Texting in Heartstopper season 3
October 6, 2024 5:47 AM Subscribe
They switched to iMessage/SMS for texting in season 3 of Heartstopper—Brits, is this as odd as I think it is? I was under the impression that SMS and related protocols (iMessage) in Europe are reserved for like, business communication and spam.
Best answer: Yep, all my normal communications are on WhatsApp, you are absolutely correct.
posted by ambrosen at 6:21 AM on October 6 [3 favorites]
posted by ambrosen at 6:21 AM on October 6 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Please only answer if you’re British or live in the UK/Europe. Thanks!
posted by rhymedirective at 6:21 AM on October 6
posted by rhymedirective at 6:21 AM on October 6
Best answer: UK perspective: nobody uses SMS, everyone uses WhatsApp, or iMessage if you know the recipient on the other end also has iMessage and doesn't use WhatsApp for some reason.
Using SMS feels very much like "legacy" technology, like sending a fax or dialing into a BBS.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 6:26 AM on October 6 [5 favorites]
Using SMS feels very much like "legacy" technology, like sending a fax or dialing into a BBS.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 6:26 AM on October 6 [5 favorites]
Best answer: I'm British: Looking through my SMS inbox, it's all spam, two-factor authentication codes, parcel delivery updates, and messages from large organisations (banks, shops, NHS, water company, airlines, government departments, etc). The only time I use SMS for messaging a person is if it's urgent and I have a bad data connection (so WhatsApp isn't sending). WhatsApp is the only way I message people nowadays.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:43 AM on October 6
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:43 AM on October 6
Different UK perspective: I know plenty of people in the UK who use SMS/iMessage to text, though admittedly most of them are older than the kids in Heartstopper. The young people I know mostly use WhatsApp or Snapchat/Instagram to talk to each other.
You can't really assume "everybody" or "nobody" uses a particular service in a country of 67+ million.
posted by fight or flight at 7:16 AM on October 6 [2 favorites]
You can't really assume "everybody" or "nobody" uses a particular service in a country of 67+ million.
posted by fight or flight at 7:16 AM on October 6 [2 favorites]
In our social circle (40 and up, Sweden), I would say SMS is still widely used. With me and my spouse, we use SMS with each other throughout the work day for anything which is more text and time-based, and use Discord PMs for dumb cat memes and "hey look at this website" (Why Discord? We already had it and it works well enough.). In my spouse's opinion, their coworkers, of which 40 is on the younger side on average, use SMS even more over anything else.
posted by mochi_cat at 7:36 AM on October 6
posted by mochi_cat at 7:36 AM on October 6
Best answer: Yep my experience is WhatsApp, only get texts from some older family members
posted by Cannon Fodder at 8:02 AM on October 6
posted by Cannon Fodder at 8:02 AM on October 6
Best answer: UK person but spend half my time in Czech-
The only SMS I have sent/received in past couple of years is for a couple of older relatives who aren't on WhatsApp (most of the septuagenarians I know are on WhatsApp, especially those with sons/daughters that encouraged them to Whatsapp). Other than that just updates from companies regarding orders via SMS. And a couple of times to people visiting the UK from the US that didn't have data on their mobile plan, when visiting.
posted by Gratishades at 8:19 AM on October 6
The only SMS I have sent/received in past couple of years is for a couple of older relatives who aren't on WhatsApp (most of the septuagenarians I know are on WhatsApp, especially those with sons/daughters that encouraged them to Whatsapp). Other than that just updates from companies regarding orders via SMS. And a couple of times to people visiting the UK from the US that didn't have data on their mobile plan, when visiting.
posted by Gratishades at 8:19 AM on October 6
Best answer: I message a bunch with people in the UK and it’s all WhatsApp. Most of these people could also do iMessage but I only use that with a friend in the US.
