cause whatsapp is older than rcs, and costs zero unlike sms
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026
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intertia. I try to get as many friends onto Signal as I could but some are just entrenched that until they get forced, they'll just stick with what's comfortable
It was, one of, the first widespread free global messaging services.
So became default for most.
(if you don't count ICQ, MSN Messenger, Skype, etc....)
SMS uses cellular, WhatsApp uses internet. Internet connects you anywhere with one flat rate, cellular may charge extra per message or for international communication.
Signal is better, but everyone's grandmother is already on WhatsApp and good luck getting them to switch
Back at the turn of the century text messages were exorbitantly priced
Which is crazy because it literally uses spare bandwidth they didn't use (other than for the clock updates and other housekeeping) and the amount of data used is infinitesimal compared to voice or other data.
This is why it was free at first as it didn't cost the carrier anything more. This changed quickly when they figured they could charge for it with rates going as high as 20 cents per message in the US. This lead to crazy bills like $5,000.
I remember having only 200 SMS per month and having to ration them carefully because the plans were structured in a way where ordering more resulted in a big price jump.
I was at the tail end of pagers so being able to text was normal but using a cell phone to talk was the next great thing. I was always confused why people wanted to go back to texting when they could just talk.
It wasn't until I had a phone with a physical keyboard that I finally started texting to any degree. It never made sense during the Nokia era for me because it was slow and unintuitive.
I actually agree with you, why would I want to text on an itty birth screen. Nevertheless, despite all my efforts, I can't seem to get myself to switch to those short voice memos you can send in Signal and similar apps. My brother is a pro with those, but it just feels odd to me.
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I keep hoping with this anti-American Big Tech push that Europe and other places are doing they'll get off Meta products. But I'm also not holding my breath.
I work at a company that I strongly suspect had a very serious security breach because of Whatsapp.
During the outage, we were back to SMS and direct phone calling only. After the system was restored, back to how everything was before, caution be damned, lessons not learned.
It's not bad enough to have that invasive application as the default means of passing information around (messages, photos, video and even audio, of all things!) on work phones, office personel has it paired to their computers, where highly sensitive programs and data is stored.
SMS uses cellular, WhatsApp uses internet.
I think that's why OP asked about RCS as well, which is also internet but built into SMS apps.
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Because when Whatsapp was born, SMS were paid (and not cheaply). In my country, sending one SMS cost 0.19€ at the time and didn't allow pics to be send. Meanwhile, with 10€ I could have 1-2GB of data that allowed for tens of thousands of messages to be sent while on mobile data and unlimited messages while I was on a wifi connection.
Its funny that thats the current situation of international phone costs. Sms and calling internationally is expensive while I can download a global(/local to the country) esim giving me data for cheap.
And not only. I can make a voice or video call to my family abroad with any IM app (whatsapp, telegram, signal, discord... pick your poison) for free because I have tons of gb of data in my cell plan. Meanwhile, making a phone call will cost me dearly.
WhatsApp was also an independent company and worked really well compared with other apps. I remember checking alternatives like... 5 years ago and no other app was able to do video calls reliably. Since then Signal caught up and works great now but everyone is already on WhatsApp. EU was working interoperability requirements. That's pretty much the only way to escape WhatsApp now.
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Because sending a message with data was cheaper than the cost of sending one SMS. And it was free on WiFi.
That's why WhatsApp took off.
Plus network effect of WhatsApp is pretty strong
You have explained something I've wondered for a decade+
Some countries like mine have free whatsapp even if we run out of common-mobile-internet-points (packages?)
Others are mentioning price per message, but also important to remember that in the 2000-2010s outside of the United States, when traveling from country to country, you usually had to get a local SIM card for a provider in that country, During your vacation, you'd have a new number for a month when no one could contact you over normal text messages which was a problem. WhatsApp became popular so you could keep chatting with friends abroad even if your phone's SIM card changed during your vacation.
Since most people from the United States don't travel outside the country, and vacation time is rather limited, this wasn't a problem for them, but for the rest of the world, a solution was needed that removed the cell carrier from the equation.
