Standing in the street outside your crushes house, flag in each hand, trying desperately to remember the proper way to signal “will you go out with me” in semaphore.
Yeah I’m gonna pipe my opinion here too. If I said “so and so signaled me” that would be very weird in any context. Facebook Messengered me? iMessaged me? Smsed me? Snapchatted me? I mean fuck twitter people said “dmed” me not twittered me
I wonder if France had cheaper SMS rates in the early 2000s because that was the big driver of WhatsApp. I have to admit though in my experience I don’t think I know of any situation where someone from France has ever used anything other than WhatsApp. I would hate it if they texted me because then it wouldn’t auto translate.
Standard mobile plans in France have included unlimited SMS since the mid 2000s I’d say. People still use it, but WhatsApp/Messenger are pretty popular too.
It’d come down to popularity and ease of use, right? I don’t know if it’s “good” generally to verb a company, but if it’s popular and either easy to say or easy to shorten, it’ll be easy to turn into a verb. Surprisingly, I hear “snapchatted me” not uncommonly, despite not using Snapchat myself.
Twittered me doesn’t work, because dms aren’t the primary use. If someone said “oh i’ll twitter you” I’d assume it’d be a post pinging me or something and think it’s kind of a strange way to say that. If dms were the primary use case of Twitter on release, I think “tweet” probably would have gone there, and if tweet wasn’t decided on early posting on twitter would just become “twittered” or probably more like twiting, has to be short and catchy after all.
iMessage and Facebook Messenger I believe are both default apps (less sure about fb Messenger, might be my memory playing tricks on me). The default message app is “texting”, which I think is why the others get verbed. Also doesn’t help that Messenger isn’t that distinct from “message” which is what text means anyways, and Facebook falls into the Twitter problem. Not a lot of good ways to abbreviate for speech either.
I imagine Signal just isn’t popular enough, I don’t know if I went to a group of people they would know what I meant. Definitely can’t help that “signalling” is a real word with a different meaning that humans regularly do, so if you use it with someone who doesn’t know they’ll just be confused. If you were with a group that had the main chat in signal, I think saying “oh yeah I’ll signal you” wouldn’t be like an outrageous thing to say. Might be different since for Signal users it tends to be a full or almost full replacement, so saying “text” implies “signal”.
Plus the additional information can be useful. If someone says “I’ll whatsapp you the details” you might respond with:
“No I don’t have internet connection, just SMS me instead” or “I don’t use whatsapp, how about signal”.
At the very least you know where to look for the message
Whatsapp is the only real form of instant communication in my country (Jamaica), because it still costs money to send texts and a lot of other messaging services aren’t even available/supported in the region.
In my case, good luck convincing the average Jamaican to switch to Signal, same problem everywhere! Just trying to give context to the verb “whatsapp”.
Signal did not replace expensive texting and offer free wireless communication for the first time EVER in basically every developing country. Get off your high horse.
It’s not relevant to the point I was making, even if it’s the only thing that’s used it doesn’t mean that a text message becomes “a WhatsApp” or that you get “whatsapped”.
It might not have been a message, it might have been a WhatsApp video call. In which case ‘whatsapped me’ is a little shorter than ‘just video called me’ or ‘just WhatsApp video called me’.
The app is over a decade in popular use, people will integrate it into language.
All my international coworkers when I travel ask me to use WhatsApp. It saves them money and makes it easy to connect to others. Anyone in this thread shitting on it has either never traveled internationally or is just an asshole.
I wasn’t replying directly to you and was replying to someone else, adding support to what they said. Context matters, but I can see why you could take what I said out of context.
Personally I will use whatever app as a verb if it suits the moment or conversation at hand. Language can be fluid and doesn’t always have to conform to a strict set of rules - see slang used in any language globally.
Yep, I agree it’s pretty annoying. What’s ironic though is that in the spirit of shortening everything (like many Americans seem to do), “texted” would’ve been shorter (and in this instance there’s nothing particular about which app they used to do that).
Whatsapp doesn’t use the SMS protocol though so if you send a WhatsApp message it doesn’t appear as a text message it appears in the WhatsApp app, you have to have the app installed so it is a significant distinction to make.
When I’m dealing with clients I’m mostly told to send them a WhatsApp message but occasionally they will tell me to send a text message and that means that they don’t have WhatsApp and I actually have to use the SMS system. They just say WhatsApp or text and know that I’ll be able to work it out.
