this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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In Europe it's used by almost everyone.
Yeah, that's small little thing, that everyone uses it. I've been waiting to get away from WhatsApp for years, but I would be an idiot to say that I can get away from it and still communicate with my family and friends via text.
It is extremely widespread in Europe. In Germany, a good 50 million people (out of 80) use it every day. I would describe myself as very tech-savvy and privacy-conscious and would normally never use it , but since everyone in the family and friends use it without exception, there is no escape. plus quite a lot of business now use whatsapp for contact / support.
Same here (South America). You can not use it yourself but it will mostly keep you out of the loop on everything. Most of the phone companies don't charge you whatsapp message data just to make it more inescapable.
Depends on the country, in mine data plans are not that expensive (add some asterisks to that). But they include those "whatsapp free" or some streaming service traffic with no cost to get the edge over other phone companies. All of them mostly have the whatsapp free thing.
I used to live in a different country and it did make a significant difference, as @desconectado@lemm.ee points out below.
No, I don't mean that. Whatsapp traffic (files i don't think is included in the deal) is treated by the companies independently of other data traffic. You may not have a data plan, but still get a "whatsapp free" thingy, you can text for free via whatsapp without using data plans.
Data plans exists, but there is no good middle ground. You have the unlimited 4g connection for 20 USD , or the WhatsApp only for a few dollars.
Most of the people, specially older age or people who already have unlimited data from work phones, do not need 4g unlimited connection, so why spend extra 15 USD (which is a lot in latin America), if you can still communicate perfectly fine via WhatsApp.
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Nah man, I value way more the contact with my mum and close friends than refusing to use an stupid app.
If my mum is in trouble and try to message me via WhatsApp: "sorry mum, I don't answer WhatsApp messages, good luck next time trying to get someone to help you". Nah man, that's so shitty.
Yeah, they do, that's what living in a society is, not everyone does as you want, and you have to compromise.I have my own choices (in other aspects) which they probably have to live with. But I'm not going to ghost my mum (and close family) just because she uses WhatsApp, that's plain entitlement and immaturity.
I can't contact my mum via msm (not the same country), and are you seriously suggesting email over chat messages? They serve two different purposes.
check out deltachat! it's for messaging.... over email!
IT Pro here. I use it. WhatsApp was around way before Zuckerberg was involved with it.
I'm all for getting away from WhatsApp but at this point it's well ingrained with the general population. I'd love to see RCS take over.
You have never been to South America.