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Comment by WA | Hacker News Reader

I guess nobody knows Threema (threema.ch) outside of Central Europe. The UI isn't as perfect as Whatsapp's, but close enough.

I tried to use iMessage the other day and I'm extremely surprised that a product that is used that broadly in the US is that shitty. Downsides around sending voice messages (which I do frequently):

- You must hold the stupid button to record

- If you record and turn your phone, the recording button gets obviously relocated away from your thumb and the entire message is just discarded. Gone. How such a bug could escape Apple is beyond me.

- There is no way to scroll through a voice message. I send and receive 10 minute messages occasionally and if you interrupt the listening, you have to start all over again.

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> The UI isn't as perfect as Whatsapp's, but close enough.

WhatsApp's UI is aweful compared to telegram. So if threema "isn't as perfect as WhatsApp", I'm a bit scared.

Anecdotally, iMessage’s voice feature doesn’t get much use. Everybody I know uses it text only and opts for dictation over voice messages.

Personally I prefer text. Telegram’s voice message support is much better, but without fail when someone sends me one I end up listening to it 2-3+ times to make sure I heard/understood it correctly. Never have that problem with text.

I think Chinese people do, at least that was my experience of peers at university (in the UK) - many would wonder around either holding phone perpendicular to face, or with an earphone wire microphone strapped around their mouth having essentially asynchronous telephone conversations. Best of both, in a way?

Maybe it's also about language - easier to speak Mandarin than type or draw it on a touchscreen? I don't know.

they are just lazy or too old, actually typing simplified Chinese it's faster than English, amount of characters you have to type/swipe to deliver same content it's much lower than with latin languages due to length of words and primitive grammar (even more primitive than English and that's already something compared to European languages with tons of grammatical cases and forms for each word and multiple plurals and genders, heck Chinese doesn't even have singular, if they would switch to pinyin they could conquer the world)

Maybe the feature doesn’t get much use because it’s shit in iMessage? Also sound quality is horrible compared to WhatsApp. In my case: I dictate up to 10 seconds. I use voice messages for everything longer.

Closed-source client apps? Bye, have a great time!

Hard to get people to switch if it's £3 though :(

Love threema.

3.50€ for an IM app when there are dozens that are free? Yeah, no.

I loved WhatsApp when I had to pay for it.

I'd respect Telegram more if I had to pay for it from the start.

3.50€? Seriously, people use more on coffee.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin

Seriously, at least for westerners, if we cannot pay the same for a secure messaging app as for a coffee then we don't deserve secure messaging.

(That said, I'm in no position to say if this IM app is good or bad, just reflecting on the general idea.)

I never get coffee argument, if I can choose between coffee for 3.5€ or coffee for free in cup plastered with ads I ain't spending the money

plus I don't really spend money on unnecessary things or pleasures, at least not regularly as your typical daily coffee drinker

The argument is that it's an amount many people can and do trivially spend on a whim.

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