this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
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Signal and Threema want nothing to do with WhatsApp (www.androidpolice.com)
submitted 9 months ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

While I do think you are correct, you have to remember a few things:

  1. SMS really isn't used outside the US (and iMessage pretty much was the death of text messages and now iMessage also supports RCS)
  2. Open source projects can be strict about following a moral code
  3. Anything more than just sending secure messages is just an attack vector and more layers of code to maintain
[–] embed_me@programming.dev 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Idk about other countries. But in India, SMS is pretty big for businesses to send updates to the customers. Like 2FA for bank transactions, delivery tracking, govt alerts etc. Customer to customer is almost nil except on rare occasions when maybe the internet is down and you need to send an urgent text.

And I should mention that domestic SMS is free (included with any active cellular plan)

[–] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Very good point. I did forget about that. That's pretty much the only time most of my family will look at actual SMS messages.

[–] racsol@programming.dev 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

A bit offtopic, but, are SMS free on the US?

Indeed, in my country SMS are not used at all. Too expensive compared to alternatives.

[–] FMT99@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Here I pay 1 euro per month extra for unlimited calls+SMS. Still no one uses it.

[–] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Most plans include unlimited text messaging.