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Comment by iopq | Hacker News Reader

I've been using XMPP on my phone just fine. Why do I need WhatsApp which is not open? It offers me nothing new other than having to verify my phone number. But I can just use Google Voice if I wanted to message someone who knows my phone number. If I'm talking with someone in India there is no reason why I shouldn't just use XMPP.

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>> "Why do I need WhatsApp which is not open? It offers me nothing new other than having to verify my phone number."

The common answer: because al my friends are using it. I don't understand why people don't use SMS when most smartphone contracts come with unlimited messages now. Why send your info through ANOTHER third party? But my friends are using it for the group feature so unless I don't want to be left out of the loop I have to as well.

Whatsapp is hugely popular in India where phone contracts are not popular and most people use pay-as-you-go prepaid mobile services. Very few, if any, of them come with unlimited messages. Unlimited messages are a US-only thing I guess.

I'm in the UK. That doesn't change my point though. Despite the unlimited text messages in UK/US people still use Whatsapp.

WhatsApp has lots of features which SMS don't.

My 2 cents...

Group text via SMS is a PITA. The main reason why I use WhatsApp for certain messaging tasks.

Having Wifi but no phone signal - WhatsApp gets used again.

WhatsApp also lets you see when a message has been received and also when it has been read. Spooky, but useful.

I don't use SMS because I don't pay for it. I pay only $12 a month for my phone.

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