In Europe. WhatsApp or Signal, and I'm aware of Telegram. iMessage isn't even on my list of "what chat apps do people use?"

I use iMessage about 95% of the time I text, in Europe.

I guess it all comes down to your social circle then

I sure hope so. If I get an SMS/RCS from anyone on my android device I typically freak out, just as I freak out when people call me on my phone number.

Phone service protocols feel very outdated to me and are prone to scams, which I get from time to time on SMS, but I'd say never on whatsapp, or at least I can't recall any scam attempts.

You'd be happy to know that iMessage isn't an outdated phone service protocol.

Most of my spam comes through WhatsApp for comparison.

And country. All I use is SMS. If anything else is used by people I know it is mostly Facebook Messenger or Hangouts. But SMS is still a clear #1.

France?

From what I've read, WhatsApp won precisely because of being truly platform independent. 10y+ ago Android/iOS monopoly was not yet that huge, and compared to other apps, WhatsApp had a client (which worked well) on the long tail of cheaper devices/OSes, which drove its adoption, because you could communicate with literally anyone.

And the final, genius and/or lucky move (in Brazil) was when phone operators started allowing both Waze and Whatsapp [1] to work even when your data plan had ended. Now everyone, even those on the cheapest pre-paid plans, was guaranteed to get your message.

[1] Maybe some federal judge considered those apps essential because someone was unable to text for help due to their data plan, and operators were ordered to allow that traffic to go at all times.

Telegram is faster and adding features all the time - people only it during Whatsapp outages - returning as soon as the service is back.

What Telegram does much better are public groups for creators, but its never the primary channel to communicate with their audiences, since discoverability is much worse than Instagram/Twitter.

And because there's no username or password, so anyone can use it. Which is its fundamental problem as phone numbers are terrible for everything

They also had a Blackberry client, Blackberrys were very huge in latin america and I think Asia a while back.

Switzerland here, Telegram seems just as popular as well as Signal having a big community. Many people have WhatsApp sure, but many simply dont.

I am sure this depends on your circle and language region, but this is my POV

Germany too, I don’t even have WhatsApp installed anymore. Telegram then Signal seem to be the most popular amongst younger people.

Same. I just removed it years ago and in the rare case someone asks for my WhatsApp, they likely are using a different App as well.

I haven't run into any FOMO (yet)

+1 for Signal also Switzerland...but have seen Threema quite often too (company internal stuff mostly)

In India. Whatsapp is defacto for everything. group, 1:1 messages, calling, sharing photos/wishes in family/friend circle. Even for business communication in small orgs, reaching out shops, ordering to local stores.

It works phenomenally on iOS/Android/Windows/Mac and even on Windows Phone till its very end. Call quality is good and messaging is fast and very reliable. When you take phone off aeroplane mode, you receive Whatsapp messages first even before SMS etc.

Same in Mexico. Whatsapp is everywhere.

I hear this a fair amount on HN and it doesn’t chime at all with my experience (I’m in the UK). WhatsApp is popular with parents of school-age kids but even then there’s no “second nature” expectation that you’ll use it - I don’t and no-one bats an eyelid. I don’t know any older people who use it at all. Facebook Messenger is popular too, and SMS/iMessage is the default for “I just want to contact someone”.

Another anecdotal UK experience: all contact with humans is via WhatsApp except one older relative. My SMS inbox is 99% 2FA codes, appointment reminders and delivery updates

For me its whatsapp for everyone under 90 (over 90 is email or phone) and signal for everyone who is in IT or is close to someone IT. With the caveat that as almost all signal users are on WhatsApp too sometimes we forget and use it anyway.

Sms is mostly for when you want to add urgency and be less likely to be muted.

I would love to get rid of WhatsApp due to FB and hope to do so somehow soon.

this is my own experience too. Also in the UK

(except that there's no exception; it's all whatsapp)

Not my experience at all in the UK, in all my social groups it's basically assumed you have WhatsApp and we aren't all parents

That assumption even extends to the business environments I work in. I'm often in the position of needing to coordinate with groups of customers, third parties and contractors during a change window. WhatsApp is the lowest common denominator

Strange, I'm in the UK as well but everyone I know and meet uses WhatsApp. Got a few friends who are on Signal and Telegram also, but those are only in my more technology-oriented circles.

