I finally get why people obsessively use WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a way of life. With stickers, statuses, groups, and easy-to-use messages, it's more than just a texting service.

I'd always dismissed it as yet another messaging platform, but now I get it. After moving to South America at the beginning of 2020 to work remotely for four months, I slowly accepted I'd have to download the Facebook-owned app.

I'd resisted for years. I prefer iMessage on my iPhone and felt overwhelmed by Messenger, Slack, Skype, Signal, Google Hangouts, Google Voice, Snapchat, and even Twitter DMs. Enough was enough. Plus, did I really want Facebook privy to all my text conversations?

But once I started using WhatsApp, I saw how seamless it actually was. Unlike most messaging apps, WhatsApp mimics SMS texting services instead of trying to build a new interface. How refreshing to open up WhatsApp and feel like I'm back with my usual text messages. Nice and simple, and most importantly, user-friendly. With end-to-end encryption for each message, I now feel more secure using WhatsApp than when using other platforms to communicate.

Outside the U.S., WhatsApp's appeal is massive. It's spilled into American life with millions of users, but while abroad I've noticed stores and billboards post WhatsApp information instead of phone numbers or other contact information. While in Chile, I had to download the app to connect to a local. That was the only way to communicate, which was astounding – that is, until I looked at the numbers. WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world and used in nearly 200 countries. The majority of its 2 billion users are in India and Brazil. U.S. usage pales in comparison.

So it made sense while abroad, and part of a group of remote workers from around the world, that WhatsApp would become my default communication tool. To coordinate dinner plans with folks from Spain, England, Mexico, Belarus, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and beyond made texting or calls like I usually do impossible. But a WiFi or data-based texting service available globally worked easily enough, and we could all use our home numbers connected to the app. You don't have to memorize a new number like with Google Voice. It also helps that creating a new group with a custom name and profile picture is extremely simple.

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Beyond texting, I discovered other functions like video and voice that work as well as Apple's FaceTime. I could video chat with my friend in Minsk, Belarus even though she doesn't have an iPhone. Again, it was as easy to do with WhatsApp as with any of my phone's platforms Even easier: forwarding. Plus, the interface labels all forwarded links and images, so you know more about the source.

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My newfound respect for WhatsApp does start to dissolve with the Mac desktop app, though. It's cumbersome to use since it's synced to the phone app. It's not standalone, which can be frustrating when your iPhone battery is low or you're having connectivity issues.

Even if WhatsApp doesn't let me tap back with a heart or exclamation point like I can on iMessage, as a new user I find myself opening it more and more. By the end of my four-month stint in South America, I may even call myself obsessed.