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Comment by AznHisoka | Hacker News Reader

What is wrong with regular SMS? i guess i can understand whatsapp popularity in developing countries where SMS is expensive...

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Not the OP, but here are just a few things that immediately sprang to my mind:

* Group MMS messages are a nightmare so people in my demographic often use GroupMe to facilitate them

* I'm not even sure if attaching images and other media on MMS messages is supposed to work consistently. I usually end up with an image that has been severely degraded in quality

* No read notifications, which can be useful if you goose to enable them on WhatsApp, Signal, etc.

* Poor security, I would assume that SMS is far easier for law enforcement to illegally bug

* Conversing with people who are in different countries as SMS typically invokes outrageous charges, and my mobile provider includes 2G data in most countries

* Can't use SMS on a computer unless through something like Google Voice, which isn't a pure SMS solution

* Message history backups are much better documented on WhatsApp/Signal, so that I've never bothered to figure out how to restore SMS history after I get a new phone or install a new ROM on my phone (Android)

Main benefits of whatsapp (or similar):

* Free international communication

* Read/typing receipts

* Faster and more reliable

* Sending of media

* Group chats that actually work

* Seamless usage across desktop/mobile

Going back to SMS is like going back to the dark ages after getting used to a proper web-based chat client. As far as I can tell pretty much the only place where technical users still use SMS is the US.

> Seamless usage across desktop/mobile

This isn't true for Whatsapp and was my main technical reason for leaving Whatsapp for Telegram.

(I have another post in this thread that explains my reasoning WRT security.)

Definitely works better on Telegram, agreed.

The problem is my mom, and non-technical friends are NOT on Telegram, so Whatsapp it is for the foreseeable future.

I got my in-laws over to Telegram and we migrated a large group that included lot of retired people over earlier this year ...

but my family is stubborn like myself and refuse to change.

Practical advice or anyone who decides to try:

- recommend it to friends at your age first.

- emphasize ease of use, not security (also I wouldn't even feel comfortable telling people that Telegram is more secure)

- both can be used free of charge so I am fine with communicating with my stubborn siblings on Whatsapp and everyone else on other platforms.

This is why I wish I could get my wife to switch to Signal with me. But she doesn't want to check two different apps for the same thing. Everyone else she would chat with would be using just SMS/iMessage. I really really wish apps like this would pick up more traction here in the States.

SMS are not only being charged in developing countries. lol e.g. Spain has symmetric 300Mb (home) connections for ~50€/month but SMS are still being charged.

I can't go between my phone and a web browser (relatively) seamlessly with SMS.

Google Voice solved that one pretty easily for me, but point taken.

It's also worth mentioning that the countries where WhatsApp is most heavily used do not have Google Voice.

Some day we will start downvoting people who reminds us again and again that we are missing out on Google Voice - but not today.

/jk

Couple things:

- Paying for domestic text messages

- Paying for international text messages

- Being able to add / remove participants from a conversation

- Paying for roaming charges (SMS v.s. chat app over wifi)

Communicating across borders which is now usually included in unlimited SMS plans.

Too late to edit. Should be *not usually included.

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