Do you use SMS to message your friends or family?

[Flame]

I know people in the US still use SMS. Which still blows my mind.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Sometimes. Most of the time i use Whatsapp

 

[tech3475]

I use a mix of SMS and WhatsApp.

Main reasons for still using SMS is partially habit but also because it works better in certain scenarios e.g. my smart watch and 'your phone'/kdeconnect.

WhatsApp I tend to default to for sending pics/video or when responding to someone.

 

[HellGhast]

Sms in my opinion has gone the way of the dinosaurs...But some people don't do whatsapp and are still texting judging by all the hullabaloo over apple and their blue vs green text.

 

[Lostbhoy]

I use a mix of SMS and WhatsApp.

Main reasons for still using SMS is partially habit but also because it works better in certain scenarios e.g. my smart watch and 'your phone'/kdeconnect.

WhatsApp I tend to default to for sending pics/video or when responding to someone.

This.

But mainly because I can rely on my phone signal much more than my data signal.

 

[Marc_LFD]

I use a mix of SMS and WhatsApp.

Main reasons for still using SMS is partially habit but also because it works better in certain scenarios e.g. my smart watch and 'your phone'/kdeconnect.

WhatsApp I tend to default to for sending pics/video or when responding to someone.

Same.

I don't really like voice messages so from me they'll always get the messages in text unless they call me, I ain't doing that voice message shit.

 

[wiiu20603]

Now that most cell providers allow phone calls and SMS to be made over WiFi, there's not much reason to use a data-dependent alternative. Whatsapp just somehow managed to worm its way into the brains of non-Americans even though it doesn't offer any big advantages over traditional messaging services.

Especially when Whatsapp is owned by Facebook so you know everything is being CCd to the federal government. SMS is just as insecure, but at least Mark Zuckerberg can't use my SMS messages to try to sell me crap.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

When I still had social contacts I used SMS.
E-Mail would be my preferred method, but hardly anyone can be convinced in this (not even talking about proper encryption for mails).

Stuff like "Anybody uses WhatsApp so I have to even if I don't want" is not an option.
Talk to me without relying on propietary and evil privacy disasters... or don't.

 

[Naendow]

I try to switch from WhatsApp to RCS at the moment. But I do not know a single person which still communicates via SMS.

 

[Flame]

Now that most cell providers allow phone calls and SMS to be made over WiFi, there's not much reason to use a data-dependent alternative. Whatsapp just somehow managed to worm its way into the brains of non-Americans even though it doesn't offer any big advantages over traditional messaging services.

Especially when Whatsapp is owned by Facebook so you know everything is being CCd to the federal government. SMS is just as insecure, but at least Mark Zuckerberg can't use my SMS messages to try to sell me crap.

Of course, you have a valid point. F WhatsApp f Meta f zuck.

SMS is useless, everyone I know uses whatapps. What choice do we have?

"Please don't use whatapp and give this secure own source tech a try?"

 

[tech3475]

Of course, you have a valid point. F WhatsApp f Meta f zuck.

SMS is useless, everyone I know uses whatapps. What choice do we have?

"Please don't use whatapp and give this secure own source tech a try?"

The only reason I got WA in the first place was because I was effectively forced to (pre Facebook) back when I was in Uni for a group assignment.

I know some people think that getting people to stop using it is easy, but in reality, unless you have a closed off circle of contacts who you can force to switch or a simply fine with not communicating with people, chances are it's difficult as your contacts likely have contacts.

Most people also likely don't give a **** about Facebook, etc. Especially since they probably use the site anyway.

In hindsight, I wonder if Blackberry would still be around if they had made BBM cross platform back in the day before WA took off, even with a subscription fee.

 

[mrgone]

SMS, or Text, as the english speaking part of the world calls or called it, is way more low-level transmission wise (OSI-layer 2)
than Whatsapp and the other services (they probably are all layer 7

so in my opinion it is the most reliable form of text messaging

besides the technical reasons
1. whatsapp = facebook = meta = the devil (although i have instagram, so i already have a shadow facebook/whatsapp acount probably, but i will fight against it hand and feet first, # zucksucks )
2. i have signal (semi forced for circle of friends) , telegram (forced bc my sister and her family) and conversations (voluntarily private jabber server for a closed circle of friends)
3. and google meet/chat or whatever it is called today for one friends and emerge

 

[Naendow]

Of course, you have a valid point. F WhatsApp f Meta f zuck.

SMS is useless, everyone I know uses whatapps. What choice do we have?

"Please don't use whatapp and give this secure own source tech a try?"

How about RCS?

 

[SylverReZ]

WhatsApp does free messaging on an Wi-Fi connection. SMS isn't as good as it used to be anymore.

 

[Veho]

SMS is a) universally supported and b) enduring, while WhatsApp is just the latest in a line of "currently popular" messaging apps. Yesterday it was Viber. Tomorrow we'll have something else, that I won't bother to switch to either. SMS works.