“just whatsapped me”
Lol, fuck off, he sent you a message, not all apps and websites need to become a fucking verb
nah I like to flex that one of my friends Signaled me
War plans?
maybe
at least that’s an actual English verb
Your mom just Bumbled me.
Jokes on you, you grandma just Onlyfansed me
Doesn’t signalling someone sound like your “saying you available either romantically or sexually” or is that just the weird way my brain works
I think it’s such a general word that your association says something about what subjects are on the top of your mind.
My association was hand gestures, or more comically, flag signals :D
You could just say I’m a bit of a freak :P
But yeah that checks out
Standing in the street outside your crushes house, flag in each hand, trying desperately to remember the proper way to signal “will you go out with me” in semaphore.
I think that’s just you.
Or maybe it’s the signal to like, commence the flashmob.
Odd hill to die on but I’m kinda for it.
Yeah I’m gonna pipe my opinion here too. If I said “so and so signaled me” that would be very weird in any context. Facebook Messengered me? iMessaged me? Smsed me? Snapchatted me? I mean fuck twitter people said “dmed” me not twittered me
If you told someone in Europe you were going to txt them they would think you were weird
“What you don’t have whatsapp? It’s literally free”
Europeans don’t text, they use messenger apps, mostly WhatsApp
It really depends on the country. SMS is still commonly used in France for instance.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1005178/share-population-using-whatsapp-europe/
I wonder if France had cheaper SMS rates in the early 2000s because that was the big driver of WhatsApp. I have to admit though in my experience I don’t think I know of any situation where someone from France has ever used anything other than WhatsApp. I would hate it if they texted me because then it wouldn’t auto translate.
Standard mobile plans in France have included unlimited SMS since the mid 2000s I’d say. People still use it, but WhatsApp/Messenger are pretty popular too.
French people actually use MMS, which I never thought anyone would.
That’s texting and anyone who says it isn’t is a fucking idiot, unless they’re only communicating via emoji or some wild shit
There’s a lot of people who have never been to, and never even tried to learn what things are like in Europe
And it shows
I would be embarrased dying on a hill i was ignorant of
Says the person claiming sending a text-based message isn’t texting
There’s a lot of people who have never been to, and never even tried to learn what things are like in Europe
And it shows
I would be embarrased dying on a hill i was ignorant of
Repeating yourself just shows how much of a moron you are jfc
In my country SMS is free
True but only if you really specify “SMS”, because if you just say “I’ll text you” they’ll just assume that means WhatsApp/messenger.
This is a very American mindset though because people absolutely do say “I’m going to whatsapp you”.
It’d come down to popularity and ease of use, right? I don’t know if it’s “good” generally to verb a company, but if it’s popular and either easy to say or easy to shorten, it’ll be easy to turn into a verb. Surprisingly, I hear “snapchatted me” not uncommonly, despite not using Snapchat myself.
Twittered me doesn’t work, because dms aren’t the primary use. If someone said “oh i’ll twitter you” I’d assume it’d be a post pinging me or something and think it’s kind of a strange way to say that. If dms were the primary use case of Twitter on release, I think “tweet” probably would have gone there, and if tweet wasn’t decided on early posting on twitter would just become “twittered” or probably more like twiting, has to be short and catchy after all.
iMessage and Facebook Messenger I believe are both default apps (less sure about fb Messenger, might be my memory playing tricks on me). The default message app is “texting”, which I think is why the others get verbed. Also doesn’t help that Messenger isn’t that distinct from “message” which is what text means anyways, and Facebook falls into the Twitter problem. Not a lot of good ways to abbreviate for speech either.
I imagine Signal just isn’t popular enough, I don’t know if I went to a group of people they would know what I meant. Definitely can’t help that “signalling” is a real word with a different meaning that humans regularly do, so if you use it with someone who doesn’t know they’ll just be confused. If you were with a group that had the main chat in signal, I think saying “oh yeah I’ll signal you” wouldn’t be like an outrageous thing to say. Might be different since for Signal users it tends to be a full or almost full replacement, so saying “text” implies “signal”.
Why would that be a hill to die on? It was just a response. No one was insisting on anything.
What a weird thing to get angry at.
