That is why Discord is huge in US while the rest of the world telegram, fb, WhatsApp.

> stopped in the stone age.

And pleasantly so. I actually barely even text - I tell friends to send me an email, or even better just show up at my door and we'll hang out. I get that I'm an outlier, but I enjoy having my digital communications be for work, and my "real" life being offline.

My country only didn't settle for SMS because you still have to pay per message, where WhatsApp is free.

MMS is part of standard cellphone plans and supports group messaging. Most people can't tell when they are sending a SMS or MMS, it just works.

That your carrier had such abusive SMS & MMS rates that it pushed people to Over The Top apps is concerning, and raises notable digital sovereignty and Telecom regulation questions about where your local telecom regulator failed.