 

[Flame]

SMS is a) universally supported and b) enduring, while WhatsApp is just the latest in a line of "currently popular" messaging apps. Yesterday it was Viber. Tomorrow we'll have something else, that I won't bother to switch to either. SMS works.

If you have friends and family in different countries, SMS could be a problem, so using a messaging app is better. Viber was never popular in my world.

 

[tech3475]

SMS is a) universally supported and b) enduring, while WhatsApp is just the latest in a line of "currently popular" messaging apps. Yesterday it was Viber. Tomorrow we'll have something else, that I won't bother to switch to either. SMS works.

I recall BBM seemingly being a common alternative, at least for my brother's generation (born early 80s) around the mid-late 2000s.

Ironically I link WA to being partially to blame for the fall of Blackberry, since it was an alternative which was multiplatform and that's what everyone I know switched to when they took too long to catch up to Android/iPhone.

How about RCS?

I find RCS to be less reliable than SMS, I'm considering just disabling it entirely and just mixing WA/SMS.

 

[RAHelllord]

I still use SMS fairly often due to Whatsapp sometimes taking up to a day to deliver or receive my messages for some reason. As old and antiquated as it is the fact it's so simple also means most carriers, software, and hardware managed to sort out all the annoying bugs ages ago.

Though companies really need to stop using sms for 2FA, that's been bullshit for over a decade and some still refuse to offer any alternatives.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Now that most cell providers allow phone calls and SMS to be made over WiFi, there's not much reason to use a data-dependent alternative. Whatsapp just somehow managed to worm its way into the brains of non-Americans even though it doesn't offer any big advantages over traditional messaging services.

Especially when Whatsapp is owned by Facebook so you know everything is being CCd to the federal government. SMS is just as insecure, but at least Mark Zuckerberg can't use my SMS messages to try to sell me crap.

People might hate Meta / Facebook, however WhatsApp is fully end to end encrypted with the Signal Protocol so Facebook or the government can't read your messages in transit, even if they wanted to. At best they can get metadata such as the time a message was sent, however not the content of the message.

That's why the UK government has a vendetta against end to end encryption, as the most popular way of communicating in the UK has actually been fully secure since E2E was enabled in 2016: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/britain-admits-defeat-in-online-safety-bill-encryption

WhatsApp advantages over SMS / Phone calls:

• Secure E2E encryption with all people you communicate with on WhatsApp
• Free to send picture messages (MMS messages cost 70p per message to send a badly compressed jpg here)
• No need to worry about the iPhone vs Android thing, all features work across all supported platforms
• Voice messaging
• Encrypted voice calls
• Encrypted video calls
• Ability to share live location updates when travelling
• Group chats that actually work

WhatsApp solved a lot of problems that still exist today, well over a decade ago and took away the ability for mobile networks for charge for premium features, such as MMS.

It would be better if the Signal Foundation owned WhatsApp or if Signal was the de facto messaging platform, however they are far worse alternatives billions of people could be using.

 

[RAHelllord]

People might hate Meta / Facebook, however WhatsApp is fully end to end encrypted with the Signal Protocol so Facebook or the government can't read your messages in transit, even if they wanted to. At best they can get metadata such as the time a message was sent, however not the content of the message.

That's why the UK government has a vendetta against end to end encryption, as the most popular way of communicating in the UK has actually been fully secure since E2E was enabled in 2016: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/britain-admits-defeat-in-online-safety-bill-encryption

WhatsApp advantages over SMS / Phone calls:

• Secure E2E encryption with all people you communicate with on WhatsApp
• Free to send picture messages (MMS messages cost 70p per message to send a badly compressed jpg here)
• No need to worry about the iPhone vs Android thing, all features work across all supported platforms
• Voice messaging
• Encrypted voice calls
• Encrypted video calls
• Ability to share live location updates when travelling
• Group chats that actually work

WhatsApp solved a lot of problems that still exist today, well over a decade ago and took away the ability for mobile networks for charge for premium features, such as MMS.

It would be better if the Signal Foundation owned WhatsApp or if Signal was the de facto messaging platform, however they are far worse alternatives billions of people could be using.

E2E encryption means very little when the keys for the encryption are inside a program that is closed source and operated by a company, all it needs is a "whoopsie" in the code and Whatsapp will have a copy of all relevant keys to decrypt whatever they want, when they want it. And this doesn't even touch on whether the encryption is actually secure as is.
Hell, we don't even know for sure if Meta couldn't just generate the keys as is on their servers, they know the details that generated them in the first place, there's very little stopping them from being able to recreate them again given they can replicate the cryptographic secret sauce went into any specific key.

Unless we see the actual source code for WhatsApp we're trusting the word of a company that has lied far too often about pretty much everything they can get away with.