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:37 AM on October 6
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:37 AM on October 6
Best answer: UK person
I don't personally use WhatsApp but I am very aware (and am regularly made aware, by others) that I'm an outlier and a holdout here. Everyone else I know uses it extensively, for family/social/etc. It's mostly group chats, as I understand it, although by its ubiquitous nature it does also get used for 1:1 messaging.
I use iMessage for most of my messaging (and a bit of Slack for group chat with a small group of close friends) - my birth-family are all Apple users so this works for us.
My wife (and her family) are all on Android, though, so if we need to communicate by text then it's SMS or email. Other than that, my SMS inbox is entirely 2FA codes and delivery updates.
tl;dr yes, most people just use WhatsApp
posted by parm at 9:40 AM on October 6 [1 favorite]
I don't personally use WhatsApp but I am very aware (and am regularly made aware, by others) that I'm an outlier and a holdout here. Everyone else I know uses it extensively, for family/social/etc. It's mostly group chats, as I understand it, although by its ubiquitous nature it does also get used for 1:1 messaging.
I use iMessage for most of my messaging (and a bit of Slack for group chat with a small group of close friends) - my birth-family are all Apple users so this works for us.
My wife (and her family) are all on Android, though, so if we need to communicate by text then it's SMS or email. Other than that, my SMS inbox is entirely 2FA codes and delivery updates.
tl;dr yes, most people just use WhatsApp
posted by parm at 9:40 AM on October 6 [1 favorite]
I'm British and in Britain.
Some people still use SMS quite regularly, lots of (especially older) people have dumb phones that can't run apps. But that's probably not the reason because HeartStoppers doesn't sound like 50+ years olds are the target market.
If I had to guess:
Until iOS 18 came out 2 weeks ago you couldn't use iMessage to send a message to Android. That is probably the single biggest reason everyone uses WhatsApp. Now iOS 18 lets you do that, maybe Netflix are being pushed by Apple to use iMessage as part of Apple's marketing to show people that you no longer need WhatsApp to message your non-Apple friends. If you see this in any other show then that would be good evidence that it's marketing by Apple.
posted by underclocked at 11:05 AM on October 6 [1 favorite]
Some people still use SMS quite regularly, lots of (especially older) people have dumb phones that can't run apps. But that's probably not the reason because HeartStoppers doesn't sound like 50+ years olds are the target market.
If I had to guess:
Until iOS 18 came out 2 weeks ago you couldn't use iMessage to send a message to Android. That is probably the single biggest reason everyone uses WhatsApp. Now iOS 18 lets you do that, maybe Netflix are being pushed by Apple to use iMessage as part of Apple's marketing to show people that you no longer need WhatsApp to message your non-Apple friends. If you see this in any other show then that would be good evidence that it's marketing by Apple.
posted by underclocked at 11:05 AM on October 6 [1 favorite]
iPhones have always been able to SMS Android.
posted by bowbeacon at 11:13 AM on October 6 [3 favorites]
posted by bowbeacon at 11:13 AM on October 6 [3 favorites]
UK person here: I use a variety of messaging systems, based on the preference of my correspondent. Almost entirely iMessage, Messenger, Snapchat and occasionally insta (although that’s mainly to discuss posts that we’ve shared).
I don’t use WhatsApp and don’t know anyone under 35 who does.
I’d be interested to know where OP got the idea that iMessage is for spam and business, as that seems completely opposite to my experience. Plus Heartstopper has used iMessage throughout I think?
posted by JJZByBffqU at 12:26 PM on October 6
I don’t use WhatsApp and don’t know anyone under 35 who does.
I’d be interested to know where OP got the idea that iMessage is for spam and business, as that seems completely opposite to my experience. Plus Heartstopper has used iMessage throughout I think?
posted by JJZByBffqU at 12:26 PM on October 6
Response by poster: Interesting, thanks everyone! As a clarification, I did find an interview with Alice Oseman which stated they used Instagram messages in the first 2 seasons because it was hard to get each character their own phone number.
