this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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SMS text messaging unless it's a group chat/voice call for gaming, in which case it's Discord.
Really? People pay for short, unencrypted messages that can barely handle accented characters, let alone media, when there are free alternatives that are much better in the vast majority of scenarios?
Or is free sms a common thing in people's phone plans?
Pay? In the US we haven't paid extra for SMS since about 2005. Which partly explains why it's prevalent.
Almost all phone plans have unlimited texting. Or at least it seems that way.
My plan is $25/month for unlimited talk, text, and 5g data.
Pay per text plans only seemed to exist up until like 2010 at the latest.
I've had unlimited sms since before I had a smart phone.
It outsmarted them.
The problem in the US is that the iPhone has a huge amount of the market and iMessage mostly does that already. For Android to counter that you have to use a 3rd party app, which further fractures an already smaller market. Or everyone could just use sms which is free with basically every plan nowadays, which gets you by.
Like others have commented, unlimited texting has been available in most phone plans for the better part of a decade now; I'd struggle to name a place that offers plans without it.
As for the accented characters, that's something I personally don't encounter much as a native English speaker. I obviously can't speak for those who do need those keyboards, but for me it's not a problem.
With regards to encryption/privacy, I can't say that's a concern I've personally had regarding my texts. Could the government read my messages? Probably, but all they're getting is cute cat pics and random chatter about games and food and whatnot. Again, that's another aspect that's probably more of a concern for people in more sensitive situations, but I can't speak for them.
USmobile still offers non-unlimited plans. I thought ting did as well, but I guess that changed at some point. But I think I've only heard of one person using USMobile.
Well most messages can be understood without accented characters and SMS is dependable to work on all devices.