iPhone 12 Pro Max What’s so great about iMessage?

[ian87w]

Only for the past 7+ years.

And yet you are not aware of the drawbacks I mentioned, and even mocked me.
Alright, then.

 

[1rottenapple]

I see everyone on here praising iMessage. It seems like a regular messaging app to me. What am I missing.....longtime Android user

Everyone in my family and friends has iPhone, no android users. It’s just a messaging system that’s better than sending text messages. It’s dirt simple to use no downloading so easy for parents to figure out. Plus high quality photos and videos. So iMessage came at the time we’re more abundant text messages.

 

[akash.nu]

Alongside all of the positive points mentioned above in favour of iMessage, I’m surprised nobody mentioned the iMessage apps. They helped a lot during pandemic where I could play multiplayer short games with my friends without having to deal with any other apps.

 

[Robbosan]

It works

 

[Hal~9000]

While people in other countries might be happy to stick their heads in the sand and be ok with all the compromises / future privacy concerns of Facebook owned WhatsApp, thankfully here in the U.S. iMessage is king!

I mean, Facebook paid $19 BILLION dollars for WhatsApp. Why would they do that if they didn’t have some plan on the future to monetize the service via scanning your chats, in the same way that Google scans your gmail emails, for targeted advertising?

Here’s an article from 2018 about the CEO of WhatsApp quitting 3.5 years after the acquisition due to disagreements regarding the weakening of user privacy:

The Washington Post reported that Koum would leave due to disagreements with Facebook management about WhatsApp user data privacy and weakened encryption.

IMO it’s only a matter of time until Facebook does this to WhatsApp. They’re simply eating the billions in costs right now in order to build up their user base and hoping to become big enough or that people become so used to the service that there won’t be some mass exodus once they begin violating user privacy via weakened encryption and targeted advertising. Here’s an article from just a few days ago reporting WhatsApp losing millions of users over a change in privacy policy which would be the first step towards reading users chats.

Apple has a different, privacy focused approach that makes me much more confident in iMessage and that they wouldn’t break down user privacy in the future the way Facebook would love to.

The fact that iMessage comes pre-installed on iPhones and doesn’t require you to download a separate app is a huge convenience. A year ago I tried using an android phone (S10e) for a bit, and let me tell you... it was an absolute PAIN IN THE ASS trying to get family and friends to download the Signal app and create an account on it. It’s not that it’s truly that difficult to do, but people are creatures of habit and don’t want to have to download a new messaging app for one random person when they already have an app that is perfectly capable and they don’t have to think about it.

 

[jcorbin]

My favorite feature is typing in "pew pew" when im bored too annoy my friends 😂

TIL

 

[steelhauler34]

It isn’t it’s actually a PIA. When you have a iPhone and a droid that you like to switch back and forth from you have to shut off iMessage when going to the droid and turn it back in with the iPhone. When you are using the droid you don’t know how if you are receiving texts from other Apple users right away or not.

 

[jcorbin]

Maybe leave it off indefinitely if you switch platforms that frequently?

 

[ericwn]

Alongside all of the positive points mentioned above in favour of iMessage, I’m surprised nobody mentioned the iMessage apps. They helped a lot during pandemic where I could play multiplayer short games with my friends without having to deal with any other apps.

Do you have any recommendations for these? I admit I haven’t tried these out in ages.

 

[Yusuf Slama]

Well, it's preinstalled, doesn't make you worry about your privacy
Most importantly you don't appear to be online, moreover full quality images
There are some downs like it doesn't have an option to automatically save the pictures and some links might go missing if you're searching for them but these are very minor things considering how natural it feels using it

 

[akash.nu]

Do you have any recommendations for these? I admit I haven’t tried these out in ages.

I’ve been using one particular app that has a collection of quick and easy games that you can just start with a tap.

‎GamePigeon

‎Have fun with your friends and family by playing this collection of excellent multiplayer games via iMessage! GamePigeon features following games: ~ 8-Ball ~ Mini Golf ~ Basketball ~ Cup Pong ~ Archery ~ Darts ~ Tanks ~ Sea Battle ~ Anagrams ~ Mancala ~ Knockout...

apps.apple.com

 

[eyoungren]

The fact that iMessage comes pre-installed on iPhones and doesn’t require you to download a separate app is a huge convenience.

I think, as someone pointed out earlier, there is a distinction here.

The Messages app comes pre-installed on iPhones. Technically, yes, that means iMessage is pre-installed. But it ALSO means SMS and MMS are pre-installed as well. iMessage is not the only thing the Messages app does.

 

[Barbareren]

And yet you are not aware of the drawbacks I mentioned, and even mocked me.
Alright, then.

What drawbacks? I already mentioned that the desktop app works just like any native app, so that so called point is mute. Besides, it’s all about personal preferences. I could list a bunch of 'drawbacks' of iMessage compared to WhatsApp as well, but what’s the point? It would just be a highly subjective list, just like yours is.

