This is why, IMO, Apple, Google and Facebook are the only companies really in a position to change the messaging game in the US. There is space for newcomers (see: Snapchat), but they're going to have to work hard to spread beyond their initial niche.
Apple is driving iMessage adoption via iOS, albeit mostly only for messaging between iOS devices. Facebook has a solid mobile install base already, but they can't seem to figure out how to convince users to use Facebook messaging. It actually works really well for me, but no one I know actually uses it.
Google seems to be in the process of merging Hangouts and SMS. They're already the same app on Android, but you get to pick the protocol. Their logical endgame is to move all messaging to the Hangouts protocol, and fall back to Google Voice to deliver messages to users who don't have a Hangouts client.
If Google can pull this off I think they're going to absolutely kill it, but they seem to be having a lot of execution problems.
I lived in the US for a while, and I can't really come up with any reason why it should be different there. Only that way more people are on Facebook (and those are also way more active). Still, I can't really explain why texts stuck around even for smartphone users.
When I was shopping for a mobile phone plan for my sister four years ago unlimited SMS were hard to find. Sure, now you get them everywhere, but I don’t think standard smartphone contracts had them four years ago. You had to pay obscenely more (something like double the monthly cost) if you could get unlimited SMS at all. I remember that the high cost of SMS were a real sticking point for my sister.
In my experience smartphone contracts in Germany tended to be much cheaper than in the US but you would also get substantially less for your money. That’s still the case today with included unthrottled data volume.
So maybe that’s one reason why Whatsapp took off. Another one I can think of is that Germany is less of an iOS monoculture than the US. Android is more widespread, so iMessage frequently gets you no benefit at all.
Yes, that is exactly what it means unless there's some research data provided. Obviously it is easier to scale our current surroundings to the whole country, than to really go around and see how things are outside our social circle. Then again, same applies to you too, just because you haven't heard of WhatsApp before doesn't mean it wouldnt be big in the UK. :)
Its popularity has been declining due to Facebook and Android - Facebook on Android works really well lately, most of my acquaintances are on Facebook already and everybody with an Android (which is most of my acquaintances) has either Facebook or Facebook Messenger on it. This is happening because Facebook is the messenger that finally dethroned Yahoo Messenger in my country - really, I'm serious, Yahoo Messenger was still really popular until about 2 years ago. And Android penetration has been phenomenal, due to cheap models being advertised by mobile carriers and sold instead of feature phones.
> Their logical endgame is to move all messaging to the Hangouts protocol, and fall back to Google Voice to deliver messages to users who don't have a Hangouts client.
You're a US citizen and so you might have missed the part where Google Voice is not available outside the US - no alternative can win over SMS, unless it is international.
I actually hate them for trying to take over my SMS messaging and I'm glad that I still have the option of not allowing them to do it on my Android, even though I'm also a regular Hangouts user. What is it with these companies trying to be everything to everybody?
> It just makes it easier to manage SMS and Hangouts conversations side by side through the same app.
No it doesn't, it's actually quite confusing. At some point I sent a message to my wife, without paying attention if it's SMS or not and so I sent it by Hangouts because that's the default, but she's not using her Google account at all and never received the message. And you have to pay attention like every single time.
It's much, much easier to separate services, when they are in fact different. For SMS, I open the SMS app and I send and receive SMS messages. For Hangouts, I open the Hangouts app and I send and receive Hangouts messages. When I'm not sure what protocol to use for somebody, I go to that contact's details and check out the available options. If I have to read new messages, I click on the notification. If I want to reply to a new message, I'm already in the right app. What could be simpler than that?
Trying to combine Hangouts or any other SMS alternative with SMS in the same app is first of all a huge usability fail - unless that service would fallback to SMS in case delivery didn't happen, in which case there's always the question of unexpected billing, because your phone number is going to have to send that SMS and SMS can get quite expensive - so no, it's an epic failure.
I think I will give it a serious thought if it open sources its code base or otherwise it's as good as Viber or Line as an alternative. Same goes with helm.is.
Why can't it just be simple? Get the app and pick a phone number to message. The SMS situation is so bad that it's got a giant flashing neon sign "Disrupt me please" all over it yet none of the big players are stepping up.
There is no such thing. IM is extremely fragmented into local markets, and you will find different solutions being the de-facto solutions at different locations.
For reference, I'm from Europe and outside the Netherlands I have never heard of anyone using Whatsapp. I tried it once, and it found 2 contacts among my 100s. It was instantly deleted as it was of no use to me.
I also remember it causing stability issues with my Android-phone, ensuring I will never ever install it on anything I own ever, for life, unless my primary intent is ruining that device.
What's "hot" here, or at least what I've heard of people using is MSN, Skype, FB Messenger, Hangouts, Twitter(!) and IRC.