-by.

Of course if all carriers ever got on board with RCS (Rich Communications Services) and actually forced the replacement of the old SMS/MMS then Apple would be forced to make iMessage handle RCS messages and everything would move into the 21st century... but until then... Who knows? At some point you'd think all of the carriers would want to move to a standardized next generation system instead of living in the 1990's era SMS world.
 
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LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,877
10,987
Of course if all carriers ever got on board with RCS (Rich Communications Services) and actually forced the replacement of the old SMS/MMS then Apple would be forced to make iMessage handle RCS messages and everything would move into the 21st century... but until then... Who knows? At some point you'd think all of the carriers would want to move to a standardized next generation system instead of living in the 1990's era SMS world.

Carriers are probably figuring out what incentive is there for them to implement that. You know they aren't going to implement something just cause. Even if I have to deal with several message ads a day, that's doable for me.
 
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Apple Fritter

macrumors regular
Oct 20, 2017
133
130
127.0.0.1
I think this is really an issue specific to the American market. Here in Europe everybody and their mom uses WhatsApp for some reason (I don't).

What kind of puzzles me, though, is that WhatsApp penetrated the market that much in the first place—there where so many great messengers available (AIM, ICQ, you name it), with many apps able to integrate multiple services for a seamless experience.

Here comes WhatsApp, everbody outside the U.S. downloads it and all others die off. Yet, there wasn't even a desktop client to let you type comfortably. No, people will sit on a perfectly fine computer with a nice keyboard, but grab their phone and type on a tiny screen in order to answer a message. Something I'll never be able to comprehend and that great handoff between iPhone/iPad/Mac/MacBook is what keeps me on the service really.
 

3NV7

macrumors member
Oct 21, 2008
78
68
I just bought a Galaxy S7 to replace my aging iPhone 5S. I'm working through all the process changes, but I'm kind of stumped with the iMessage thing. I don't really care about group messages or sending images.

However, I still have a MacBook with me most of the time, and it's not unusual for me to receive a text, then reply on my Mac via Messages if a longer response is warranted. But so far I'm having trouble integrating those two things. Is it even possible, or will I just have to use my Android for texting, and iMessage will effectively become a completely separate IM client?
 

lowendlinux

macrumors 603
Sep 24, 2014
5,460
6,788
Germany
I think this is really an issue specific to the American market. Here in Europe everybody and their mom uses WhatsApp for some reason (I don't).

What kind of puzzles me, though, is that WhatsApp penetrated the market that much in the first place—there where so many great messengers available (AIM, ICQ, you name it), with many apps able to integrate multiple services for a seamless experience.

Here comes WhatsApp, everbody outside the U.S. downloads it and all others die off. Yet, there wasn't even a desktop client to let you type comfortably. No, people will sit on a perfectly fine computer with a nice keyboard, but grab their phone and type on a tiny screen in order to answer a message. Something I'll never be able to comprehend and that great handoff between iPhone/iPad/Mac/MacBook is what keeps me on the service really.

There is a desktop client, there's WhatsApp web, and WhatsApp interacts is pushbullet so there are many ways to respond
 

3NV7

macrumors member
Oct 21, 2008
78
68
Completely separate IM client on a completely separate device, since you need an iDevice for iMessage… :(

Booo. So, to be clear, if I'm texting someone from my Android, and then send the same person a message from Messages on my Mac, they will show up in their Messages client as separate people/conversations?
 

apolloa

Suspended
Oct 21, 2008
12,318
7,802
Time, because it rules EVERYTHING!
I have the added complication of being committed to using Apple Watches so I’m pretty much stuck on two tracks, two lines...one for Android and one for iOS and iMessage. If I could get my messages on the Android line to come to my Apple Watch, that would be great, but I don’t know how to do it.

I’ve kept in touch with iMessage users via plain SMS inside the Textra app before. It was not the most graceful solution. Facebook and WhatsApp are something i and other contacts are gradually abandoning. Especially FB.

Why are you and your friends abandoning those apps?
 

