… is it possible to do any kind of business and/or have regular conversations without having to use whatsapp as a main way of communication?
If you’d like you can say in what country you’re living.
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When I installed Whatsapp and Viber my social life got back on track. I was wondering for few years where everyone was.
East europe.
Yes? And America? Wtf kinda country forces whatsapp?
No one said it is forced. It ia relatable to me as I live in East Europe and all my people use WhatsApp. It really is the main way of communication.
Businesses also use WhatsApp. Like boutique or handmade good stores, to have special requests or, for anything you can name as a conversation.
We have family group in WhatsApp. Any special occasion or events, we communicate on that group.
Like, 10-15 years before, it was MSN or equivalents. It evolved to WhatsApp. Telegram, too.
edit: Sorry I misread the title :) But I still don’t think people are forced to use WhatsApp. This is the way it goes.
No one said it is forced
The OP uses the word forced in the title
Thank God we’ve kept the Reddit tradition of not reading the article, the comment, or the post title.
I was starting to miss that.
/s
Isn’t it so cool? It keeps me motivated to argue.
Yeah, like context and reading comprehension. Are we still doing that?
Yeah but one can infer that it’s not a literal governmental force but a societal force
I instantly edited my comment when I re-read the title to check if op actually said “forced”. Thanks for reading my full comment.
Remember when it used to be $0.10 or like a quarter per sms message or something ridiculous? Back when you didn’t have a proper web browser etc on your phone. You know before smartphones were a thing. The companies were able to hold us hostage for text messaging etc because of that.
Now imagine you live in a country where they tried to do that post smartphone’s. Everyone in those countries de facto turned to alternate services like WhatsApp for texting and even calling. So it wasn’t like a government mandated thing. But it was more of an effective mandate because of carriers. This includes most of the world outside the United States. Over in Europe. WhatsApp is common for this very reason. South America again same thing. All because of carriers trying to overcharge but forgetting the internet had become a thing in everyone’s life.
I don’t think the implication is that the government is forcing anyone to use WhatsApp, but that in some places it controls enough share of the messaging market that people are forced to use it because that’s what everyone else is using.
Australia here.
None of my friends or clients have ever contacted me in whatsapp.
I use telegram with my friends.
In SEA it seems like everyone is using Line. Fuck me I hate line.
USA here. No we don’t use WhatsApp at all. I communicate with all friends and family on Telegram or SMS. For work we use Slack. I refuse to have any Facebook anything installed on my phone (I don’t use social media anyway…except for Lemmy now I guess if that counts haha)
I’m a proponent of breaking social media into two categories. There should be “personal media” or something where you use your real name and information, and some other name for social media that you use an alias. The fact Reddit/Lemmy are in the same category as Facebook seems dumb. We need a better way to describe it. Depending on how you define it, news sites with comment sections could be called social media if you wanted to, but it’s clearly something different than Facebook.
Yes, whatsapp is not popular in USA. An iPhone is basically expected for messaging though.
Lol no it’s not. I’ve never even had someone ask me what kind of phone I have.
Nobody asks, you just get left out of group chats if you don’t have a blue bubble. Also can’t facetime.
Ah, you must be in Jr. High or highschool. That doesn’t happen to adults in the real world, lol
The iphone part is not even close to being somewhat true. There are more Android users the iPhone users.
Worldwide, yes, there are more Android users. In the US, almost 60% of people use iOS.
Yes it is possible and those people because of which you would be involuntarily forced to use whatsapp aren’t woth it anyways
Germany
Yes. Most countries allow you to do so.
I’m in the US and we use SMS instead of any specific app. It’s a pretty shitty protocol, but it’s at least not tied to any company.
Maybe in 2040 we’ll get an upgraded protocol when companies megacorps actually decide to try and bridge protocols.
Modern Android devices already use RCS, we just need Apple to get on board.
Unfortunately, iMessage’s proprietary format is far more common than RCS in the US, it works better than RCS, and apple makes a lot of money using it to keep people tied to their ecosystem, so it’s unlikely anything is going to change without government action
Though I wouldn’t say Androids get it. More like Google Messages and a very few select apps get RCS. It’s a standard protocol in theory. In practice, not so much. I think there’s like 3 total apps. You’ll probably never see a FOSS RCS app, or one that isn’t tied to a big corp. Server implentations of RCS also aren’t standard, but most use Google Jibe.
Apple is well known for their love of open standards, of course…
Edit: I really wish they would. I have an iPhone and cannot stand how they hold back multimedia messages when non-Apple phones are included.
That’s exactly what I was getting at
US here, and yes, easily. I have WhatsApp installed on my phone but it’s probably been over a year since I used it last. SMS, email, and Facebook Messenger are the media of choice in my social circle. Work communication is over Slack and email.
But if someone wanted to use WhatsApp to talk to me, I’d use it without being bothered much.
The Netherlands and I barely use anything else to communicate with friends and family. Whatsapp is pretty much the only means of communication people use here.
Same in Belgium and Germany IME.
Canada. Email, SMS.
I’m in Canada. My s/o once had an employer force their staff to use WhatsApp and it was horrible, lol. The notifications were constant and the whole getting work stuff while at home was annoying. But she never had that happen before or after that one employer.
I’ve never had an employer use WhatsApp, they communicate by text if I need to be reached when I’m not working (rare for me), or email/Teams if I’m at work.
Most of my friends are in signal, but I still use WhatsApp for those who aren’t, and for my family. Never really used WhatsApp to communicate with business. (UK)
Yep, in Brazil it’s the unwritten rule that you must have WhatsApp. SMS or iMessage are usually seeing as something bad and telegram for the “people that want to protest “
