> Different friend groups may prefer different platforms, but it's pretty rare where someone new to the group refuses what the group is already using

You made the point yourself here. If the messaging platform the group prefers is iMessage then it's somewhat awkward when someone new to the group refuses to use it. Have you ever tried to get a bunch of people to switch platforms for a single group chat? When most of the people have a working solution already it's practically impossible.

As has been mentioned many times in the other comments, those force you to download something, perhaps make an account, make sure everyone has it…whereas 90% of the people might already have an iPhone, which might be better than the number for anything else.

I'd argue that that is irrelevant. What's the point in having anything other than a flip phone if you refuse to download apps. It's not a barrier to entry in every other case and it's never been a barrier to entry with my friends.

Why would you download an app for the basic functionality of a phone? Texting is an integral part of phones and I haven't met a person in the US without unlimited texting in years.

I know a lot of friends who use WeChat to avoid things like international texting rates, but Americans talking to Americans generally do not need this.

> Why would you download an app for the basic functionality of a phone?

Having a blue circle is not the basic functionality of texting. People here are talking about fancy facetime stuff, like group names, and reactions.

Those are all part of iMessage.

Thank you for making my point. iMessage is not texting. I'm responding to this.

"Why would you download an app for the basic functionality of a phone? Texting is an integral part of phones and I haven't met a person in the US without unlimited texting in years."

> Thank you for making my point. iMessage is not texting. I'm responding to this.

To your average iOS user they are one and the same, which is why US iPhone users don't generally download secondary chatting apps unless they have to.

I don't actually think this is true. Is there any verification that most iOS users do not have a single one of the most popular messaging apps in the world?

I never said they don't have anything but if you ask someone to download an app specifically to contact you they're going to be very bothered by it. It's like how as streaming services proliferate there are only so many services people actually want to subscribe to, or how pre-unlimited calling people were very judicious about calling people not on their network.

Anecdotally, in my social group:

- Snap: withering on the vine.

- Messenger: generally declining with the declining popularity of Facebook in my age cohort

- Instagram: everyone has it, but messaging is definitely a second class part of the app and no one really uses it other than to send instagram memes

- GroupMe: I downloaded it once for one person, most of the people in the chat have iPhones anyways, and people don't really use it other than to contact the non-Apple users specifically.

Well, here's an anecdote for you. I am a US iPhone user and I use zero third party messaging apps. I know of no one in my friend circle who has an iPhone and uses a third party messaging app.

> 90% of the people might already have an iPhone

85%+ of the world's on Android, think outside your social circle =]

The whole point is to be about your social circle. If 90% of my social circle is on iPhone, they're on iMessage.

What the rest of the world outside of my social circle does isn't really relevant to my conversations inside my social circle.

I've run up against this reality multiple times. I personally prefer signal & whatsapp for group chats than iMessage. If only because I can mute them and not get an annoying red bubble telling me about the hundreds of messages I'm trying to not react to in real time when I'm busy.

If you tap on the info button in Messages, you can click "Hide Alerts", which works fine for me.

That doesn't stop the red counter bubble from appearing and incrementing on the messages app, sadly.

Whereas a muted group chat in whatsapp is completely muted, unless someone explicitly @tags you in a message or explicitly replies to your message (another feature iMessage group chats lacks - tagging specific people, and explicit/contextual replies to specific messages)

Swipe a conversation in Messages and tap Hide Alerts.

But it is precisely my social circle that matters when choosing a messaging platform.

> 85%+ of the world's on Android

I'm assuming the majority seems to be third-world countries because in big UK cities the majority of the phones I see around are iPhones.

The UK seems to be about 50% iOS.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/271240/android-market-sh...

And yet everybody seems to use WhatsApp even between iOS devices

Blame Google for never getting messaging right and having multiple chat apps at the sane time.

I’m buying my parents an iPad just because every other type video chat is more convoluted than just clicking on FaceTime from contacts.

Never understood this argument. My parents from a 3rd world country who barely understand English are able to use 3rd party apps like Whatsapp, Duo, Skype just fine. And Duo works directly from your contacts app too (at least in Pixel and Samsung phones), in fact you can see options like "Video call xxx Message XXX with a logo of the apps that support it right in the contacts apps.

Duo came out too late, and Google has a reputation for changing things. Years ago, I tried setting up my family with google’s apps, and they kept changing, and it burned me and wasted my time. So years ago, I switched everyone to Apple, and haven’t wasted any time since.

WhatsApp is really nice, but you need a phone for it, which some of the older grandparents don’t have. But they do have cheap iPads, so everyone uses FaceTime.

I find it astounding that the grandparents have iPads before phones. Most elderly people I know have cheapo Android phones or a few with "accessible" android phones target at people with sight or mobility problems (usually amounts to buttons and a skin with large icons). A few still have older Nokia phones, but these are the ones least likely to have iPads and more likely to have an old Windows 9x/XP computer hanging around for solitaire.

The iPads are usually bought by the adult children to replace the aging computers because they are both much simpler to use and much harder to screw up. I gave my parents an iPad and added them to my plan for $20/month unlimited data. They don’t have to worry about WiFi or anything.

In my family, the grandparents live with their children and grandchildren sometimes, so they don't need phones (or at least only grandma or grandpa needs them, but not both).

But the younger set of grandparents all have their own phones, so it's only the very old that don't.

And then that’s another thing they have to sign into as opposed to just looking in their contacts and choosing the FaceTime icon.

And as far as Duo - only if you have a Samsung phone or Pixel? If you have to buy a new phone anyway - since the entire Android ecosystem is a clusterf* when it comes to upgrades - you might as well get one that is going to be supported for years.

And people do. At least in Europe.