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nozzlegear

SMS isn't widespread in the US, iMessage is.

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SMS is very widespread in the United States.

All the B2C services I work with are sending SMS to my phone. Not RCS, not iMessage: they are sending SMS messages.

All the MFA providers, such as Twilio and Okta, are sending SMS.

All the political campaign spammers are sending SMS.

All the reminders for appointments and bills are sending SMS.

All the notifications for apps where Push isn't good enough: they're sending SMS.

If user-to-user communication is using iMessage then that is fine. I have noticed that only about 2 of my human contacts use RCS, and at least 2 of them are using iPhones and not Androids for it. So that's some anecdata for ya!

That's all automated bullshit that almost everyone would opt out of if given the chance. Nobody is using that by choice.

But you see, in other countries automated bullshit often talks to you over WhatsApp or Telegram instead.

Sure, but when I said that "SMS isn't widespread in the US, iMessage is," I meant that iMessage is what people use to message each other.

It all depends on age group in my experience. My friends all a bit older than me prefer Messenger for everything. My friends all younger than me prefer Discord. I think my parents and their generation use iMessage, but I use WhatsApp with them. My generation used to use snapchat a lot, I think, but I never got on that boat.

> My friends all younger than me prefer Discord.

That's interesting; I have and use discord myself (owner of a 300+ member server for my WoW guild), but I've never really considered it a messaging app in the same way I do iMessage, WhatsApp, and so on. I think because everyone is pseudo anonymous, it's more like social media to me. Plus I've got the phone numbers and iMessage groups for close friends I've made over discord.

Given its popularity among gamers of all nationalities, I wonder where discord stacks up in relation to the EU's DMA?

Discord is popping up as shadow IT in some places. Because of all the server admin stuff (bot APIs, Github bots, pretty advanced RBAC etc), it's basically "Slack but for free, and without the annoying SSO."

That sounds like my personal hell lol. Slack for free without the SSO, sure, but also Slack with constant annoying Nitro upsells and flashy gamer bullshit.

(I just really don't like Discord and I'm bitter that it's what my guild de facto has to use because it's what gamers have standardized on.)

Being pseudonymous doesn't prevent you from using it to contact people you actually know offline. I used Steam to talk with my group members about a project in college a couple times. Other times I used Google chat/talk/whatever it was called at the time (embedded in the browser inbox). I had a flip phone at the time, so pretty much anything I could use on desktop was easier.

I just mean I've never thought to put it in the same category as iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. Like if the EU is going to regulate messaging apps, I wouldn't have thought to lump Discord or Steam chat in there with those other ones. But, honestly, why shouldn't they?

40% of Americans are not using I whatever. I'd consider that widespread.

> I whatever

iMessage?

> 40% of Americans are not using [iMessage]. I'd consider that widespread.

That doesn't mean those 40% are using SMS instead.

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