Likewise, I’m in the UK and everyone I know uses WhatsApp aside from one or two who use iMessage for whatever reason (but I am sure are also on WhatsApp). I’m quite happy with it, it works well, shame it’s a Meta product

UK here, all my friend groups are on WhatsApp except one which has moved to Discord. I have one individual friend who sends text messages. My parents have WhatsApp but are probably 40:30:30 email:text:WhatsApp. My broader family has a WhatsApp group (that i'm not in!).

Until recently, one friend group was on Facebook Messenger, but only because one guy was a WhatsApp holdout who eventually gave in.

I don't know anyone who uses iMessage, but then i have an Android phone. Maybe they're all having cool and sexy group chats on that without me.

You need to move a little bit out of Europe for WhatsApp to be all encompassing.

In Dubai almost half my bank correspondence has been on WhatsApp. Guy asks me which credit card I want and starts sending me snapshots of a printed brochure.

Advertisements have WhatsApp contact information listed, most businesses has a chat line open in WhatsApp. Delivery drivers will text you on WhatsApp if they have trouble finding your place. It’s really everywhere and that is despite the fact that phone calls on WhatsApp are blocked.

But it’s not like people aren’t on Facebook or nobody snaps or anything.

And of course, in China it’s WeChat, Japan and Taiwan it’s Line and I think South Korea still live and breathe through kakaotalk.

But for the majority of the world WhatsApp is really the first line of contact.

WhatsApp rules in Eastern Europe, too, at least in Romania (where I live). This whole "blue bubble" thing is a little bit confusing to me, I do own an iPhone and it bugs me the wrong way that sending a SMS is not really sending a SMS, it's first trying to do it via web and only then go the old, SMS way.

> it bugs me the wrong way that sending a SMS is not really sending a SMS, it's first trying to do it via web and only then go the old, SMS way

AFAIK it’s sending it over the Internet, but not over the web ;)

If it annoys you, you can disable it easily in your devices’ settings. Personally I don’t care much, and iMessages instead of SMS is convenient for mates in the US or Australia.

TIL, thanks. I only use it from time to time when communicating with my SO, didn't know I had that option available.

French here; my usage is mostly: WhatsApp for group conversations (circle of friends, family, setting up some event/holidays/whatever), SMS for one-on-one conversations. I am definitely not a heavy communicator, though: perhaps younger folks have different usage patterns.

As a reminder: most cell phone plans here include unlimited (free) SMS messages

Same here: WhatsApp for group discussions and whatever the default message app uses otherwise (SMSes or iMessage; does not matter much but we use iMessage features when we can). And Discord for the guild mates. And Facebook messenger for one group, but I don’t quite remember why we went down that route.

I'd be interested to know what drives these differences, whether it can be measured, and why there seems to be limited crossover of "circles".

In the UK, I've had WhatsApp for about 12 years since the Nokia N900. If someone gives me their number, it's assumed we will communicate by WhatsApp.

As an interesting crossover, my American friends communicate with their friends/family in the US with iMessage but use WhatsApp for everything else and the only Brit I've met who used iMessage by default had spent significant time in the US in recent years.

Yeah I'm in the UK too, I don't even have whatsapp installed.

"Outside the US" is a big world where not everyone does things in the same way.

It's per country.

Especially poorer countries use it a lot.

Yeah, poorer countries like Germany. /s (We are trying to switch to something more data protection friendly, but we have not agreed upon the next golden app, and the government is actively trying to ban Telegram, so ...)

It really comes down to network effects - the app that got popular first tends to stay.

Maybe op ment poor as in 'poor internet coverage' ;)

Germany trying to ban telegram is new to me tho, sucks how stupid old people are trying to understand the modern world ...

> We are trying to switch to something more data protection friendly

It’s kind of difficult if we want to mandate backdoors at the same time. That’s not against Germany specifically; most European governments seem to be under that delusion. Well, those who need to look like they care about privacy anyway; the others don’t care about the “data protection friendly” aspect.

