So that's what I wonder about -- why did the US not bother, but the rest of the world did? What was different about the US?
You can’t use iMessage if most other people you are interacting with are using WhatsApp.
There is a real need for better messaging than SMS and MMS. In particular easy sharing of photos and videos is the crucial and central feature. Easy group messaging is probably another important aspect.
So both WhatsApp and iMessage provide these valuable features, however the best messaging service is of no use if you can’t communicate with the people you want to communicate with.
Because of the Android and iOS duopoly I would typically expect the cross platform solution to win out for such a use case, even if it is a bit more inconvenient.
What iMessage has going for it is that it has a relatively transparent fallback mode – I think that made it even possible for it to compete.
However, the US is still the clear aberration here, not the rest of the world. It seems to just have worked out there in a way where the critical mass of iOS was there to make this happen and last (at least for a bit).
Still, I can’t see the big crime Apple supposedly committed here. Their approach of building on top of SMS is completely valid and makes tons of sense.
> So that's what I wonder about -- why did the US not bother, but the rest of the world did? What was different about the US?
Not sure about the rest of the world, but India specifically, has more whatsapp users because we have more Android users. iPhone is considered more of a luxury here, even now and with millions using android devices, ios users do end up downloading a common app that everyone has. Also helped by the fact that there's no standardisation of message apps in android, though Google messages is trying RCS, more than half the phones don't ship with Google messages, even the close to stock ones like OnePlus have their own implementation, so a third party became standard for even android to android communication.
I think you have to switch your assumptions around. The cross platform solution of a communicator should be considered more likely to win out in a competitive duopoly.
iMessage defaults to SMS on Android- and SMS is legacy technology in Europe. Thats what stopped iMessage gaining traction.
When you add 1 phone number to a groupchat and now you can’t: Name the group Kick someone out Mute the group at night Send attachments at not potato resolution
Yeah it leads to some resentment
Think about it like this. You're low/middle class but your kid goes to a school where almost literally everyone else comes from a millionaire family. All the other kids play golf or some other expensive hobby. You're either forced to start paying for that as well or risk the fact that your kid will most likely be left out and ostracized by the rest.
If you _chose_ to send your kid to that school and it had nothing to do with education standards or prestige of being at a "better" school, then you effectively chose to bear the extra costs associated with it, but if your kid just goes to that school because it's their only real option, would you think it fair?
This meme that it's "just about the color of the bubble" has got to die.
Messaging over SMS is way worse in every way. Group messaging breaks inconsistently in ten different ways, you have issues with attachments, you miss a bunch of other features, etc.
When you text in groups as much as teens do, these things matter. Not being able to use half the features you regularly use because one person in the group chat is Android is going to be legitimately frustrating.
What's interesting, however, is why the US population has settled on iMessage for premium messaging features, instead of WhatsApp like so many other countries.