I’d be interested to know where OP got the idea that iMessage is for spam and business, as that seems completely opposite to my experience. Plus Heartstopper has used iMessage throughout I think?
It’s less that I think iMessage specifically is for that and more that both SMS/iMessage use the same iPhone app.
posted by rhymedirective at 1:05 PM on October 6
I’d be interested to know where OP got the idea that iMessage is for spam and business, as that seems completely opposite to my experience. Plus Heartstopper has used iMessage throughout I think?
It’s less that I think iMessage specifically is for that and more that both SMS/iMessage use the same iPhone app.
posted by rhymedirective at 1:05 PM on October 6
I have a feeling people in this thread are getting confused between iMessage and SMS.
SMS is the old-school message protocol.
iMessage is an app that uses its own protocol (iMessage) when communicating with other iMessage users (in blue text bubbles), and falls back to SMS when communicating with people who don't use iMessage (green bubbles).
If you're seeing iMessage with blue bubbles, it's not using SMS.
On Android there's a similar thing where the default message app will use it's own protocol (RCS) where possible, but fall back to SMS as a last resort.
Then there's WhatsApp, Signal, etc, which use their own protocols kinda like iMessage with blue bubbles.
So the answer to this question requires some nuance: in the UK people typically don't use SMS, either via iMessage with green bubbles, or the SMS fallback on Android. Many people use WhatsApp, the iMessage protocol, or some other app.
It would be deeply unusual to see young people especially using SMS (green bubbles) via iMessage if they had any other option, which they always do, short of some emergency where they don't have Internet access.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 2:05 PM on October 6 [1 favorite]
SMS is the old-school message protocol.
iMessage is an app that uses its own protocol (iMessage) when communicating with other iMessage users (in blue text bubbles), and falls back to SMS when communicating with people who don't use iMessage (green bubbles).
If you're seeing iMessage with blue bubbles, it's not using SMS.
On Android there's a similar thing where the default message app will use it's own protocol (RCS) where possible, but fall back to SMS as a last resort.
Then there's WhatsApp, Signal, etc, which use their own protocols kinda like iMessage with blue bubbles.
So the answer to this question requires some nuance: in the UK people typically don't use SMS, either via iMessage with green bubbles, or the SMS fallback on Android. Many people use WhatsApp, the iMessage protocol, or some other app.
It would be deeply unusual to see young people especially using SMS (green bubbles) via iMessage if they had any other option, which they always do, short of some emergency where they don't have Internet access.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 2:05 PM on October 6 [1 favorite]
In the UK with a British teenage kid - they use WhatsApp, Discord and Snapchat. With that said, many schools have banned smartphones so the kids have Nokias for to and from school so then they use SMS, and interminably complain about how unreliable and slow it is. They would never use it by choice.
posted by goo at 3:34 PM on October 6
posted by goo at 3:34 PM on October 6
Brit here, with a pre-teen child, and we both use Android phones. Child is not yet allowed WhatsApp so uses SMS or whatever stock messaging system is on his older Android smartphone. I use my phone's messaging app (a mix of SMS and RCS, though it's not immediately obvious which protocol I'm using unless I look carefully) and looking at my messages there are a few friends there, and a lot of companies. No spam though, just 2FA messages, delivery notifications and service messages which are useful to me.
I mostly use WhatsApp, or Facebook messenger with a few people and sellers on marketplace.
posted by altolinguistic at 1:49 AM on October 7
I mostly use WhatsApp, or Facebook messenger with a few people and sellers on marketplace.
posted by altolinguistic at 1:49 AM on October 7
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All the cheapest pay-as-you-go plans that I've seen in Europe don't bother counting text messages and haven't for ages, "unlimited for free" is standard and you can get cheap SIMs at most corner stores. "A new SIM card and an express ticket to Paddington" is basically the price of getting off the plane at Heathrow.
posted by mhoye at 6:08 AM on October 6 [3 favorites]