I think using brands as verbs might be very normalised in the US but it’s less common elsewhere.
It’s not offensive but it’s… jarring or noticeable.
Here no one would say whatsapped or telegramed or signalled. It’s just messaged.
Are they angry?
Plus the additional information can be useful. If someone says “I’ll whatsapp you the details” you might respond with: “No I don’t have internet connection, just SMS me instead” or “I don’t use whatsapp, how about signal”. At the very least you know where to look for the message
Easy to say when you have balls of steel
Lemmites love to find the most pointless pretentious things to get high and mighty over.
Fred Grindred me last night.
It’s like those guys that name brand EVERYTHING.
“Can you get my iPhone 17 extreme from my Hermes leather jacket, it’s in the backseat of my Audi R8.”
…fucking cringe.
VELCRO EXCEPTION!
“Is that xerox a Canon?”
Whatsapp is the only real form of instant communication in my country (Jamaica), because it still costs money to send texts and a lot of other messaging services aren’t even available/supported in the region.
No way in hell do I believe that Signal won’t work on Jamaica.
Tons of things work.
When people say things like that, they don’t understand technology and just say that the popular thing is the “only” way.
In my case, good luck convincing the average Jamaican to switch to Signal, same problem everywhere! Just trying to give context to the verb “whatsapp”.
I don’t think they actually said that I think they were just saying that WhatsApp is the primary method of communication in Jamaica
They were clearly saying that
It was probably easier to say that, than explain the social forces at work, but still, they said it.
Signal did not replace expensive texting and offer free wireless communication for the first time EVER in basically every developing country. Get off your high horse.
It’s not relevant to the point I was making, even if it’s the only thing that’s used it doesn’t mean that a text message becomes “a WhatsApp” or that you get “whatsapped”.
It might not have been a message, it might have been a WhatsApp video call. In which case ‘whatsapped me’ is a little shorter than ‘just video called me’ or ‘just WhatsApp video called me’.
The app is over a decade in popular use, people will integrate it into language.
Yeah those two characters of savings will really translate into something significant
Whatapp is the preferred messaging app for most of europe because it subverts the complicated and sometimes expensive telephone networks
It’s the same as saying you txted someone
All my international coworkers when I travel ask me to use WhatsApp. It saves them money and makes it easy to connect to others. Anyone in this thread shitting on it has either never traveled internationally or is just an asshole.
I am the asshole.
I refuse to install that goddamn app.
When I’m in Europe and people want to catch up, I’m the one forcing them to open their email. Or to actually dial the phone.
Or uses signal, the better version
I don’t know why people think that that’s some kind of argument.
The better version is the version that people use. WhatsApp is the better version because that’s the version everyone uses
No one is shitting on the app, I’m shitting on the language used, go read what I wrote again.
Or if you prefer
No one is Totoing on the app, I’m American Standarding on the language used, go read what I Gboarded again.
I wasn’t replying directly to you and was replying to someone else, adding support to what they said. Context matters, but I can see why you could take what I said out of context.
Personally I will use whatever app as a verb if it suits the moment or conversation at hand. Language can be fluid and doesn’t always have to conform to a strict set of rules - see slang used in any language globally.
Yep, I agree it’s pretty annoying. What’s ironic though is that in the spirit of shortening everything (like many Americans seem to do), “texted” would’ve been shorter (and in this instance there’s nothing particular about which app they used to do that).
It might be to highlight that he used WhatsApp, which is popular in Europe but not America.
Sure, but it still doesn’t change the story. It’s a piece of text, it gets from one person to the other over a mobile network or over the Internet.
Whatsapp doesn’t use the SMS protocol though so if you send a WhatsApp message it doesn’t appear as a text message it appears in the WhatsApp app, you have to have the app installed so it is a significant distinction to make.
When I’m dealing with clients I’m mostly told to send them a WhatsApp message but occasionally they will tell me to send a text message and that means that they don’t have WhatsApp and I actually have to use the SMS system. They just say WhatsApp or text and know that I’ll be able to work it out.
I know how it works. Texting sometimes means SMS specifically, but other times it might mean messaging over any non-SMS app/protocol.
Yes but for us reading the story it’s irrelevant if he received a WhatsApp, signal or SMS message
And that message is received in a text form, hell, use “messaged me” if you prefer, I don’t care