Dang, I support your efforts but I just don't have any incentive to pay for a texting app. Normal texting and WhatsApp and discord and Instagram and tiktok messages etc etc are all free. So I just don't really have a reason to subscribe to this.
> Normal texting and WhatsApp and discord and Instagram and tiktok messages etc etc are all free.
This product is not for you. I don't know where you're commenting from, but I'm guessing it's not from the US. Using WhatsApp or Discord or Instagram or TikTok messages only have value because the people you want to talk to use them. In the US, iMessage is by far the dominant messaging service for iPhone users, and iPhones dominate certain socioeconomic groups. This situation sucks, but there are lots of Android users who get extremely frustrated when a large group of their friends are on iPhones, to the point it can be socially isolating when you're "the odd man out" in a group chat (and it's not the whole green/blue bubbles the media likes to talk about, it's that interoperability between iMessage and other clients sucks and breaks many features).
This is a great option for US Android users who want to be able to better communicate with their friends that have iPhones.
In Hong Kong everyone has an iphone but everyone uses Whatsapp. I'm so surprised iMessage is even used at all, we all consider it a gimmick here, like, Whatsapp and Telegram are so great at their respective subset of features and WeChat does the rest.
I recently paid >$1000 for the privilege of access to iMessage when switching from Android to iPhone. I'd have been _much_ happier staying on my preferred operating system and paying $24/yr.
(iMessage has, for me, actually been worth it - but still, I frequently find myself wishing that something like Beeper Mini existed so I could go back to android).
In many circles in the US, it is the way to communicate. You just end up left out of “fun” group chats where people want to use iMessage features and then end up left out of actual events because people forgot to invite in the greenie group.
Would be very interested in seeing the list of things that you feel _aren't_ possible on iOS and aren't things I'd consider extremely "niche" or purely "cosmetic". (Sadly, I'll probably never know if you ever write such a blog post...)
Agreed, and I'm one of them. However flagship devices have been neutered, and core (for many peoples lives) apps require significant compromise.
Whilst there are edge cases, the majority of Android users are effectively within a walled garden, which the opposite used to be one of its strongest appeals.
I'd still say it's not a walled garden, as long as you can install f-droid or the amazon app store. I can still access port, torrents, install a rel alt browser etc. It's a significantly less walled garden.
