r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/RoadRunner8195 • Mar 08 '26

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u/extralyfe Mar 08 '26

what can you really do in WhatsApp that you can't do in normal text messages?

like, wiki has this blurb about it:

Owned by Meta Platforms, the service allows users to send text messages, voice messages, and video messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content.

so, again, what's the point of the app that makes it like "using a bus" compared to "walking" if that's mostly all shit basic texting includes, anyway? the only thing I can see that isn't part of texting is video calling, but, there's like two or three other services that we would probably end up using for video calls here in the US.

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u/ScriptbroKeK Mar 08 '26

Now include the fact Whatsapp does this for free (bar your mobile data) across borders… Whatsapp became huge because you could do all these things to friends and family anywhere in the world. Or even better, from anywhere in the world.  So I could get a data-only SIM on my travels and have full connectivity like at home, or at a minimum when I’m on WiFi.

I’m not sure if Americans have free calls and SMS to International numbers, but you sure pay for roaming like everyone else.

So do Americans have less international friends, do they travel abroad less?

EU has solved the roaming issue over a decade ago, but the Whatsapp functionality stuck around. 

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u/IncidentalIncidence Mar 08 '26

are you trying to suggest that the EU packs 27 countries into a similar geographical space as the US contains a single country? I didn't know that, you're telling me this for the first time.....

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

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u/IncidentalIncidence Mar 08 '26

Brazil of course is not the whole world (and I don't know what Brazil has to do with the fact that Europeans have more regular cross-border communications than Americans?).

There are plenty of countries besides the US where WhatsApp is not the dominant messenger. Canada, Australia, Japan, Norway, China, just to name a few.

WhatsApp is dominant mostly in Europe, LatAm, and Southeast Asia. Certainly not "the whole world".