Does anyone use Whatsapp? Recommend it?

[Chris]

Telegram was launched by Russian developers, who also founded VK (the Russian equivalent of Facebook), and had a number of scandals and controversies in the past regarding the lack of moderation and illegal stuff on its channels. It's very popular in the former USSR, but elsewhere in Europe and North America, its usage is quite low.

I believe the iPhone market share in Europe is much lower than the U.S., which may explain why iMessage isn't a dominant text app. I have an iPhone from work but everyone uses WhatsApp, despite all coworkers also having an iPhone.

[doorknob60]

I use WhatsApp. I certainly prefer it over plain old SMS, which lacks features and can be unreliable. iMessage and RCS messages (what you sometimes get when you text between Android phones, but it's not always available) offer a similar experience, but they require you to use a specific phone/OS which should be a deal breaker if you can't message half the people...but a lot of people don't seem too bothered, which is why so many people still stick to SMS.

As for WhatsApp vs Signal vs Telegram or any other app, I have no strong preferences. WhatsApp is just the one I started with, and since it's the most popular, makes sense to stick with it. I also use apps like Slack and Discord for some stuff, which offer nice features and can be better for large groups. But as pure messengers, I prefer stuff like WhatsApp, they are a lot simpler if all you need is to text one person (or a small handful).