Interesting figure that comes out of the article: 87% of US teens prefer iPhones. Also the explanations given aren’t quite surprising, I guess it’s mostly because of iMessage. Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.
It’s actually hilarious how we allowed consumerism to take us this far and that we have now peer pressure over smartphones.
“You’re telling me in 2023, you still have a ’Droid? […] You gotta be at least 50 years old.”
That’s because your mobile plans are usually different and you get charged for each SMS, while SMS is typically included for free in mobile plans in the US. Since you have to pay per SMS, people instead use WhatsApp and Signal which don’t have a per message charge.
Don’t forget, iMessage is not using SMS. It’s like WhatsApp or all other messengers, but Apple only. It uses the same app, but that’s it. And yes, no one pays for texts, because all plans have texts included. Some prepaid plans maybe.
I always see that given as a reason but we had unlimited texts in the UK long before smartphones took off and everyone here uses platform agnostic apps.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.
6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.
7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.
8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.
This has to be a US thing, in Switzerland there is not a single person I communicate with using iMessage. It’s WhatsApp or Signal.
That’s because your mobile plans are usually different and you get charged for each SMS, while SMS is typically included for free in mobile plans in the US. Since you have to pay per SMS, people instead use WhatsApp and Signal which don’t have a per message charge.
In France, there’s a telecom that offers unlimited sms for 2e per month.
Don’t forget, iMessage is not using SMS. It’s like WhatsApp or all other messengers, but Apple only. It uses the same app, but that’s it. And yes, no one pays for texts, because all plans have texts included. Some prepaid plans maybe.
That’s a thing of the past. Nowadays, in Switzerland you get everything unlimited for 20 a month.
In the past, messages cost 10 cents on a prepaid plan, so people started using WhatsApp for free messages at some point, and it just kind of… Stayed
Am italian, i also have unlimited SMS.
I always see that given as a reason but we had unlimited texts in the UK long before smartphones took off and everyone here uses platform agnostic apps.
You still think people get charged for sms?
America really is behind
I haven’t seen a limited minute or SMS plan for years in the UK, are you sure you have any idea what you’re on about?
That’s completely untrue. Unlimited SMS is part of basically any plan. 5 buck prepaid plan has free SMS included.
And a little telegram.
Italian here, we use Whatsapp in my social circle.
Indeed a US thing, Brazilian here
It is a US thing. It sucks.