Klyster

macrumors 68020
Dec 7, 2013
2,231
2,642
If anything, more people I know are using whatsapp, iPhone friends included, but that's just people I know.
We don't have the one platform dominance here in NZ, I guess that's a factor, iPhones are ubiquitous here but so are Androids.
 
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5105973

Cancelled
Sep 11, 2014
12,132
19,733
So the usual with Facebook then, I was more intrigued with WhatsApp as I find it’s changing policies and intrusion a bit worrying, for a messaging app.
I only use iMessenger and WhatsApp.
Oh is WhatsApp getting more obnoxious, too? I haven’t used it in a few months.

iMessage is starting to incorporate too much “extraneous junk” I don’t like, too, but I can ignore it. The interface still seems clean enough. I don’t want to complain too much about the features I personally don’t like, because I can see how they are useful and fun for other people.
 

mellofello

macrumors 65816
Feb 1, 2011
1,258
556
I seem to be the only person who couldn't care less about iMessage. It is nice to have in certain situations, but certainly wouldn't lock me into ios. How insecure do you need to be to care if your recipient gets a green bubble?

I have 0 issues with my multiple MMS group chats. Half my friends have Android so they would be MMS anyway.

Now that gif support is easily accessible on every platform, there really is nothing I even care about. I share my ipad(s) mac(s) etc with my GF so I never had continuity enabled in the first place.

If I for some reason need a richer experience then just MMS then I do chat on FB messenger despite not having logged into FB proper in months.

I just don't get it. There really is nothing that iMessage does that should prevent people from switching if they want to try some new phones.

BTW with Textra all my bubbles are blue lol.
1c2ff5c038950d6b450f2eb3b0c574d9.jpg
 
Last edited:

lcs101

macrumors 6502
Jan 28, 2010
278
189
I seem to be the only person who couldn't care less about iMessage. It is nice to have in certain situations, but certainly wouldn't lock me into ios. How insecure do you need to be to care if your recipient gets a green bubble?

I have 0 issues with my multiple MMS group chats. Half my friends have Android so they would be MMS anyway.

Now that gif support is easily accessible on every platform, there really is nothing I even care about. I share my ipad(s) mac(s) etc with my GF so I never had continuity enabled in the first place.

If I for some reason need a richer experience then just MMS then I do chat on FB messenger despite not having logged into FB proper in months.

I just don't get it. There really is nothing that iMessage does that should prevent people from switching if they want to try some new phones.

BTW with Textra all my bubbles are blue lol.
1c2ff5c038950d6b450f2eb3b0c574d9.jpg
Because if anything is clear in this thread it's that people are so concerned about the green bubble...
 

Dunbar

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2010
557
114
Los Angeles, CA
The way I see it in the US is that most iOS people don't want to download a third party messenger app to communicate with a few contacts. So they use iMessage and fall back on SMS for Android contacts. And then you run into all of the limitations/downsides of SMS/MMS. As people move away from e-mail and more towards messaging I don't see this situation getting any better unless Goggle creates an iMessage competitor.
 

AustinIllini

macrumors G5
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
12,699
10,567
Austin, TX
Oh is WhatsApp getting more obnoxious, too? I haven’t used it in a few months.

iMessage is starting to incorporate too much “extraneous junk” I don’t like, too, but I can ignore it. The interface still seems clean enough. I don’t want to complain too much about the features I personally don’t like, because I can see how they are useful and fun for other people.
You don't send every message with lasers?
 

T Coma

macrumors 6502a
Dec 3, 2015
659
1,249
Flyover Country, USA
I seem to be the only person who couldn't care less about iMessage. It is nice to have in certain situations, but certainly wouldn't lock me into ios. How insecure do you need to be to care if your recipient gets a green bubble?

I have 0 issues with my multiple MMS group chats. Half my friends have Android so they would be MMS anyway.

As a recent iOS switcher, I have to agree. I see no substantive improvement in messaging in my move from android to iOS. There's nothing I do now that I couldn't do before. Well, there's fireworks and balloons, but I'm not in high school. Of course, when I was in high school, "mobile phone" meant that it had a long cord.
 
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