Because in my country historically the telecom companies are charging 0.30€ per SMS (text) and 2€ per MMS (text with photo).
So WhatsApp when they launched with their “1€/lifetime” offer on the iPhone 3GS they were the right app at the right time and became the de facto replacement for any kind of messaging. It’s insane how basically overnight they replaced msn messenger and Skype because it was so convenient (Microsoft never did a smartphone client for msn messenger, only unofficial ones. It was available on dumbphones but it used SMS from the plan to send/receive, nobody used it because you needed to be a millionaire to afford it)
SMS now in my country is only for receiving OTP codes, for the rest is WhatsApp, because still in 2026 the telecoms are still charging 2€ for each MMS sent and nobody wants to risk huge bills. This includes iMessage because if a chat suddenly goes green and you didn’t notice, it costs dozens of euro
You need at least 2 people to form a conversation.
One of them has Whatsapp, Telegram, signal, MSTeams, smoke signals and those flags that ships used to communicate.
The other only has Whatsapp.
They are going to communicate over Whatsapp.
Even if the dude with 1000 communication methods meets another dude with 1000 communication methods, they are going to use WhatsApp, because they are used to using Whatsapp with everyone, so it’s just easier to have everyone on WhatsApp.
The only people that believe I’m worth contacting have already switched to Signal and the ones that refused to switch lost contact with me. Their loss I guess.
In Germany too and I remember how upsetting it was to me from the beginning. There were third party messengers that supported established (at the time) services like ICQ or live messenger but people got onto the hot new thing because it’s so much like SMS.
I remember starting to use it because texting was pretty expensive and limited at the time. Whatsapp was free (group) texting when on WiFi and still cheaper when on cellular. If texting wasn’t so expensive at the time I really don’t think whatsapp would’ve caught on like it did. Now people are just used to it so that’s probably why it’s still big
I lived the switch in second person. My sister kept running out of SMSs to text her boyfriend, and our elder sister told her about Whatsapp and how she could have basically infinite text messages
Exactly. And, combined with the shared amount of texts/minutes (which IIRC for me was something like 100), actually calling people and wanting to text your friends you’d run out of texts very quick. WhatsApp was a godsend at the time.
Yeah they’re all on Facebook Messenger which sucks. I’ve managed to switch a few in my surroundings to Signal but I still need to keep Messenger for holdouts.
Thankfully I have managed to get everyone to switch from Messenger to Signal, atleast for talking to me haha. Two other family members being privacy oriented too really helped getting the rest of the family moved over.
Why would anyone use WhatsApp when there’s Signal?
Because in my country historically the telecom companies are charging 0.30€ per SMS (text) and 2€ per MMS (text with photo).
So WhatsApp when they launched with their “1€/lifetime” offer on the iPhone 3GS they were the right app at the right time and became the de facto replacement for any kind of messaging. It’s insane how basically overnight they replaced msn messenger and Skype because it was so convenient (Microsoft never did a smartphone client for msn messenger, only unofficial ones. It was available on dumbphones but it used SMS from the plan to send/receive, nobody used it because you needed to be a millionaire to afford it)
SMS now in my country is only for receiving OTP codes, for the rest is WhatsApp, because still in 2026 the telecoms are still charging 2€ for each MMS sent and nobody wants to risk huge bills. This includes iMessage because if a chat suddenly goes green and you didn’t notice, it costs dozens of euro
Well Signal would be pretty much the same as WhatsApp, it sends over internet not mms or sms
The problem is that everyone assumes you have WhatsApp.
You take clothes to the laundry? The “your order is done” notification is sent via WhatsApp
Any kind of work stuff is also on WhatsApp
You order food delivery? WhatsApp
Amazon started to send delivery notifications via WhatsApp instead of email/sms
And luckily meta is charging businesses 5 cents for messages via API or otherwise even otp codes would be via whatsapp
At least here, being reachable only on signal means being a digital exile
I know we’re all saying network effects, but I don’t know what the fuck network effects means.
Network effects dude. Network effects.
It’s a simple concept.
You need at least 2 people to form a conversation.
One of them has Whatsapp, Telegram, signal, MSTeams, smoke signals and those flags that ships used to communicate.
The other only has Whatsapp.
They are going to communicate over Whatsapp.
Even if the dude with 1000 communication methods meets another dude with 1000 communication methods, they are going to use WhatsApp, because they are used to using Whatsapp with everyone, so it’s just easier to have everyone on WhatsApp.
Network effects
I don’t get to choose what app my European friends use
But you get to choose what app you use. And if they continue to support fascism you have to decide if you want those kind of friends.
because it’s the de facto sms replacement in many european and south american countries
So?
I could move to Signal, open up a chat with myself and chat for a while but I think it would get pretty boring pretty soon.
Because most of the world is already on WhatsApp, and changing to Signal would isolate you from most people and businesses.
So what? Don’t support fascism.
Sounds great - if I wasn’t already using Signal, that just might persuade me 😁
Damn shame
The only people that believe I’m worth contacting have already switched to Signal and the ones that refused to switch lost contact with me. Their loss I guess.
Same thing with Twitter and mastodon I guess.
Must be more popular in your country, in Canada I don’t know a single person on whatsapp
It’s very big in western Europe. Here in the Netherlands everybody is on WhatsApp pretty much since it’s creation
In Germany too and I remember how upsetting it was to me from the beginning. There were third party messengers that supported established (at the time) services like ICQ or live messenger but people got onto the hot new thing because it’s so much like SMS.
I remember starting to use it because texting was pretty expensive and limited at the time. Whatsapp was free (group) texting when on WiFi and still cheaper when on cellular. If texting wasn’t so expensive at the time I really don’t think whatsapp would’ve caught on like it did. Now people are just used to it so that’s probably why it’s still big
I lived the switch in second person. My sister kept running out of SMSs to text her boyfriend, and our elder sister told her about Whatsapp and how she could have basically infinite text messages
Exactly. And, combined with the shared amount of texts/minutes (which IIRC for me was something like 100), actually calling people and wanting to text your friends you’d run out of texts very quick. WhatsApp was a godsend at the time.
This is another reason why I think the key to success is timing. Be the first to provide a service people need, and they’ll use it for a long time
Poland , and everybody around me is on WhatsApp, only a few people have Telegram. Searched a bit of saved phone numbers, none had Signal tied to them
Yeah they’re all on Facebook Messenger which sucks. I’ve managed to switch a few in my surroundings to Signal but I still need to keep Messenger for holdouts.
Thankfully I have managed to get everyone to switch from Messenger to Signal, atleast for talking to me haha. Two other family members being privacy oriented too really helped getting the rest of the family moved over.
I thought people on here of all places would understand the impact of the network effect.
I agree, but the other people all use it 🫠
Couldn’t be me… but some people don’t care that Meta can read their messages. Or they still don’t know but I doubt it.
Mark Zuckerberg has a term for these people…
“dumbfucks”
-Markie Zuc
You genuinely don’t know? 😬