It's not such a mystery. WhatsApp came out in 2009. RCS would not be rolled out widely on Android until 2019. RCS was not implemented properly on iOS until literally a month or so ago.
Therefore its competition has been SMS mainly, which it is directly better than in every way. SMS is not encrypted. WhatsApp is. SMS (technically MMS) heavily compresses pictures & video. SMS splits up long blocks of text into multiple texts, which may or may not come in the correct order. SMS used to be limited in cell phone plans around the time of WhatsApp's release, and STILL is in some parts of the world. SMS requires a consistent cell signal which requires a paid monthly subscription, WhatsApp only requires internet. Sometimes it is easier to find public Wi-Fi than a good cell signal in some places, and it was a popular thing for some teenagers to get an iPod touch or parent's old phone and only be able to use it with Wi-Fi. Then there are stickers & video chat.
People got used to it being the best for at least a decade, and don't want to switch. Even nowadays, RCS is nearly as closed a standard as WhatsApp being limited to an app. You have to use Google Messages or iMessage specifically. In Apple's case, your messages aren't encrypted on their servers unless you specifically request it, and they hold the keys. I suspect Google is the same, despite what they say. And RCS still is routed through your carrier and the receiver's carrier, who have varying policies.
Of course, WhatsApp doesn't have zero access encryption for their servers either, and they're ran by Meta, so it's nearly a lateral move at this point. The real solution is a better WhatsApp replacement like Signal. Signal is making progress but it takes time.
One thing you missed... WhatsApp took off BEFORE facebook (now meta) bought it. So it had a huge network effect while it was independent.
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Because SMS sucks, always has, for many reasons
Give me a federated XMPP based messenger with all the same features as WhatsApp and then... Well, I'll install it but I still wouldn't use it because nobody is using it
That is the core of the matter: everybody uses WhatsApp because everybody uses WhatsApp
AFAIK WhatsApp is actually based on xmpp
Wile SMS in the US went free relatively early on, much of the rest of the world continued to charge for every individual SMS message. So data based instant messaging apps became very popular everywhere in the world that's not the US.
Basically this. tl;dr: being free and being first exposure to mobile instant messenger.
in my south east Asian country, back then we did have bundle sms pricing, buy when the mobile internet infrastructure was getting big money from governments, WhatsApp came in at the right moment. advertising them being free (with a minimal $1 or something lifetime fee nobody bothered to pay for) and can do texting and sending images for free. compared to paying bundled prices for sms and MMS, it's just a no-brainer.
SMS is insecure as hell, RCS suffered from issues between Apple and Google, both were limited for a long time by Telecoms and priced too high after reaching your allowance (i remember my first mobile contract having a whooping 10 SMS/month included). The amount of data messenger apps use is negligible even with pretty low data limits as long as you are not attaching whole movies.
I personally only use Signal - i have removed all Meta products from my life. If someone without Signal wants to contact me, they can use snail mail, i really don't care - i won't sacrifice my privacy for the convenience of others.
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Why not Signal?
WhatsApp has been around for a few minutes more than Signal.
Not really, no. Signal was released more or less exactly a year later than WhatsApp (May 2010 vs May 2009), which, if you look at the 17 years since then, doesn't really matter that much.
However, broad adoption rates in messaging apps are typically achieved by e. g. funny emoji sets vs. encryption, and the early versions of Signal were pretty barebone.
Maybe I should have said “what’s app gained popularity earlier”
Also “WhatsApp’s business model made it marginally easier to use because they don’t care about privacy”
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Consumers, like voters, are stupid and hold a lot of things more important than values and morals.
RCS is not yet working on my carrier here in Sweden.
And since most people are already using alternative messaging apps, no one really cares.
I've had SMS messages read to me by a third party, not a cop. I've had transcripts of 'private' cell calls read back to me by a third party, not a cop.
I survived the entire lifetime of skype without having the same, and I guess I hope the same happens with whatsapp.
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