Really want to keep my Pixel 2 XL but I can't get over how terrible the messaging is (iMessage)

[tomar05]

I find it funny how most iPhone users pretend not to know whatsapp, especially Americans

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

Agree, they could have made Hangouts work, but they went a different direction. I also really like Allo, but how am I going to convince all my friends/family to start using it? Also my workmates all SMS me, am I going to tell them to move to this Allo app as well?

SMS is easy because it's universal. Doesn't matter what phone someone has, you know if you send a text message, it'll get to them. The problem is that the SMS service is so bad. Granted it'll get better with RCS, but until that day comes, were stuck in this weird limbo where SMS sucks, but there's no really good alternative that checks all the boxes.

Personally, I'd rather Google go the iMessage route and beef up Allo, have it integrate with SMS, have it seamlessly send an IM/SMS just like iMessage and make it the default messaging app on Android phones.

The other huge problem with SMS, including RCS, is that most of the world is not using it.

 

[chanchan05]

The other huge problem with SMS, including RCS, is that most of the world is not using it.

I think you got that the other way around. Most of the world uses SMS. Basically the 86% of all mobile phone owners not using an iPhone.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

I think you got that the other way around. Most of the world uses SMS. Basically the 86% of all mobile phone owners not using an iPhone.

It's really like 40% of the US, a smaller% of Canada, about half of the people in the Philippines and almost no one else. Most countries don't use SMS, they use messenger alternatives such as WhatsApp, etc.

As an example Europe has a population of about 750 million people, over twice as many as are in the US - yet the US uses SMS over twice as much. That means the average person in the US is using SMS 4 times as much as the average person in Europe, and that's before accounting for the fact that nearly half of the US is using iMessage, and not SMS exclusively.

Latin America has about 640 million people, putting them just under double the US population, and they use about 20% of the volume of the US - so the average person in Latin America is using less than 10% of the volume of SMS as in the US.

North America, dominated by the US, and Asia, which is almost entirely the Philippines in SMS usage, represent over 70% of the world's SMS usage. That's about 450 million people or 10% of the world user market of mobile phones generating 70% of the SMS traffic. That's why I say that most people aren't using it, because the other 90% of the planet is only generating 28% of SMS traffic combined.

 

[ClintRo]

I would love that as well... and I thought they were going to do that with Hangouts...LOL

I REALLY like Allo and so do the people that I moved to it.

 

[chanchan05]

It's really like 40% of the US, a smaller% of Canada, about half of the people in the Philippines and almost no one else. Most countries don't use SMS, they use messenger alternatives such as WhatsApp, etc.

As an example Europe has a population of about 750 million people, over twice as many as are in the US - yet the US uses SMS over twice as much. That means the average person in the US is using SMS 4 times as much as the average person in Europe, and that's before accounting for the fact that nearly half of the US is using iMessage, and not SMS exclusively.

Latin America has about 640 million people, putting them just under double the US population, and they use about 20% of the volume of the US - so the average person in Latin America is using less than 10% of the volume of SMS as in the US.

North America, dominated by the US, and Asia, which is almost entirely the Philippines in SMS usage, represent over 70% of the world's SMS usage. That's about 450 million people or 10% of the world user market of mobile phones generating 70% of the SMS traffic. That's why I say that most people aren't using it, because the other 90% of the planet is only generating 28% of SMS traffic combined.

I meant more like SMS is available to them, unlike iMessage. But it's difficult for people already ingrained into a network to get out of it since to them, everybody else relevant to them is on it. Even if RCS gets pushed, I'm not sure how much will change.

 

[ThrottleJohnny]

I’m using Allo, and sticking with it in hopes that Google will fully integrate it one day

 

[stmax]

Funny. My family is split 2 iPhone users and 3 androids. My daughter's got iPhones because their sports teams started using imessages for group chats and they were getting left out. I told them teams should be using universal services like Teamsnap or whatsapp etc but it's like the majority went with the path of least resistance.

