Here in South Europe people mostly use Viber. Edit: I was very unaware about situation in Southern Europe as I’ve learned from this post… Most people in Croatia use Viber!

  • alokir@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Really? People pay for short, unencrypted messages that can barely handle accented characters, let alone media, when there are free alternatives that are much better in the vast majority of scenarios?

    Or is free sms a common thing in people’s phone plans?

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Pay? In the US we haven’t paid extra for SMS since about 2005. Which partly explains why it’s prevalent.

    • dingus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Pay per text plans only seemed to exist up until like 2010 at the latest.

    • Klystron
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      1 year ago

      The problem in the US is that the iPhone has a huge amount of the market and iMessage mostly does that already. For Android to counter that you have to use a 3rd party app, which further fractures an already smaller market. Or everyone could just use sms which is free with basically every plan nowadays, which gets you by.

    • alianne@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Like others have commented, unlimited texting has been available in most phone plans for the better part of a decade now; I’d struggle to name a place that offers plans without it.

      As for the accented characters, that’s something I personally don’t encounter much as a native English speaker. I obviously can’t speak for those who do need those keyboards, but for me it’s not a problem.

      With regards to encryption/privacy, I can’t say that’s a concern I’ve personally had regarding my texts. Could the government read my messages? Probably, but all they’re getting is cute cat pics and random chatter about games and food and whatnot. Again, that’s another aspect that’s probably more of a concern for people in more sensitive situations, but I can’t speak for them.

      • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        USmobile still offers non-unlimited plans. I thought ting did as well, but I guess that changed at some point. But I think I’ve only heard of one person using USMobile.

    • MomoTimeToDie
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      1 year ago

      If you wanted a phone plan in the US without unlimited calls and texts, you’d have to actively seek it out because unlimited has been the default for over a decade.

    • Zippy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well most messages can be understood without accented characters and SMS is dependable to work on all devices.