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Comment by LivelyTortoise | Hacker News Reader

Is there anything that sets FaceTime apart from cheaper competitors like WhatsApp / Signal video calling in this aspect of ease of use?

(I say cheaper because you don't need to buy an iDevice to use those)

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Don't you also need to buy a phone/computer/tablet to use whatsapp or signal? How does whatsapp is cheaper than facetime? But anyway, yeah, I noticed Facetime's both video and audio calls have better quality, in my personal experience. Also, most if not all my friends and family use iDevices, so I dont need to convince them to install signal/whatsapp/telegram etc... But YMMV.

Yes but a practical new Android phone with reasonable spec (I don't mean cheap Chinese oems with 1gb ram) can be had for $100 and can run WhatsApp/signal fine. The cheapest iphone is $399 iirc, the high entry costs that disqualifies a lot of people even in the US and certainly abroad where apple tax difference compare to base currency of usd399 exceeds regional sales tax differences (mexico for example)

True. That $399 iPhone SE is sold for $540 in Mexico at the Apple store. And middle-class Mexicans have between 1/3 to 1/10 of the buying power of an American counterpart.

In Brazil a new iPhone 6 costs about two months of the national average raw income, while a cheap Android alternative would be about 1/3rd to 1/4th of an average monthly salary.

Does average monthly salary mean much if the majority is really poor? Assuming you are middle class, here. Also: you probably mean iPhone 12. The 6 is quite old.

I remember my 6 very well as I fell on my motorcycle and I pulled this banana shaped phone out of my pocket.

News flash the $399 model is based off 6 or 7

> Also: you probably mean iPhone 12. The 6 is quite old

I definitely meant the 6.

Minimum monthly wage (formal jobs, before taxes): R$1100

New iPhone 6: R$1700 ~ R$2400

New iPhone 12: R$7700 ~ R$10000

> Does average monthly salary mean much if the majority is really poor?

For those poor and outside the formal job market, buying a new iPhone (even the older ones) are out of reach or a very significant investment.

Off topic... but Brazil is such a wonderful country with great people. The insane import taxes are not fair and I don't think it helps the economy - rather the opposite.

Brazil is such an outlier. I wonder why Bolsenaro didn't do anything about the insane import duties in Brazil. And don't get me started on the difficulty in using financial services there.

Hungary:

Cheapest iPhone: 120000 HUF

Cheapest Android: 9700 HUF

Cheapest reasonable Android: 21000 HUF

Minimum wage after taxes: 111000 HUF

Thought Hungary had Euros.

Unfortunately we don't, the first target date was 2007, and the numbers looked like we're getting there, but it just never happened. Nowadays there's no target date and the propaganda is eurosceptic, so I'm not holding my breath.

>How does whatsapp is cheaper than facetime?

Whatsapp ,Skype, Telegram, Google Duo, etc apps work fine on Android phones which are lots less expensive than Apple Devices that are needed for Facetime

Trust me, you don't want to put family on Android. My mother started out with Android (to save money), and she never even fully understood how the bottom buttons worked. I became the customer care. Now she's on iPhone and there's no support burden. Phew.

You don’t usually get to choose what devices people buy. All my family is on Android simply because they’re not interested enough in tech to spend triple the price on an Apple device, and there’s nothing I can say to make them spend that much.

Fair enough, but often family members will go to you for advice. So based on your advice, you'll also get the support calls :-)

Definitely easier to use than any of the alternatives. An intuitive video calling system should do just that: video (and/or audio), not chat.

Firstly; she has not heard of WhatsApp, it would have to be taught to her that it is a chat app that has additional functionality to allow phone and video calls.

Blank stare.

She does not chat and has no interest in doing that.

The UI of WhatsApp is confusing and unintuitive if you assume you know nearly nothing except that you want to make a video call.

There is Google Duo that just does video calling.

> Firstly; she has not heard of WhatsApp

I am pretty sure she had not heard of FaceTime as well before you introduced it to her? :)

Disc: Googler.

Yeah, definitely some training is needed for that age group. It will be easier for you and me when we grow to be 100+ years old. She clicks on the green symbol that shows a video camera, maybe that helps to recognize. I am sure Google Duo would have an understandable icon as well, so you raise a good point.

It integrates well with your mobile phone number as identity. Add a SIM to an iPhone and you can FaceTime it in the same way you’d call it.

> Is there anything that sets FaceTime apart from cheaper competitors like WhatsApp

Not signing up to anything Facebook is the first criteria in any service I want to use.

You can take the call on a computer?

macs come with facetime preinstalled (the newer ones at least) and you can send facetime links to people and they can join using the web client if they dont have a mac.

Only on a mac.

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