I have some android friends so we use Allo. Other mixed groups including my family use Whatsapp. And then even others use messenger with me. After successfully talking people into hangouts I have had to untell them all because there's only so many apps I want to use.

Google really messed up here. Too little too late. And too many changes. Granted Allo is better. The AI is phenomenal with suggested replies and fast! But I'm done convincing my contacts to keep switching.

Whatsapp seems to be the goto universal alternative for now. Holding my breath for RCS. Seems to be a forever away thing though.

 

[ClintRo]

The biggest thing for me is having people change over and over again... that is the main reason I wish Google would stick with one service Allo... Hangouts... whatever.

 

[Centerman66]

Funny. My family is split 2 iPhone users and 3 androids. My daughter's got iPhones because their sports teams started using imessages for group chats and they were getting left out. I told them teams should be using universal services like Teamsnap or whatsapp etc but it's like the majority went with the path of least resistance.

I have some android friends so we use Allo. Other mixed groups including my family use Whatsapp. And then even others use messenger with me. After successfully talking people into hangouts I have had to untell them all because there's only so many apps I want to use.

Google really messed up here. Too little too late. And too many changes. Granted Allo is better. The AI is phenomenal with suggested replies and fast! But I'm done convincing my contacts to keep switching.

Whatsapp seems to be the goto universal alternative for now. Holding my breath for RCS. Seems to be a forever away thing though.

Why does using an android phone make your soccer players unable to participate in group chats with iPhone users? I have a soccer player that is the only android user on her team. They group chat all the time.

 

[sixty_four]

I’m using Allo, and sticking with it in hopes that Google will fully integrate it one day

As much as I like Allo, I'm not holding my breath. I made that mistake with My Tracks and Google Reader - both great products that were abandoned by Google.

 

[Almeuit]

I find it funny how most iPhone users pretend not to know whatsapp, especially Americans

Tbh a lot of Americans don't use it. I can bet maybe one of my buddies knows it. The rest don't since they just use SMS.

 

[bnice]

I'm trying to understand. why is messaging terrible on the pixel or and Android device? because it's not iMessage? So why not blame apple instead of everyone else? Apple choose to keep it exclusive. I also have plenty of friends with iPhones and don't have any issues. The idea to just switched to another phone base on messaging is silly to me. I do agree google need to establish one message app and stop fill flopping around.

 

[stmax]

Why does using an android phone make your soccer players unable to participate in group chats with iPhone users? I have a soccer player that is the only android user on her team. They group chat all the time.

Wish I could tell you exactly. It just probably involved a work around that my 15yo wasn't willing to do. I think the group messages just flows as a conversation amongst the imessagers but it kinda came out to the android as a single message. Replying to the group via sms/mms and maintaining the flow of the conversation didn't seem to work too well.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

It's really like 40% of the US, a smaller% of Canada, about half of the people in the Philippines and almost no one else. Most countries don't use SMS, they use messenger alternatives such as WhatsApp, etc.

As an example Europe has a population of about 750 million people, over twice as many as are in the US - yet the US uses SMS over twice as much. That means the average person in the US is using SMS 4 times as much as the average person in Europe, and that's before accounting for the fact that nearly half of the US is using iMessage, and not SMS exclusively.

Latin America has about 640 million people, putting them just under double the US population, and they use about 20% of the volume of the US - so the average person in Latin America is using less than 10% of the volume of SMS as in the US.

North America, dominated by the US, and Asia, which is almost entirely the Philippines in SMS usage, represent over 70% of the world's SMS usage. That's about 450 million people or 10% of the world user market of mobile phones generating 70% of the SMS traffic. That's why I say that most people aren't using it, because the other 90% of the planet is only generating 28% of SMS traffic combined.

The problem is that while a larger number of people use some sort of IM app, they're not the same IM app. It's split between Whatsapp, WeChat, iMessage, Facebook Messenger etc. They're not all universally on one platform like SMS is. If you have a phone, you can contact anyone who has a phone via SMS. Can't do the same with those IM apps. You have to sign up, hope the person has the app, then message them.

