Why Do People Still Text
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
People use it despite it not meeting their needs or not meeting them well.
Not meeting your needs, is not failing to meet their needs.
Stop imposing your own perception on "everyone"
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
they have a flip phone, so SMS isn't an option, but those people are so few that it doesn't affect the masses.
Huh? Every flip phone and service I've had in the 90s and early 2000s had SMS texting.
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
The same could happen in the US - but my question is - how is it paid for? And I already mentioned that the gov't definitely doesn't want a third party to get in the mix and block their access to monitor communications.
It's paid for by customer on a monthly basis
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My wife and I text - she's not interested in using a third party application...
That said, I use any one of the following:
- Skype
- Telegram
- Signal
- Messenger (rare - as I dislike the FB Stream)
- Cliq (NTG)
- Discord
- NextCloud (retired self hosted server)
- Google Voice (rarely)
My office is in a poor coverage area for cell, but it's better then internet over cell. Texting works more reliably there.
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@obsolesce said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
they have a flip phone, so SMS isn't an option, but those people are so few that it doesn't affect the masses.
Huh? Every flip phone and service I've had in the 90s and early 2000s had SMS texting.
sure it does, but those that I know that have flip phones don't text, I know three.. none of them use SMS.
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
@obsolesce said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
they have a flip phone, so SMS isn't an option, but those people are so few that it doesn't affect the masses.
Huh? Every flip phone and service I've had in the 90s and early 2000s had SMS texting.
sure it does, but those that I know that have flip phones don't text, I know three.. none of them use SMS.
Not an option versus choosing not to use something are very different things...
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@obsolesce said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
@obsolesce said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
they have a flip phone, so SMS isn't an option, but those people are so few that it doesn't affect the masses.
Huh? Every flip phone and service I've had in the 90s and early 2000s had SMS texting.
sure it does, but those that I know that have flip phones don't text, I know three.. none of them use SMS.
Not an option versus choosing not to use something are very different things...
wow - you're right, I massively over stated it.
Supposedly places like Africa flip phones are about all they have, and they do their whole digital lives on those things.
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@jaredbusch said in Why Do People Still Text:
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
People use it despite it not meeting their needs or not meeting them well.
Not meeting your needs, is not failing to meet their needs.
Stop imposing your own perception on "everyone"
Just because I pay more attention to their needs just makes me an IT pro, rather than a blind consumer. This is literally a huge portion of our careers... to look at the technology that others user and help them understand their needs and how to fill them.
MY needs aren't the issue. It's other people failing at their own needs.
Why are we in IT if we ignore this core component of it?
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
So where in the US, the carriers provide SMSing free - in those areas you mention, those carriers offer WhatsApp, etc free.
Most of the US (all carriers that I know) have free WhatsApp (via free data). There are likely exceptions, but I'm not familiar with any. Definitely all with free SMS have free data, too.
Plus if you don't have SMS, you can still use wifi on the device for data services, but not SMS.
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
This board is mainly visited by US persons - so I responded mainly to that group.
That only counts if that is true, you think that majority alone makes it relevant, and if that group is not just American, but also only wants to communicate with other Americans. It's a lot of "ifs" to depend on. None of which are in the context of the post.
And I deal with Americans every day that have these issues, because not all Americans are in America 100% of the time.
And as an American that this affects, it seems weird for you to have this context.
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
While it isn't anywhere near perfect - what really is - SMS's biggest advantage in the US is ubiquity - you have a cellphone? then you have SMS.
That's true today, in the US. But it wasn't true when I first started having these conversations. Texting was gaining use when lots of people didn't have it. And then when people had it, but it wasn't free.
And while you might say everyone has it and it is free, that's for personal devices only, and only for people over a certain age and even then, only with a certain (low bar) of affluence.
But I have lots of young family members who have been using non-SMS services for many years but either don't have or just got SMS service. You are thinking purely of reasonably affluent, American adults and no one else. And only those that don't travel, have family that travels, or have family that is poor or young.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
@jaredbusch said in Why Do People Still Text:
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
People use it despite it not meeting their needs or not meeting them well.
Not meeting your needs, is not failing to meet their needs.
Stop imposing your own perception on "everyone"
Just because I pay more attention to their needs just makes me an IT pro, rather than a blind consumer. This is literally a huge portion of our careers... to look at the technology that others user and help them understand their needs and how to fill them.
MY needs aren't the issue. It's other people failing at their own needs.
Why are we in IT if we ignore this core component of it?
I agree with this thinking on the surface - but as was just pointed out in another thread - people will find the easiest (for them) way to do something. And for US persons - that's SMSing. why? cause basically everyone has it. and the few in comparison who don't, don't cause enough friction to make the majority who do change to another solution.
It's why What's App is the defacto where you are - I'm guessing all phones come preinstalled with it there, and everyone gets it included in their cell plans.
If some new app came on every, or at least nearly every phone in the US - then it's likely people could/would make the transition to that app. otherwise it takes a person to make a choice to move to something new, and hope/beg/plead, etc their friends and family to move to that that platform as well.
