What I do not understand is how has AOL Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype, ICQ, and Google Chat all managed to be displaced by Whatsapp? I guess it is loss of 'business focus', but the idea of a "messenging app" is incredibly simple, so one would think it would be simple enough to do.
WhatsApp has the trick that it automatically connects you with everyone you already have in your phone's address book (even if the phone number they used to have belong to someone else now) , the other apps you mention don't do that. I suppose this feature helps, although according to a data protection officer who consulted my company he could sue all his friends for uploading his phone number to WhatsApp's server...
The latest version of WhatsApp that I tested on Android, last week, starts OK without Contacts permission but can't add a contact manually; it constantly reprompts for access to Contacts in order to save it. So basically useless.
One workaround would be to export all Contacts to VCF, then prune the list to only those for WhatsApp, run it, let it import, then deny permission and then merge all the exports back into Contacts. But then that's only a keypress away from an accidental full-slurp and you still can't add newer contacts manually.
Usability. And if you look at all of the above none of those company really have a product or vision of messaging app.
At one point in time, All AOL, MSN and ICQ really did was try to prevent orders from working on their network. ( AIM / MSN )
And other point ICQ were trying to turn itself into Yahoo, an internet portal.
Google Chat? It couldn't even get the basic right.
MSN started to displace ICQ when it was faster, better and Icons pack ( before Emoji ). And ICQ somehow manage to react to this threat by keep boating itself.
At some point before 2007, MSN won. AIM were still being used in US but the trend was clear, people were slowing moving to MSN in US while the rest of the world has switched away from ICQ to MSN.
Being Microsoft who in my mind has never created any decent product, thought they won and decide not to do much about it. It was the era before iPhone. The era when everyone would question, what is going to bring down Microsoft?
Then came the iPhone that shocked the world. Well least in broad sense of it. The UI were revolutionary. But the tech or dreams wasn't. Pocket PC, Palm, all had similar idea before and HTC were ODM at the time. We had a lite, useless, slow Windows Mobile that couldn't do much at all.
Everyone thought, surely linking MSN Messenger between the Desktop and iPhone / Android would make perfect sense?
Not at Microsoft. And when they finally did? It was too late.
Whatsapp manage to became the dominant platform because it was good and simple. Somehow the tech industry took nearly two decade to figure out.
what's even worse whatsapp is the only one without a desktop client even the webclient requires your phone :(. I guess Line is the best alternative it works on all platforms and without phone number as identifier except it's mostly popular in Asia
Personally, I think XMPP with Omemo is the best you can use today.
You have classic desktop clients for all operating systems (e.g. Gajim for Linux and Windows) and there are clients for android (conversations) and iOs (Chatsecure). Most of the clients (pc+mobile) are open source. What's more, you don't need to disclose your phone number and the privacy enabled by OMEMO is great without any usability nightmares.
On top of that, the network is highly decentralized. There are many providers for free and paid accounts and you could also host your own server.
I know Whatsapp apparently has a ton of users but I honestly know nobody that has ever used it. A lot of Discord, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, a little Hangouts, and back in the day MSM, Yahoo Messenger, and AIM. I guess I missed that step in the ladder or something. Same with SMS - from the time I made the leap to Smartphones there were already enough general XMPP clients / Hangouts was good enough to never think about using a third party, especially proprietary, service like that.
My understanding is Whatsapp took off outside the US entirely because it seamlessly used SMS when data was unavailable and that was certainly a killer feature in many parts of the world.
I live abroad now and I can tell you EVERYONE outside of the US uses it.
At least in large sections of the world. Businesses have WhatsApp numbers. You see it on signs everywhere. I now find it a pain that people back home in the US don't use it. I use it daily. I literally just typed a message on there 10 seconds ago.
Well to be fair half of those were on their way out long before WhatsApp came on the scene.
Facebook replaced most of them.
I knew a large community of music producers who only used aim to send tracks to one another, Dropbox and soundcloud soon replaced that