If you split it up by platform, then SMS usage is larger than an individual IM app. So unless everyone in the world somehow agrees on one IM app that everyone will use, SMS will still always be relevant and useful.

 

[Billy Bob Jimmy Joe]

He doesn't want to be a green bubble to his contacts.

Maybe he should find new friends.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

If you split it up by platform, then SMS usage is larger than an individual IM app. So unless everyone in the world somehow agrees on one IM app that everyone will use, SMS will still always be relevant and useful.

This is not true at all, on both fronts. SMS usage totals about 1.8 trillion messages per year sent globally, 70% of which is generated by two regions and really it's almost entirely two countries. Whatsapp has 20 trillion messages per year and over a billion users using it on a daily basis. In most countries, SMS is used almost exclusively by businesses. Daily users of SMS add up to about 60% of the number of users as WhatsApp, with less than 10% of the daily traffic in quantity of messages. WhatsApp is also used for sharing video, photos, calls, etc. and that traffic alone is the same volume as SMS traffic and is on top of the 20 trillion messages per year. WhatsApp is on almost twice as many phones as iMessage is, as is WeChat and FB Messenger, etc.

If we were going to use volume or availability to users, then WhatsApp would be what we have to consider to be the global "standard" - which explains why Allo, as well as all the other services that you mentioned, all want to be so much like WhatsApp.

Seriously, the only reason that people in the US think that SMS is popular, is because SMS is typically bundled in for free with most carrier plans in the US - making it a cheap or free service, while the US also has very expensive data plans (until very recently) and therefore SMS was the more economical resource for the majority of Americans. SMS usage is declining in the US and has been since 2011, but at a much slower rate than in the rest of the world, where SMS usage is plummeting year over year and has been since 2010, when smartphones became popular. The reason for that is that, in most countries, data is cheaper than SMS - which is typically a pay per message resource. Using a tiny amount of data, which includes a MUCH better user experience, is almost always cheaper than using SMS and that's including countries where incoming SMS are free, such as most of the EU.

Almost all smartphone plans in Italy have a limit on the number of SMS you can send in a day (and a monthly cap as well), which varies from 10 to 1000, depending on the price of your plan and increasing the SMS allotment almost always includes accepting a lower cap on your data. After reaching the limit, the cost of each SMS message can be anywhere from €0.04 to €0.20. But an important thing to keep in mind with that pricing, before anyone says, "sms should be free" - that phone plan is typically around €16 per month per person, compared with my Verizon plan in the US, where I'm paying the equivalent of €62 per person. That's almost 4 times as expensive.
Now that the big 3 carriers and Sprint have all started promoting the hell out of "unlimited" data plans, SMS usage will start to plummet just as much here as it did for the rest of the planet 8 years ago.

In the US, FB messenger is already more widely used both in terms of # of people and total volume of messages, than SMS is and for some reason it is much more popular in the US than WhatsApp, though both are owned by the same company. So as a global standard, we already have WhatsApp - though many apps want to challenge it. In China, we have WeChat, in the US we have FB Messenger - SMS is actually the king of the hill in exactly nowhere and isn't even in the top 10 services being used.

Additionally, there are apps like Franz and Clatter, etc. which combine all of these different IM services into one interface for you (desktop applications). A similar app can be found on Android called Disa https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.disa&hl=en, though WhatsApp occassionally breaks their plugin. Either way, you get the idea and having unified messengers makes having contacts that are all on separate messengers suck less.

 

[Almeuit]

If you split it up by platform, then SMS usage is larger than an individual IM app. So unless everyone in the world somehow agrees on one IM app that everyone will use, SMS will still always be relevant and useful.

Most countries have.. it is called WhatsApp.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

Most countries have.. it is called WhatsApp.

This. Over 50% of countries have WhatsApp as the largest IM service and 100% of countries have something other than SMS as the largest service.

 

[chanchan05]

Most countries have.. it is called WhatsApp.

The difference is, whether or not you actually intentionally SMS or not, you can still receive one. If a person does not have Whatsapp installed, then it's a no go. So technically speaking, SMS still has wider reach.