It's so bad that stores in the US have setup SMS gateways because they can't get customers to install their app for push notices, so they have to use SMS for those - think food pick is ready/ RX is ready, etc.
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
Many corporate jobs won't let you install whatever IM solution you're using. or are blocking them to keep malware at bay.
Many won't allow texting, either. I'm not sure what this is in reference to. You are saying you have customers who don't own phones and so this breaks ALL of your other points?
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
I agree with this thinking on the surface - but as was just pointed out in another thread - people will find the easiest (for them) way to do something. And for US persons - that's SMSing. why? cause basically everyone has it. and the few in comparison who don't, don't cause enough friction to make the majority who do change to another solution.
I don't believe this at all. People use what is sold to them, not what is easiest. Hence why Windows is so popular. One one can claim it's easy compared to anything else, yet it is super popular. Why? Marketing. Easy to use means nothing to consumers.
SMS has been sold, HARD, because it makes lots of money for carriers who have deep pockets to push it.
Apple in the US has heavily disrupted this and Google is starting to by using their own apps to hijack end users and move the off of SMS by making it easier and by fooling them. They are using the same end user confusion that carriers did to get them to text to get them to stop. Facebook did it in other regions by changing the price structure and removing carrier barriers.
People don't do what is easy, they do what they are pressured to do. Texting isn't easy. Texting was not ubiquitous, you are thinking of it backwards. Texting was a huge pain, but carriers pushed it. Then it was made easy because it became popular, not the other way around.
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
It's why What's App is the defacto where you are - I'm guessing all phones come preinstalled with it there, and everyone gets it included in their cell plans.
That should be obviously untrue. Everyone has basically the same phones. While maybe somewhere there is a pre-installed WhatsApp, I've never encountered it in any region and iPhones never have anything preinstalled in any region as they are always the same. And a huge percentage of phones here come from the US and China. In the US no one preloads WhatsApp, in China they don't even allow it.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
So where in the US, the carriers provide SMSing free - in those areas you mention, those carriers offer WhatsApp, etc free.
Most of the US (all carriers that I know) have free WhatsApp (via free data). There are likely exceptions, but I'm not familiar with any. Definitely all with free SMS have free data, too.
Plus if you don't have SMS, you can still use wifi on the device for data services, but not SMS.
Sure WhatsApp might be available in a similar fashion, but the draw back to SMS does not exist - so the friction to move simply isn't there.
You can get SMS on Wifi, if you device supports WiFi calling, I'd be surprised if most don't support this today.
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
It's so bad that stores in the US have setup SMS gateways because they can't get customers to install their app for push notices, so they have to use SMS for those - think food pick is ready/ RX is ready, etc.
We don't have that problem here because companies push notices through WhatsApp. You can do this in the US, too, Twilio supports it here.
Making people install unique apps for every vendor is ridiculous. Even in the US half the people I know have their phones full and constantly "can't do that" because they don't know how to clean off their phones from all their weird video games and crap people make them install that they think that they need. Needing to install an app for every restaurant, store, shopping experience, etc. that you deal with is absurd.
Texting isn't a terrible mechanism for that in the US. Doesn't work here, at all. But WhatsApp works for it great here (and anywhere, really.)
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
You can get SMS on Wifi, if you device supports WiFi calling, I'd be surprised if most don't support this today.
No, you can't. I have wifi calling, have since it was first released in the US, and SMS isn't supported. You can talk to me crystal clear all day on the phone, no problem. But send an SMS and it won't arrive until I have cell signal.
Maybe some carriers have an SMS over Wifi gateway, but certainly not all do. Wifi calling alone doesn't suggest that SMS will work.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
This board is mainly visited by US persons - so I responded mainly to that group.
That only counts if that is true, you think that majority alone makes it relevant, and if that group is not just American, but also only wants to communicate with other Americans. It's a lot of "ifs" to depend on. None of which are in the context of the post.
And I deal with Americans every day that have these issues, because not all Americans are in America 100% of the time.
And as an American that this affects, it seems weird for you to have this context.
I, like you and a few others on this board are international travelers... and I consider us all outside the norm.
US persons in my exposure don't travel outside the US much, therefore they don't see the SMS issue like those that do.
I'm in your same boat, and therefore have had to find other solutions to my communications needs when traveling, but that's me, not the 90% of US based person's I communicate with.
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@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
I, like you and a few others on this board are international travelers... and I consider us all outside the norm.
US persons in my exposure don't travel outside the US much, therefore they don't see the SMS issue like those that do.
I'm in your same boat, and therefore have had to find other solutions to my communications needs when traveling, but that's me, not the 90% of US based person's I communicate with.But even those that never leave home, know people that do. It's the network effect. Trying to depend solely on US-only solutions in this day and age affects everyone, whether they recognize it or not.
That's one of the biggest problems. Like business customers who buy software X that then forced them to buy Software Y and hardware Z, they rarely realize that the knock on costs were caused by the original thing. How many issues are Americans having day to day caused by SMS but they either 1) stop using SMS but think/claim to still use it or 2) have things not work as they wants but do not realize it is the use of SMS causing the issue?
