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Fantastic feature...if you're not in UAE, where Whatsapp and facetime calls are banned and blocked.
 
Hardly. I am just perplexed why so many of my colleagues choose to call me via WhatsApp when normal phone calls are a thing. Not to mention that call quality dips significantly when cellular connectivity is poor.
At least in Europe, VOIP is way better than calls per se. Especially when you call to someone in a different country (I don't even talk about fees, as they're often included). When calling to i.e. Germany or Italy, they're still handled via 2G. I am not sure, but here in Switzerland it should be same as well. Also not all carriers support (stable) VoLTE and not many people know about Wifi Calling. Therefore calls in conventional way are barely used here.
 
You still think it’s 2005 I see.

If RCS was adopted a lot sooner by carriers and the likes of Apple we wouldn’t have to rely on these third party apps and you’d have a point. But even now RCS isn’t supported by Dutch service providers and SMS is simply too limited for today’s uses.

WhatsApp has become the de facto standard for messaging in the Netherlands and many other European countries. Not being on WhatsApp can prove challenging in many social circles and isn’t always viable in a practical sense. That doesn’t mean I also want to receive calls through it. If Meta offered a way to disable said functionality that would be fine too, but they don’t.
What do you mean 2005, because I use SMS? It does what I need, and that is to send and receive messages, I don't want people to send me a load of useless emojis or photos, if they really need to send me photos then do so via email.

You say SMS is too limited for today's usage, but that depends on what you use it for.

I have Facebook messenger on my phone and to be honest, I hate it, I only keep it because of a couple of people who contact me on it, I have removed the main Facebook app.
I hate that it notifies people I am replying, I may start to reply then go and do something else. Thankfully, I found that could be disabled, the same with the active status and that sort of thing. No doubt all that is in Whatsapp and RCS.
It is like when people reply to me, the phone makes a noise when they are typing and saying, such a such is typing a message or something like that.
I DON'T CARE, I will see the message when it gets to me, I don't care if they are in the middle of writing it
The only thing, I like to know is if the message has been delivered, then they can reply in their own time.

I presume Whatsapp does the same sort of rubbish, also noticed in Facebook Messenger, something called Meta AI, I expect that is in WhatsApp as well.
Whatsapp also need my phone number, stick that, not giving Meta my phone number.

Sorry, but I don't get this, you have to use WhatsApp that is around at the moment, and you're looked at as if you are crazy for not doing so. I don't have to use, I have no need for it, the same as i have no need for RCS.


RCS did get adopted in the UK by Vodarubbish, but they dropped it and now uses Google version, maybe it is cheaper for them, I am, not sure, but I think O2 did the same thing. The chance of my carrier adopting it is pretty slim, it is a virtual carrier, so again RCS goes through Google. I don't use Android messages on my phone, and the app I do use for SMS/text, don't support RCS.
If I decided to spend out a small fortune on an iPhone, I would be in the same situation, since my carrier as I said above, don't support RCS, so I would be using SMS on that. The majority of people I know has an Android phone, so only 3 people would be using iMessage. I would never install WhatsApp on my phone, fend or please, I don't care if it is a standard or not.
 
Yes obviously I’m talking from my own reference point and what I use it for it’s insufficient.
That is fair enough, we are all different and uses things differently, but I just never got caught in the rush that I must have all the social media apps on my phone, because most of them offer the same things. you look at a lot of them and you find the same people saying the same things, the same adverts.
I realise that WhatsApp is a messaging app more than anything, but again, I never felt the need for it as I can do what I need with SMS.
Do I really need something like Whatsapp or RCS for that matter, to say, do you want to meet for a coffee tomorrow? I do chat to a group online, but we use discord, for a start i can use a large screen which I prefer, a coupel of them i chat to uses Linux and Whatsapp is not available on Linux as far as I know.

But for everyday messaging, SMS does the job.
 
I would not us SMS for anything, they are a privacy nightmare.
And yet you trust Meta with your messages?
What have most people got to talk about that is so important or privite and will be of interest to other people?
If I have something that private, I would not send it via text anyway, I would phone the person up. But I don't have anything that important or private enough to worry about normally.
My messages are normally, happy birther, Christmas,, do you want to pop out for a pint or two, Do you want to meet in town for a coffee.

I used to get messages from a lad I worked with now and again about work stuff, but he has left, so I don't now.

I certainly would not trust and don't anyone take this the worng way, but I certainly would not trust large American corporations with private messages, I don't trust large British corporations.

Maybe it is because of my age, I have been using SMS for years and don;lt feel any need to change. SMS is free, well kind of, I get unlimited messages in my sim only contract, using an app requires data, which is what I have to pay for if I am outside, that is if I can get a decent signal outside
 
I don’t trust Meta. But at least they have encryption unlike SMS which is more or less plain text at every step of the way.

Mark Z and friends > total lack of privacy.

(And by the way, I am almost 60 years young).
 
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Then they'd get nothing but SMS and phone calls from me. Those work on every phone.

I guarantee 95% of people in the world DO NOT use it.

I can't think of a single service I've ever needed that even asked for that garbage app.

And it's not a good way to communicate with anybody.
Every sports club I’m a member of uses WhatsApp for group discussions etc
 
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I receive far more scam messages via sms than via WhatsApp. In fact, I don’t recall receiving any via WhatsApp.
Unlike SMS, which sends a delivery report back to the sender once the device has received it, WhatsApp doesn't acknowledge delivery of messages from new senders until the receiver manually accepts it.
 
"Giving Meta access to all of your voice and text conversations can't have any concerns at all" said nobody, ever.

yeah, and use meta VPN for your secure needs too :D I try to avoid most things meta, but whatsapp is way to involved in EU market. Some bureaucrats will probably split it up :D

I don’t trust Meta. But at least they have encryption unlike SMS which is more or less plain text at every step of the way.

Mark Z and friends > total lack of privacy.

(And by the way, I am almost 60 years young).

I removed WhatsApp this week due to the addition of Meta AI which has no way to disable it.
I, too, would never trust any apps owned by Meta.

I am hoping Apple would allow default options for Signal or Telegram soon.
 
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I don’t trust Meta. But at least they have encryption unlike SMS which is more or less plain text at every step of the way.

Mark Z and friends > total lack of privacy.

(And by the way, I am almost 60 years young).
I have already reached 60l, just about, but I still don't see the need to use WhatsApp.
SMS dopes what I need.
 
I removed WhatsApp this week due to the addition of Meta AI which has no way to disable it.
I noticed Meta Ai rubbish in Facebook Messenger, you have to agree to the terms and conditions of using it before it does anything, and then you have to use it, otherwise It seems to sit there doing nothing. the amount of times I use Facebook Messenger, it is not a problem, I don't agree with it being there, but Meta is not going to get any traiining of their AI by me.
I thought they would put it in WhatsApp to be honest, AI is going in everywhere, which is a shame. Even on my Mac, but at least it can be disabled on that.
 
I receive far more scam messages via sms than via WhatsApp. In fact, I don’t recall receiving any via WhatsApp.
Don't get them, I must be lucky, but then I also don't get scam phone calls. If I did get scam SMS, I would just delete them.
 
They started to rolling out Meta AI in whatsapp here in Italy. I just find it available today. in US and UK was already available.
And of course, you can't disable it. :mad:
 
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