 

[lordhamster]

From what I see

The positives
+ built into iOS SMS app, so no extra app needed, and it's transparent to iOS users
+ can transfer photos in high quality full size
+ supports multiple phone numbers and multiple iOS devices and Macs using the same iCloud account
+ Backed up automatically as part of iPhone backup
The minuses
- iOS only
- some carriers don't support it (failed authentication). Example: Telkomsel in Indonesia doesn't officially support it so the authentication can fail with no reason

Comparing this to, let's say, whatsapp
Positives:
+ multi-platform
+ easy sign up, only requires a phone number
+ widely used in many countries
Minuses:
- only support one single phone device at a time. No tablet app, no native desktop app, doesn't support multiple instances. Desktop solution is only via web app.
- One phone number = one account.
- reduce resolution of photos significantly
- backups are not cross platform. Android backup is not compatible with iOS backup, and vice versa.
- it's owned by Facebook, and has questionable ToS with an ultimatum looming

One pet-peeve I have with whatsapp is gif handling. For some reason, they make you click "play" on animated gifs as if they were movie files. This completely ruins the idea of a "reaction" gif and is different than any other messaging app on the planet.

 

[yticolev]

Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that as it works just like any other app made for Mac OS.

Well, the user interface works similarly. But the mechanics are completely different.

 

[LFC2020]

Sending full quality images and videos to fellow iMessage users makes iMessage awesome, the rest is icing on the cake with a cherry on top. 🍰

 

[Barbareren]

Sending full quality images and videos to fellow iMessage users makes iMessage awesome, the rest is icing on the cake with a cherry on top. 🍰

Well, it also makes sending and receiving pics and videos slower. WhatsApp lowers the resolution, but you won’t notice any difference on a phone screen, only on a computer. Besides, WhatsApp supports sending files up to 100MB and you can send full resolution photos by simply sending the photo as a file instead.

 

[hatchettjack]

Whatsappbook sux and steals your info!

 

[jcorbin]

It comes down to what your contacts use. My wife and parents use iMessage. Non-technical and can’t be bothered to download a separate app. Since iMessage is viable there isn’t a reason to convince them to change. If most of my contacts used WhatsApp then that would be what I use.

 

[bransoj]

My family on both sides all have iPhones, quite a lot of my friends have iPhones so iMessage is a no brainer to use and i'm not even in the US. We've had this everyone outside the US uses Whatsapp nonsense on threads before. I barely use Whatsapp as i have no need to....think its basically two large group chats and thats it.

 

[akash.nu]

Well, it also makes sending and receiving pics and videos slower. WhatsApp lowers the resolution, but you won’t notice any difference on a phone screen, only on a computer. Besides, WhatsApp supports sending files up to 100MB and you can send full resolution photos by simply sending the photo as a file instead.

Sorry I beg to differ. The picture quality from WhatsApp is frustratingly inferior to the real shots. I’ve experienced this on many occasions when people sent me pictures, to edit, on iMessage and I was horrified by the quality only to find out that they had downloaded from a different WhatsApp group.

 

[freeagent]

Where did I say I use whatsapp/facebook? Most people in Europe use whatsapp that's just a fact, nothing to do with what I personally use or don't use.

Sorry I misinterpreted what you said and read it as you and a bunch of others prefer that to iMessage. That's cool too if you do, it really makes no difference inside of my bubble.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I personally do not see most of the benefits of iMessage because although I have an iPhone most of my contacts use WhatsApp.

However these are the things I like about it:

I can get my messages on my other Apple devices and it doesn't require any extra work on my part, like downloading third party apps like you have to do on WhatsApp. Also I can get my messages on multiple Apple devices. On WhatsApp I can only get them on one device at a time and switching to another device requires too much effort. I'm lazy lol

The other thing I like is that if I send pictures and videos to other iPhone users the quality isn't degraded. However when I want to send media to non iPhone users I have to use WhatsApp because I get charged 55p per item if it goes via SMS. In WhatsApp the quality is significantly downgraded.

I can use Siri on my HomePod to send iMessages. I can't do the same thing with an android phone and a google home device.

I wish more of my contacts would use iMessage!

 

[Shanghaichica]

iMessage is indeed just a regular messaging app, so it may come down to personal preferences and a few features. For me the biggest perk in comparison to other messsaging apps is that it is quite secure.

Unrelated to iMessaging, the fact that iOS messaging can be synced with your macbook is the biggest plus for using apple's messaging ecosystem for me. Two-Factor authorization for websites that send you an SMS with a code are automatically filled out on Mac/iPhone, which saves a bit of time and is a great feature that I use regularly.

The authorisation codes on other devices are one of the main uses I get out of iMessage as most of my contacts do not use it. It's very handy!

 

[Shanghaichica]

Sorry I beg to differ. The picture quality from WhatsApp is frustratingly inferior to the real shots. I’ve experienced this on many occasions when people sent me pictures, to edit, on iMessage and I was horrified by the quality only to find out that they had downloaded from a different WhatsApp group.

You definitely can notice the difference. I take really good pictures and videos on my iPhone and then send them to my husband via WhatsApp (he uses android) and they are significantly degraded. I agree it is frustrating. His camera skills are not that great and he is using an older phone because he won't upgrade (note 8). Combined with WhatsApps degradation I often get poor pictures and videos from him. I'm the designated picture and video taker in out house!