I know #WhatsApp is popular amongst Americans 🇺🇸 who travel outside of the country, but I doubt #Meta will replace #iMessage in the #UnitedStates 🇺🇸 in the near future.
#Apple has already lost to #Facebook Messenger in #America 🇺🇸, so in a sense @zuck has already won.
@darnell@zuck as a foreigner I don’t get #iMessage popularity in the US. The clients are total crap, a lot of features are lacking, the UI is not very nice, it's a hassle to set up if you change sim cards, activating requires SMS (which have roaming fees if abroad), they lock out any non-Apple user (which is a significant portion of the world), etc. (1/2)
In Singapore everyone is using #Whatsapp, including businesses, bots are popular (to schedule delivery, order airplane food, etc). Apple is so fixated on the US and keeping control and vendor-lockin it totally missed the boat. Literally no one I know in Europe or Asia uses iMessage (or Facetime for that matter) (2/2)
@darnell weird, noone I know uses iMessage (in Singapore/Asia).
WhatsApp is super reliable (and you can call freely internationally or do video calls; quality is also good).
I think I prefer FaceTime for calling the parents in BE from SG, because of the iPad app and the quality is a bit less grainy over long distance; but for everything else, Whatsapp is #1 here, and Telegram likely #2 (usually is the more spammy/anti-gov/dodgy corners).
@yeri Really‽ When I was in Singapore 🇸🇬 for 3 weeks, I communicated with most locals over iMessage (a few used WhatsApp, but those were Android users). As far as iPhone users go, most used both, so it was not a huge deal for them to FaceTime me or contact via iMessage.
@darnell Maybe they are in a certain (tech?) scene? travel more? but for sure my singapore family and friends of my wife don’t use iMessage at all. You can’t get buy here without WhatsApp. FedEx/DHL/local delivery uses it (and delivery guy will send a picture via whatsapp of the delivered goods etc)
@yeri I am not sure if they were from a tech scene (they were all locals), but they had iPhones so we are able to message each other back & forth over iMessage.
The local expats I encountered definitely used WhatsApp, although all those with an iPhone definitely used iMessage with me when I was there.
It could simply be that they adapted to the communication device depending on the person (which is not unheard of).
I know people who use iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, & Telegram.
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