I read about WhatsApp and how people can't part with Meta because of it, however no one on my continent uses it. Why is it so popular in the EU and other parts of the world?
Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
SMS was free when I started using WhatsApp, but MMS wasn't, so I think that was part of why it took off in the UK. You could finally send pictures and videos and have read receipts and typing indicators and group chats. Plus it was instant and reliable where SMS always felt slow and unreliable.
Also it worked on WiFi so you could still use it at home where you might not have had the best phone signal.
It became popular when you had to pay for it. It was a one off fee on iPhone or an annual recurring fee on Android, that's how much people wanted to get away from SMS.
Probably worth noting that BBM was very popular at that time too but it was exclusive to BlackBerry phones so the concept wasn't new, but everyone that started moving to iPhone and Android after blackberry wanted the same messaging experience, and WhatsApp provided that.
I'll never really understand why the north American market didn't make the jump like everyone else did, because WhatsApp provided so much more, it wasn't just about cost of messaging.
Also MMS is fucking cancer
iMessage is probably why WhatsApp didn't take off as much in the US, plus tons of alternate messaging platforms, I used to use FB messenger a LOT. Mostly use discord for friends and SMS for family, some of my friends use line too but I'm not a fan.