WhatsApp Reaches 100 Million Monthly Users in the United States

[SpotOnT]

People do form groups based on job, interests, gender etc. I have never heard of people forming groups based on mobile OS.

Correct- groups are formed based on age, gender, culture, socioeconomic background, interests, etc

And surprise, surprise, a single mobile platform tends to dominate in each one of those groups.

Example: 88% of teens in the USA have an iPhone. Guess who teens text the most...other teens…lol

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Understood, but people tend to live in bubbles. iPhone users mostly talk to iPhone users and Android users mostly talk to Android users. So the number of people communicating cross-platform through SMS isn’t as big as one might think.

Short code messages (marketing, 2 factor, etc) counts for an overwhelming share of SMS in the USA.

*slight correction to your comment. Group messaging isn’t SMS unless there is cross-platform communication in the group chat.

Within work environments, people text whatever. It's a mix of iPhone and android..my work iPhone has iMessage disabled via MDM.

My wife is Android, and I'm iPhone.

 

[contacos]

I went back to WhatsApp full time. I got tired of years without a delete or select all button to actually get a hold of all the attachments, mainly photos sent via imessage. It's a mess

 

[falainber]

Correct- groups are formed based on age, gender, culture, socioeconomic background, interests, etc

And surprise, surprise, a single mobile platform tends to dominate in each one of those groups.

Example: 88% of teens in the USA have an iPhone. Guess who teens text the most...other teens…lol

How exactly does iPhone dominate every group with 50% market share in US and 17% worldwide (in Q1)? Also, "teens" is not a group, it's an age (or a statistical category in some context).

 

[Downhilltenago]

Heard in the past some U.S. posters say they’ve never used WhatsApp. Don’t see how that’s possible.

I have it and never use it. The spam messages on it is ridiculous.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

delete

 

[MichaelYYZ]

Meta! 🤮

 

[Cayden]

Heard in the past some U.S. posters say they’ve never used WhatsApp. Don’t see how that’s possible.

I’m from the US and have never used it. I had never heard of it until I met my partner, who had lived in Europe for a few years. Nobody I know uses it besides her, and she only uses it to talk to her old friends from Europe. iMessage and SMS work totally fine for messaging, photos, group texts, audio messages, etc. Calls are just done over cellular, so no need to have that ability in messaging. VoIP allows the use of WiFi for this as well

 

[Powerbooky]

In Europe WhatsApp is the standard. Have to use it to communicate with colleagues and friends. iMessage nobody uses here because of incompatibility.

It depends on the region, but yeah many are dump s**t sheep and use it, like in The Netherlands and Germany.
Fortunately the (American) company I work for at this moment has dumped Meta's Workforce (company version of Facebook) a couple of years ago after I hinted the IT department in the US that they should review Meta's fine print again; never ever hire a company whose sole priority is datamining all it's users. The only thing that is left is What'sApp, but that's mainly clue-less management that still use WA.

I've grown up with the rise of internet and SMS, but I've never had this compulsive need to text every few seconds, as many of my generation and younger seem to have. For +20 years I live by the rule that most messages (95% of them) do not need to be answered within a day (or seconds). For that we already have email. Anything that needs a bit more attention, you can text or just call. If it is really "important" you go to this person and speak face to face - that is more "social" than anything else.

 

[zoomp]

Everyone uses it apart from US and China… just grow up.

 

[webkit]

It probably should concern him that WhatsApp is owned by Meta as much as it should concern you that iMessage is owned by Apple. As of July 2024, Facebook has 3.06 billion monthly active users. That's about double of Apple users of all kinds. It would appear people trust Meta more than they trust Apple.

Not really an "apples to apples" comparison as Apple doesn't offer any social media platforms like FB, Instagram, Threads, etc. The difference in active users isn't really about "trust" or a lack of, it's much more a reflection of the types of products/services, pricing, etc. each company deals in.

As far as iMessage vs. WhatsApp specifically, if Apple offered a free iMessage app on Android, it could potentially make iMessage at least as popular as WhatsApp.

You do know that the vast majority of people do not have any Apple apps on their devices, right? That might explain a thing or two.

This WhatsApp usage discussion is about the U.S. where iOS has around 56% share of the mobile OS market. More people here have "Apple" apps on their smartphones than "Android" apps.

 

[Krypton Deer]

In Europe WhatsApp is the standard. Have to use it to communicate with colleagues and friends. iMessage nobody uses here because of incompatibility.

In Asia WhatsApp is also the standard. Have to use it to communicate with colleagues and friends. Alternatively we use telegram or signal.

I have never once in my life been asked to chat on iMessage even in all-iPhone friend groups.

 

[SpotOnT]

How exactly does iPhone dominate every group with 50% market share in US and 17% worldwide (in Q1)? Also, "teens" is not a group, it's an age (or a statistical category in some context).

Please reread the thread. I don’t think you understood what I said.