I wouldn't consider Switzerland a poor country, but it's still the de-facto standard messaging app for all age groups in my circle.

Poor countries like The Netherlands, where nearly anyone with a smart phone has got it installed?

“Especially poorer countries” does not mean “only poor countries”.

Most people I know just use SMS and that's where Apples solutions is brilliant. My mom doesn't know she's using iMessage, nor does she care, she just thinks it's SMS. Personally I believe that the majority of iMessage users are completely unaware that Apple silently upgrades your communication from SMS to iMessage.

> Personally I believe that the majority of iMessage users are completely unaware that Apple silently upgrades your communication from SMS to iMessage.

I think the word you are looking for is hijacks.

You can call it whatever you want, who ever came up with that idea at Apple should have been given a bonus. It's an absolutely brilliant idea that provides Apple users with a solution better than SMS/MMS completely seamlessly.

Whether you or I feel like it's the right, or even a moral defendable, solution is irrelevant for most other users.

I’m in non-Chinese Asia and it’s Line.

In Europe it’s mostly WhatsApp but a surprisingly large number of people use Facebook Messenger. And often both.

Also in Europe Netherlands its mostly whatsapp and sometimes facebook messenger when going out and adding people. But the talk usually transitions to whatsapp after exchanging phone numbers.

But i prefer telegram more it actually feels like a modern chat application whatsapp feels like a early 2010 app.

Funnily, in my country there's a generation split -- people <40yo use Messenger and >40yo use WhatsApp. Which is funny for several reasons -- Facebook is mostly used by older people nowadays (younger left for Instagram), but the Facebook's Messenger app is the exact opposite. And WhatsApp was never popular in the younger generation, which makes me wonder how the boomers figured out how to use it.

(But the bottom line is, as you can see, that Meta is dominating the market.)

Depending on the European country it is a mix of many apps, regarding my contacts:

With the friends in DACH region it is mostly about Whatsapp.

With the friends in Portugal it is mostly about Whatsapp and Skype.

With the friends in Balcans and east mediterrian it is mostly about Whatsapp and Viber.

With all of them, we still exchange plenty of SMS, as everyone has plenty of free ones on their pre-paid packages.

In Finland, Telegram seems to be the dominant messenger nowadays, at least among university and tech workers.

Among everybody else, it's Whatsapp. Some tech workers too, BTW.

Probably depends on who your friends and families are but iMessage is super popular in parts of Australia. Facebook messenger is also quite popular with a lot of people I communicate with. WhatsApp is third for me, where I am in one group as well as individual messaging to to one or two people. It seemed to be getting more popular here over time but some people switched to Signal when WhatsApp made their privacy changes a year or so ago. Seems to have lost some momentum here, but again maybe that’s just my circles.

I try to get people on Signal or iMessage whenever I can. I reply on another messenger whenever I get a WhatsApp. It is not always possible though.

Eastern European here, both Whatsapp is prevalent and Telegram is gradually gaining ground (although I use it from back to the start of 2016).

Surprisingly to me as a techie, a lot of people outright demand you on Viber or you can't text them. I still refuse though because Viber is crap: it's ad-ridden and can't even sync chats properly when you install it on a new device.

Mind boggling why? It's very, very good. They were early to the game. And messengers profit from network effects.

Within the US, with a modest amount of pre-pandemic international travel, WhatsApp was a thing I was aware of, but never had cause to use (or even install). I'm not certain I've even read the name since the pandemic started before today.

Everyone I know uses some other platform, or just SMS because it works.

SMS doesn't work very well when you're not in the same country/region, as international SMS is not free/unlimited for most people.

can confirm for italy: whatsapp is 100% the only expected tool of communication. telegram is making some waves in some circles, but for the most part it's whatsapp only: groups, 1:1, business support, anything

my experience in germany and spain is vastly similar

In Japan, most people use Line for messaging and calls. I love it but it is not secure.

These impressions are extremely dependent on ones bubble. It also differs a lot by country.