"at the technical level calling/texting isn't competitive with Whatsapp."
This does not seem to an a comment informed about how the network works
VoLTE is better quality audio than what's app, it gracefully works in large crowds and countryside instead of degrading into individual sylabiles the way whats app does. Latency is 10x lower. There is no central server that cam fail like it did last week. Calling is an intrinsic, optimised part of the mobile network, replacing it at a higher layer will always be inferior.
Its the economics that moves the needly, my mom would have neber installed an app to get all the other fluff like read reciepts
With "technical" here I mean the featureset that's delivered to the user.
Maybe your mom doesn't care about the "fluff", but your mom isn't the person in society that sets the standard for apps that intrinsically require a network effect, and the people that do set such a standard, do care about what you dismiss as fluff.
"people that do set such a standard, do care about what you dismiss as fluff"
Quick poll among my friends, 15% care about read reciepts but 100% care about money.
My mom is about the median age of a what's app user, who are these magical people that set the standard more than she does? Based on what evidence do you believe their preferences are different to her's?
This does not seem to an a comment informed about how the network works
VoLTE is better quality audio than what's app, it gracefully works in large crowds and countryside instead of degrading into individual sylabiles the way whats app does. Latency is 10x lower. There is no central server that cam fail like it did last week. Calling is an intrinsic, optimised part of the mobile network, replacing it at a higher layer will always be inferior.
Its the economics that moves the needly, my mom would have neber installed an app to get all the other fluff like read reciepts