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Comment by nextlevelwizard | Hacker News Reader

>No one outside of the USA is using iMessage

Why should I continue reading rest when you already made insane claim based on nothing. Or have I suddenly been teleported to USA? I primarily use iMessage when I'm sending messages with my phone. I have only one contact that uses Whatsapp.

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No one is using iMessage outside of the USA is like no one is using microsoft Zune. It’s not literally no one but due to the network effect people use Whatsapp or whatever is popular in their country(some places use facebook messenger, Line, Viber, Skype, WeChat etc and you are expected to have it. Why switch apps all the time when you do the exactly same thing everywhere? Except for switching away from iMessage of course because %70 of the people won’t have it even if they want to).

> Why should I continue reading rest when you already made insane claim based on nothing.

You do see the fault with your logic, correct? you state it is an "insane claim" yet offer zero proof... So effectively "based on nothing"?

Here, take a read:

" WhatsApp announced in 2020 on its blog that the messaging app is actively used by over two billion people worldwide. This puts the green messaging app far ahead of all other messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Viber, Apple Business Chat, or Telegram in terms of user numbers. "

Your personal anecdote that you have a "only one contact" is not relevant, what is relevant is statistics.

Yes, in the USA iMessage is more popular https://www.statista.com/statistics/294439/messenger-app-sha...

but here's the thing, the population of the US is rather small vs other countries where whatsapp is very popular.

The one making "insane claims" is actually you.

https://www.verint.com/blog/what-countries-are-the-biggest-w...

But he’s right. There’s no meaningful usage of it outside of America. WhatsApp is king everywhere else.

Anecdotally more people I know use Signal than iMessage, including my non tech savvy sisters and friends. iMessage is too weird and Android too prevalent for anyone to consider using it where I am from (the U.K.)

Sweden: all but two of my friend group have iPhones.

Those two use Signal/Telegram.

Not denying that there's a fair whatsapp penetration, but iPhones are quite popular and I have many iMessage groups that do not overlap in the membership.

You are probably a urban/hipster with few blue collar immigrant friends.

And you are probably a space pineapple with a purple biscuit and seven toes.

(this is how it sounds)

Anecdata: Ireland is a wealthy country and plenty of people have iPhones, but WhatsApp is pervasive. Especially for clubs, parent groups, family chats etc... My techie friends mostly use Signal but fallback to WhatsApp. If you contact a stranger to buy a second hand item for example, 99% chance you can WhatsApp them once you have the number. I don't anyone who uses iMessage primarily...

Neither Europe or Asia use iMessage, they use Whatsapp. Don't know which part of the world youve been to, but more than 70% of the possible iPhone population doesn't use iMessage.

The rest of the world doesn't have the SMS problem that the US has.

Not sure where you’re talking about in Asia. Vietnam uses Zalo, China has Wechat, Japan has Line, Korea has Kakaotalk, Thailand I think is Line as well. I think the average tech-aware person in at least East Asia doesn’t know what WhatsApp even is.

There is no 'Asia'. Every country is unique. Hong Kong mostly uses Whatsapp (though some Telegram and Wechat as well), Singapore uses Whatsapp a lot, Turkey uses Whatsapp, Indonesia too...

As a non American, what problem does the US have with SMS?

I can confirm essentially no one in western Europe uses iMessage. I've seen people use FaceTime to call friends, but I've yet to even see someone open the iMessage app in person.

Yep. Also the iMessage&SMS being in the same place makes the app very prone to spam. I have nothing more than 2FA codes and marketing spam in my iMessage app because the iMessage app is actually integrated with SMS and is called Messages.

I use facetime quite a lot though, because it works better than everything else.

At least in Germany quite a few people still pay for each SMS, so having both in the same convo is actively undesired since at least with e.g. Whatsapp there will be no surprise costs.

I guess the "problem" is that American iPhone users will either exclude non-iPhone users altogether or default to SMS rather than switching to a cross-platform messaging app, despite the deficiencies of SMS in modern communication, e.g. poor support for group chats and sending images or videos.

If "essentially no one" uses it, why does the EU feel compelled to regulate it?

