Africa runs on WhatsApp.

Went to South Africa on vacation last year. United lost our luggage on the first leg of the trip, which then became South African Airways responsibility to sort out because they handled our final leg.

I communicated directly with the SAA baggage agent over WhatsApp. Then communicated over WhatsApp with the courier delivering our bags . Best customer service ever.

I can predict the country you live in with reasonable reliability from this comment alone.

This would not be true most places outside of the USA and maybe Canada. In a few countries/regions it might be a different third-party messaging app.

Obviously, but the parent talks about Apple losing its US market to WhatsApp. Not sure that's remotely realistic, and them adding advertising only makes it even less realistic.

There was a recent interview (iirc maybe with Ben Thompson or at least he mentioned it) where Zuck said they were seeing their growth continue to accelerate in the US and it sounded like they’d be on track to overtake iMessage in a couple years if the rate continued.

Growth like that happens slowly and then quickly. I’m using WhatsApp more now and I didn’t use it before, so empirically I’ve seen the expansion personally.

Are you in North America? I’ve found this to be true in the US, but not in Europe or Asia.

Meanwhile in Europe it’s the opposite.

You can still survive without Facebook-crap perfectly. On the other hand it's hard to survive without either an Android or iPhone device.

Though doing without WhatsApp is getting dicey with a preschooler in a couple of activities, and it will probably get even harder to keep my heels dug in once he's in school...

Whatsapp is essential unless you’re a hermit and don’t have kids.

New drama club my youngest has joined only sends messages out on Facebook, which is even worse.

its pretty easy to "survive". Why do you make it seem like life and death??

Soon I will not be able to pay taxes without such a device. As everyone knows, without taxes, the only other remaining certainty is death.

i dont believe you. I bet there is a way, if you really press the authorities. They are so greedy for money that its certainly possible.

Survive, yes, but you will loose out on connections with other people. For some of us that is a price worth paying but it is still a price.