Is it common for people to use texts in 2023 in your social circle? I think I've been texted once this year. I mean obviously people care about this to some extent otherwise this app wouldn't exist but in my experience when I meet someone they'll give me insta or discord, unless they're a tryhard and then it's always signal (blegh).
EDIT: not sure i'm being downvoted? i'm genuinely curious because i never use SMS or iMessage myself and haven't for some years so this seemed very niche to me, even randos i meet out in the world all seem to just chat on discord and insta (I'm in the bay area but most of my friends are not tech bros)
SMS is very popular in the US for historical reasons. Many users in other countries (like India) moved to products like Whatsapp because their cell phone plans charged per message but US phone plans have had free SMS pricing for years so we've never had a push here. iPhone is market leader in the US so iMessageis also heavily used since its default for SMS between iOS users.
Interesting. In UK it was common (and still has I think?) for contracts/deals to include lots of free SMS texts but even then most people have readily moved to WhatsApp, Messenger etc.
In my mind texts quickly became like voicemails, something older people would use cause that's what they know but not something I'd want to use regularly if given the option.
Part of the reason UK switched over quickly is because of much higher international texting needs which these apps also neatly solve. Your average American just straight up does not need international messaging capability
I’d find this surprising! I’m probably the only person I know who frequently messages (via iMessage nonetheless) with foreign contacts. In addition I’m pretty sure cross-state comms in the USA are treated like international comms are in Europe but I could well be wrong on this point (and as per xkcd[1] I’m sure we’ll find out soon if I am)!
The UK rolled probably rolled out free SMS texts later than the US; the US was one of the first markets that rolled it out. I don't know when whatsapp rolled out there but I'm guessing it pre dates unlimited SMS being ubiquitious.
iMessage has pretty much the same feature set as Whatsapp so US users don't really have a reason to migrate at this point.
We had free texts before iPhones nevermind WhatsApp. Not unlimited but hundreds of SMSs a month was common. That said another thread here implied that carriers included MMS messages in free texts, not just SMS? If so that might explain as MMS aren't free in my experience.
Every American I know primarily uses texts and every non-American primarily uses Whatsapp. People also use Instagram and Discord but for other purposes, not when they just want to send one or two people a simple message.
I'm 28, and texting is the primary method of communication for virtually everyone I know. The only exceptions are that I know two techy people who use Google Chat and a few people who use Facebook Messenger (mostly because they don't have my number). I've never met a single person in my life who uses Instagram, Discord, or Signal for 1-to-1 messaging.
Yes. I use SMS, and don't really use any of the alternatives. Everyone I know uses it too, and I don't really have a reason to try to push anything else, which would probably require installing an app.
Almost everyone I know uses Signal regularly, then iMessage after that. Discord comes up in certain settings. Instagram sounds like a pretty awful place to remain connected with someone.
Almost 100% of my chat messages are through iMessage. The only ones that aren’t are group or individual threads with Android users (which btw have never seemed to be an issue. Reactions and gifs all seem to work fine, albeit in reduced quality compared to messages received via iMessage). Every once in a while someone will message me on Facebook, but that’s usually just to share a funny meme or something. I don’t have WhatsApp, signal, telegram, or any of those even installed.
40’s, male, Ohio, software engineer, for reference.
ETA: this doesn’t count work, where we use teams and slack, but I don’t have those loaded on my phone.
Reactions and gifs work fine for you. They work poorly for the android user. When a friend on an iphone heart emoji reacts to a text, on my end I get a text that says "<user> loved a text".
It's obviously not a huge deal, but it's pretty badly executed.
You‘ve just given multiple different text messengers that you use to text message when asking if people still text. Yes, people do. Non technically minded are very big users for the default text messaging apps.
Very much so, texting is my primary method of remote communication. Discord, WhatsApp, and FB messenger are for various group chats. Instagram is almost exclusively for sending dog memes to my wife.
Honestly it drives me insane when I keep messages out of just texting.
I have a couple friends that just want to use Discord and not everything is together in the same app on all of my devices (iMessage,including just texting is on all of my apple devices).
I remember desperately trying to fix this with… what was that big multi client app for Mac years ago? Hate chats not being in the same app.
Edit: found it. Adium! Which shockingly has been updated in 2021.
EDIT: not sure i'm being downvoted? i'm genuinely curious because i never use SMS or iMessage myself and haven't for some years so this seemed very niche to me, even randos i meet out in the world all seem to just chat on discord and insta (I'm in the bay area but most of my friends are not tech bros)