 

[Octavius8]

There are tons of hacks via iMessage and SMS, non via WhatsApp. That’s statistics, not “hope”.
Apples make the whole messaging ecosystem weak and unsafe for everybody as to message with others the encryption is not used. That is because apple does not open its protocol.
That is playing dirty. “If you message other brands or countries you are not safe”. Totalitarian.

 

[I7guy]

You do know that the vast majority of people do not have any Apple apps on their devices, right? That might explain a thing or two.

You mean the vast majority of users who don’t use iOS do not have apple apps on their phone. Is this a captain obvious moment?

 

[haplain]

Once Meta bought WhatsApp I bailed. The same dude who created it, once it was sold, started Signal because he knew what Meta was going to do. If that doesn't tell you enough, I don't know what more to say.

 

[elliotmoore91]

WhatsApp is so 2011, Telegram is where it’s at.

Nah, its all about Signal.

 

[robfoll]

Someone hacked my FB ad account, as result I was thrown off FB with no appeal possible and no response to emails. This meant I lost WA, Insta, and more SO **** META! they don't give a **** for their users, you and your data are just a revenue generator. DO NOT TRUST META!

 

[fwmireault]

It’s interesting to see how some people in this thread simplify the discussion to “Apple = good” and “Meta = bad.” Before sharing unverified facts about the data Meta collects on WhatsApp, take a moment to research end-to-end encryption and understand how it works.

Also, this debate is silly. The US has 100 million active users, yet some people here behave as though this means everyone must install it. If you don’t want to install it, don’t. But let those who want it be.

Edit: typo

 

[icanhazmac]

The US has 100 billion active users

Wait, what?!?!?! LOL Perhaps but I thought Russia had all teh b0tz!

Despite what Meta claims about E2E one cannot argue that their entire business model is based on hoovering data at a pace that challenges Google, if not surpasses them. Why on Earth anyone trusts anything they say or do is beyond me.

Never mind what we do to everything else, WA is ok. Lulz!

 

[fwmireault]

Despite what Meta claims about E2E one cannot argue that their entire business model is based on hoovering data at a pace that challenges Google. Why on Earth anyone trusts anything they say or do is beyond me.

I know that their business model relies a lot on data collection, and to be clear I'm not a fan of Meta at all. But some people here claim that Meta snoops in the messages of their users, it's just not how E2EE works. They have a strong encryption protocol, the one used by Signal and considered among the strongest.

 

[icanhazmac]

I know that their business model relies a lot on data collection, and to be clear I'm not a fan of Meta at all. But some people here claim that Meta snoops in the messages of their users, it's just not how E2EE works. They have a strong encryption protocol, the one used by Signal and considered among the strongest.

That may very well be, but if I had the choice between trusting Zuck or Signal, it would be Signal all day long. Anyone who trusts the Zuck should automatically be denied any recourse when things go south. The contents of WA may be off limits (not that I believe they are) but I am very sure the app itself hoovers plenty from one's device(s).

Looks to me like they hoover plenty!

WhatsApp Has Shared Your Data With Facebook for Years, Actually

A pop-up notification has alerted the messaging app's users to a practice that's been in place since 2016.

www.wired.com

 

[fwmireault]

That may very well be, but if I had the choice between trusting Zuck or Signal, it would be Signal all day long. Anyone who trusts the Zuck should automatically be denied any recourse when things go south. The contents of WA may be off limits but I am very sure the app itself hoovers plenty from ones device(s).

I don't trust Zuck, but I don't need to. The protocole is E2EE, and independent security assessments can confirm the strength of the encryption protocol. Same thing with FaceTime, iMessage, iCloud Keychain, etc: It doesn't matter if I trust Apple or not, there are independent security teams that can conduct a security audit and verify their claim. As I said, I'm not a fan at all of Meta, but that doesn't mean that everything they do is evil.

 

[icanhazmac]

As I said, I'm not a fan at all of Meta, but that doesn't mean that everything they do is evil.

See above. Why trust anything the Zuck claims? See all the stuff WA hoovers in post #122?

Now look what Apple hoovers....

Quite a difference.

Again, perhaps the messages in WA are truly out of Zuck's hands but the rest of your device isn't. Common sense.

 

[webkit]

Once Meta bought WhatsApp I bailed. The same dude who created it, once it was sold, started Signal because he knew what Meta was going to do. If that doesn't tell you enough, I don't know what more to say.

What it mostly "tells you" is that they wanted to cash out for big money. If they knew what Facebook was going to do with WhatsApp, they shouldn't have sold it to begin with but again..... the MONEY. Jan Koum and Brian Acton actually stayed with Facebook for about 3-4 years after the acquisition.

WhatsApp has seen HUGE growth since Facebook acquired it in 2014. What that "tells you" is billions of people don't seem to be particularly bothered by Facebook/Meta or its business model.