With just days to go before the European Union's Digital Markets Act designates gatekeepers, Apple is allegedly arguing iMessage isn't popular enough to be classified as a gatekeeper service.
Part of the reason was because of sms pricing on thr earlier days. Sms was quickly free in the U.S, so they used sms because it was there. Many regions used whatsapp and similar to avoid sms charges in the early days. That usage habit still exists today
You also have a lot of movement of people between countries in the EU, and international SMS still isn’t unlimited/free for most mobile plans worldwide.
Has WhatsApp ever been bigger than iMessage there? From what I heard it was basically SMS → iMessage
Part of the reason was because of sms pricing on thr earlier days. Sms was quickly free in the U.S, so they used sms because it was there. Many regions used whatsapp and similar to avoid sms charges in the early days. That usage habit still exists today
You also have a lot of movement of people between countries in the EU, and international SMS still isn’t unlimited/free for most mobile plans worldwide.