But of course, I'm outside the US.
Phone service protocols feel very outdated to me and are prone to scams, which I get from time to time on SMS, but I'd say never on whatsapp, or at least I can't recall any scam attempts.
Most of my spam comes through WhatsApp for comparison.
[1] Maybe some federal judge considered those apps essential because someone was unable to text for help due to their data plan, and operators were ordered to allow that traffic to go at all times.
Telegram is faster and adding features all the time - people only it during Whatsapp outages - returning as soon as the service is back.
What Telegram does much better are public groups for creators, but its never the primary channel to communicate with their audiences, since discoverability is much worse than Instagram/Twitter.
I am sure this depends on your circle and language region, but this is my POV
I haven't run into any FOMO (yet)
It works phenomenally on iOS/Android/Windows/Mac and even on Windows Phone till its very end. Call quality is good and messaging is fast and very reliable. When you take phone off aeroplane mode, you receive Whatsapp messages first even before SMS etc.
Especially poorer countries use it a lot.
It really comes down to network effects - the app that got popular first tends to stay.
It’s kind of difficult if we want to mandate backdoors at the same time. That’s not against Germany specifically; most European governments seem to be under that delusion. Well, those who need to look like they care about privacy anyway; the others don’t care about the “data protection friendly” aspect.
Germany trying to ban telegram is new to me tho, sucks how stupid old people are trying to understand the modern world ...
Until recently, one friend group was on Facebook Messenger, but only because one guy was a WhatsApp holdout who eventually gave in.
I don't know anyone who uses iMessage, but then i have an Android phone. Maybe they're all having cool and sexy group chats on that without me.
As a reminder: most cell phone plans here include unlimited (free) SMS messages
In Dubai almost half my bank correspondence has been on WhatsApp. Guy asks me which credit card I want and starts sending me snapshots of a printed brochure.
Advertisements have WhatsApp contact information listed, most businesses has a chat line open in WhatsApp. Delivery drivers will text you on WhatsApp if they have trouble finding your place. It’s really everywhere and that is despite the fact that phone calls on WhatsApp are blocked.
But it’s not like people aren’t on Facebook or nobody snaps or anything.
And of course, in China it’s WeChat, Japan and Taiwan it’s Line and I think South Korea still live and breathe through kakaotalk.
But for the majority of the world WhatsApp is really the first line of contact.
AFAIK it’s sending it over the Internet, but not over the web ;)
If it annoys you, you can disable it easily in your devices’ settings. Personally I don’t care much, and iMessages instead of SMS is convenient for mates in the US or Australia.
(except that there's no exception; it's all whatsapp)
Sms is mostly for when you want to add urgency and be less likely to be muted.
I would love to get rid of WhatsApp due to FB and hope to do so somehow soon.
That assumption even extends to the business environments I work in. I'm often in the position of needing to coordinate with groups of customers, third parties and contractors during a change window. WhatsApp is the lowest common denominator
In the UK, I've had WhatsApp for about 12 years since the Nokia N900. If someone gives me their number, it's assumed we will communicate by WhatsApp.
As an interesting crossover, my American friends communicate with their friends/family in the US with iMessage but use WhatsApp for everything else and the only Brit I've met who used iMessage by default had spent significant time in the US in recent years.
I think the word you are looking for is hijacks.
Whether you or I feel like it's the right, or even a moral defendable, solution is irrelevant for most other users.
In Europe it’s mostly WhatsApp but a surprisingly large number of people use Facebook Messenger. And often both.
But i prefer telegram more it actually feels like a modern chat application whatsapp feels like a early 2010 app.
(But the bottom line is, as you can see, that Meta is dominating the market.)
With the friends in DACH region it is mostly about Whatsapp.
With the friends in Portugal it is mostly about Whatsapp and Skype.
With the friends in Balcans and east mediterrian it is mostly about Whatsapp and Viber.
With all of them, we still exchange plenty of SMS, as everyone has plenty of free ones on their pre-paid packages.
Surprisingly to me as a techie, a lot of people outright demand you on Viber or you can't text them. I still refuse though because Viber is crap: it's ad-ridden and can't even sync chats properly when you install it on a new device.
Everyone I know uses some other platform, or just SMS because it works.
my experience in germany and spain is vastly similar