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Comment by dgellow | Hacker News Reader

Living in Germany, I don't remember the last time I used an SMS. When I was in south-east Asia I don't think I ever used SMS, it was always Line (or WeChat in China) or email. Is there a reason SMS are so much in use in the US but not in other parts of the world?

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US was the last to start using SMS and will apparently be the last to stop. The US was behind the curve because it was one of the few places in the world where local calls were free so people didn't bother with SMS for a long time. As for why it's still here, my guess is that the messaging space is extremely fractured here and it's the only text messaging someone is guaranteed to receive.

And SMS was stupidly expensive like 10 cents a message for years. It wasn't quickly adopted because it was not a good value.

US mobile plans gave enormous buckets (thousands) of SMS messages a month to mobile users 10-15 years ago, so there was little incentive to move to other mobile messaging systems.

Conversely, the lack of such generous SMS allotments in most non-US countries drove widespread adoption of WhatsApp/Facebook Messenger/etc.

In the US, most cell phone users are on unlimited voice/text plans. There is no cost to most consumers for sending and receiving SMS in the US. Also, the Line / What's App / WeChat equivalent in the US is Facebook Messenger. That is how sms has won.

The good thing about SMS is that it's standard. I live in Sweden, just about everyone has a smartphone. SMS is still common for things like package delivery notifications or other service notifications, SMS is still an option for many transport tickets, though being phased out in favor of app solutions.

SMS works whether you're on iOS or Android, it works for the few users of classic phones, it works if you don't currently have mobile data, etc. It's not a secure method of communication and has other flaws, but it's the most reliable one if you don't know anything about the recipient. Whether they're using their beloved Siemens S35 or the latest Android flagship, they can receive a SMS.

Yeah honestly, it's a shame that every one of these services (whatsapp, signal, telegram, ...) dont operate on a protocol like smtp. Its completely unnecessary to recreate a chat protocol every time it gets implemented. Here we are though, and exactly the thing you are expecting is happening, several competitors that don't interact with each other so even if I want to delete WhatsApp, I still keep it to reach family and friends elsewhere.

Tbh I haven't heard of SMS hijacking in Europe either.

Is this an american thing, like SSN identity theft?

Or checks... let's not forget checks...

I assume it is a lot easier in the US. Here in Norway it is still possible as well though, there was a media showcase about it a few years ago. But that is mostly due to lack of security measures by the telco (we have a national auth method that could be used).

I don't think that's true though. Maybe you haven't SEND any, but I bet you receive a lot. At least I do: from my bank, from some of my bank accounts, from my mobile service provider, from my parcel delivery service. From Coinbase, from PayPal... The list goes on and on.

I live in Germany. Only SMS I receive nowadays is from PayPal. For whatever reason they use it arbitrarily in addition to the other 2FA I set up.

Banks all have their own 2FA apps.

So, I just checked, during the past ~6 months I got the following:

- Clubhouse invite

- A security code from a trading exchange

- My mobile internet provider telling me I reached 80% of my monthly data budget

- A few codes to validate my phone number when creating new accounts on platforms

And that's basically it.

Exacly. Imagine losing acces to that number for whatever reason. Thats the exact issue, this number is now part of your security concept if you want or not.

I am in Switzerland and half of web services ask for a sms confirmation these days. Its not an US issue

Not even niche web services. Yesterday Amazon insisted I tell them the code they sent to a phone I haven’t owned in 5 years.

Imagine making an account with Twitter these days without major phone provider. Twitter seriously would not accept my last sim from a small swiss provider, nether did facebook and many other services.

SMS is a standard and easy way to send/receive messages without using incompatible messaging apps owned by third parties. And the only way for me (except email) since I don't use Android or iOS.

Not all people have or want smartphones.

Don't know about the US but I haven't seen anybody using classic GSM for years now...

I wonder how much of an overlap there is between those still using classic GSM phones, and those who listen to vinyl records.

I know plenty of folks using those. Most people do it by choice because the hardware is more reliable and the battery more durable, but some also do it because their planned-obsolete smartphone broke down.

I have a smartphone, but i usually dont have a sim card. One is not exclusive to the other. I use and need google auth and some other apps, i also like to surf on my couch.

What i definitly dont need is being reachable and available 24/7 wherever i am

I've seen that many elderly folk prefer phones with tactile buttons to touchscreens, so they keep using non-smartphones.

It's still used a lot also in Europe for OTP codes (banking and such), as well as for shops/deliveries, where they send an SMS for order status changes (shipped from the warehouse, in transit, ...).

Since PSD2 every German bank I know moved to 2fa mobile applications instead of SMS, I expected the same for the rest of the EU. I'm quite sure that delivery company also work with emails (at least that's the case of DHL, UPS, DPD, etc, they always send me notifications via emails).

I also live in Germany. I don’t want to get some extra service tied to my phone number, so contact with people is via sms if it has to be mobile, E-Mail otherwise.

I think is because of Apple iMessage, since a lot of Americans gave iPhone and they use iMessage, which sends SMS when the phone on the other end is not an iPhone.

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