So, just looking for a bit of info on this. I’m trying to reduce my exposure to Meta so I’m trying to move away to other (ideally open) services. So, for Instagram and Threads I’m using Bluesky more than those services. Facebook itself is just a big pile of ads anyway and it seems it’s impossible to get ‘current’ updates from Friends on there anymore so it’s easy enough just to pop in once a week.
WhatsApp though is the tricky one. There’s no point moving to Telegram or Signal or any other alternative messaging platform if you’ve got none of your friends on it to talk to and I’m not going to go around and insist all my friends switch just to stay in touch.
I think Whatapp originally ‘became big’ in the UK because it was when mobile phone contracts still charged you for individual text messages and call minutes. But I think these days - all mobile phone contracts just have unlimited calls and text now?
With the changes that I believe Apple made to how they deal with messages to people not on an iPhone last year, is the ‘default’ messaging app on phones providing the same sort of service that you get on WhatsApp now? Things like sending pictures, group chats, message receipts?
Is switching back over to that going to be anymore expensive? for either myself or the other person I’m chatting to (still not 100% clear if picture messages are chargeable separately?) or is the main fall-out going to be confusion on why I’m using the app that most people (like me) just get spam messages from Dominos in?
People are very comfortable with WhatsApp so unless you only have friends who are very privacy focussed or anti big tech you’ll have a very hard time convincing them to move away.
Also in relation to Apple now supporting RCS, it also depends on which network the iPhone user is on. I’m an Android user and can send RCS messages to some iPhone users (certainly those who are on EE) but not those who are on some other networks.
For some people, if not most, this will be the case. The exception being those with iPhones on networks that don’t currently support RCS.
You can see which networks do/don’t support RCS on iPhones here…
I want to do the exact same as you but I feel that until all networks support RCS I’d just be creating a faff for myself.
I don’t want to be using the standard text app for some of my contacts and WhatsApp for the others, so for now I’ll just wait.
I think that’s the comment of the thread really. For me my experience is they use what they use. Luckily I’m old enough that my mates think SMS is still an acceptable way of keeping in touch. They might even stretch as far as messenger. But they won’t even think is this a secure messaging service.
While I get your point, sending a text will still meet them where they are as everyone has the capability to receive it.
They might not use their default out of the box messaging app as their go to messaging client but they’ll still get what’s sent to them and they have the capacity to reply without having to install and sign up to a new service.
To me this is the beauty of RCS or rather it will be once everyone on iPhone can use it.
I use WhatsApp because that’s what most other people use. I’m happy with SMS, i.e. texting, or Messenger, for the few people who don’t have WhatsApp. I use Textra for texts because I prefer it to Google Messages, but I won’t send photos on texts because giffgaff charges for media messages; they aren’t included in their plans.
I’ve heard of Signal and Telegram, but I don’t know anybody who uses them. I don’t know what RCS is.
What I really meant by this is the platform, i.e. I know my friends will just use the default text app on the phone so WhatsApp would add additional faff.
It will be what your standard texting app will use to actually send your message replacing and combining SMS and MMS.
Meaning you will be able to send pictures, react to messages, and do quoted replies to specific messages etc. and all without additional charges as it’s done over your internet connection.
Much in the same way as the likes of WhatsApp and Messenger etc. but without having to download or sign up to these third party services.
I too would love to ditch WhatsApp but until RCS is supported by all carriers it makes it tricky. I occasionally test it and helpfully the iPhone tells you if it is or isn’t sending via RCS. I did send a group text via RCS recently which worked great however one of the party replied once to the RCS chat then set up the same group on WhatsApp I give up. For now.
I find it hard to envion a world in which I don’t use WhatsApp.
EVERYONE uses it (friends, family, colleagues, school parents, cubs/guides, local groups) so it would just be making life hard for myself.
I do obviously get texts but I miss them all the time as I don’t check my inbox due to 99% of them being either 2FA or spam.
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BurnyCubbers77
(🔥 Watching things burn from the sidelines. Is this the end?)
13
To echo some of the comments above, it really depands on what phone and OS version you and your friends have. It’s not as black and white as “Android vs iPhone”.
Older Android phones may not support Google/Samsung messages which would route via Google’s servers for the most part. If they have a different app, it may support RCS through carrier but not always.
iPhones need to be on iOS 18 and use a supported carrier, so if you have some people on older iPhones that can’t update to iOS 18, or on a network that doesn’t support RCS, they also can’t use RCS.
RCS works with text, images and videos, and supports reactions adn read receipts like WhatsApp, however keep in mind that most phones default to SMS/MMS automatically if RCS is unavailable, meaning possible charges for you or your friends. RCS is also only for text style communication, and doesn’t include voice or video calls, so those would route via your carriers network.
WhatsApp is the go to for most folks in the UK because it supports text, images, videos, replies, groups, reactions, plus voice and video calls, and it’s supported on most smartphones, meaning that almost everyone can use it. It’s also E2E encrypted, unlike Apple’s implementation of RCS.
I should also note that for UK and EU, while WhatsApp is owned by Meta, it supposidly runs independately to FB/IG, with no data sharing between the 2.
I tried it for 6 months last year. My phone battery lasted much longer, I felt generally happier. Had less people whining about stuff that ain’t my responsibility.
Even when I returned, I have all notifications completely off. I only see messages when I open the app.
I am more on iMessage and the dreaded phone calls. I get less people now just sending a “Hi” with no follow up message.
It’s slightly weird how different countries have a much more different usage for WhatsApp.
Maybe because Apple and Google always focus on the US, over there usage of WhatsApp is far less and everyone does use iMessage and Google Messages.
‘Dragging’ your friends along is one of the reasons why the only alternative I’ll consider for WhatsApp is ‘standard’ text/MMS/RCS messaging rather than Signal or Telegram. Everyone does all have that - it’s just checking if any network does still offer a ‘limited’ calls and text contract though or if everyone now just defaults to always at least unlimited texts?
I give up. For now.