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220315IP...

The link you provided does not specifically talk about imessage

"EU lawmakers agreed that the largest messaging services (such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger or iMessage) will have to open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms"

> Neither Europe or Asia use iMessage, they use WhatsApp.

That's really a simplistic way of thinking. It is marked specific sure, but China have WeChat as the dominate messaging app. Denmark has some level of WhatsApp penetration for sure, but it's lower than iMessage (23% vs 33%), in some circles it is really noticeable if you switch to Android. iMessages is also a bit weird, because a large number of people do not care that it's technically iMessage, it just the messaging app on the phone, meaning it's SMS (even if it's technically not). I believe Sweden is rather similar. You also have to consider how many have multiple messaging apps installed. My guess is that a large number of the WhatsApp users are still available on iMessage.

I don't think it makes sense to entire continent or even countries as being WhatsApp or iMessage. We have to view it in much smaller circles. Like businesses, income classes or circles of friends and family.

Either you people don't know what iMessage is or you have strange way of defining usage.

>more than 70% of the possible iPhone population doesn't use iMessage.

Based on? Are they not receiving SMS messages at all?

>The rest of the world doesn't have the SMS problem that the US has.

So why are they using Whatsapp?

I use an iPhone. Many of my mates, colleagues and business partners use iPhones. These folks are located in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

We all use Whatsapp to discuss everything, from business to personal stuff to memes. I even use Whatsapp calling with some of my friends and colleagues in the USA. My friends circle has a monthly ritual of chatting through Whatsapp group call. I'm also a part of 3 Whatsapp groups to discuss exclusively football, as well as 5 Whatsapp groups for business networking (white shoe finance).

If Zuck were to get pissed and take down Whatsapp from the Apple Store, I know for a fact that a number of my colleagues would immediately buy an Android phone right off the bat, instead of getting Signal or Telegram. I might personally go the Signal option, but without the network effects, I would be driven straight back to Android. That would mean Apple directly losing an entire set of premium customers in markets outside USA and China.

Fun fact:- OPEC dealings are conducted over Whatsapp.

Changing to inferior platform and UX just for a messaging app is some pretty hardcore addiction

At this point, Whatsapp is pretty much critical infrastructure in many countries. And yet Zuck has been so stupid in not leveraging its full potential and instead doing Metaverse and Reels shit.

Well, take a look at emails linked in this submission - Apple used iMessage to keep users on inferior platform and succeeded in the US :-)

Honestly this "iPhone is objectively better" narrative of some commenters is facepalm worthy.

I think this was true but is changing. I've deleted WhatsApp and switched to Signal a few years ago, and now I use iMessage with all my friends who don't have Signal (maybe 4-5 people that I text with regularly). Interestingly enough, I don't have any close friends who don't have Signal and don't have an iPhone...

>Why should I continue reading rest when you already made insane claim based on nothing.

This is the sort of "but actually" pedantry that I come to HN for. Thank you for your service.

Well can you tell us which 1% of the Non-USA you're from or not?

Yeah, that comment was mental. I'm in Australia and over 55% of our mobile phone users are on Apple devices. iMessage is everywhere. Guy knows nothing.

Right. The world is the USA and the rest of it is UK&Australia. If that wasn't the case, why would the aliens always contact the US president and speak English? iMessage is definitely the dominant messaging platform of the humanity.

The cluelessness of the Anglosphere about the rest of the World is very entertaining and sad at the same time.

This!

It is always shocking when people make such baseless claims like "Everyone users iMessage" when a very simple google search would show them this is not the case.

It is a very big world out there and so few realize this.

I don't know why people don't look at India more. And China too, but in this case we know the Chinese use WeChat. India has about 3 times more people than the US, UK and Australia combined. China and India make up more than a third of all people on Earth, but rarely ever mentioned.

Indians use Whatsapp, and so does the fourth biggest country in the world, Indonesia.

Australian here and I don't know anyone who uses iMessage (knowingly at least - my Mum uses an iPhone and presumably does occasionally use the default messaging app for contacting other iPhone users). The few people I don't use WA with I use FB messenger or SMS.

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