I use it specifically to text with people who are traveling overseas.

I’ve never tried it. I still use my phone as a phone. Most of my friends don’t travel much so my texts are still a text. I’m still very much old school!!!

I use it every day to keep in touch with friends and family at home and abroad. I use it for texting, sending pictures and for free phone calls.

It’s more of a European thing, I think (Russia uses Telegram app, and I don’t know about other parts of the world), than American.
Like @flutherother I use it every day, all through the day, for socialising, making appointments, sending memes and videos/links, free (video)calls.
95% of my contacts have WhatsApp; from my elderly mom to my youngest cousins.

No.

I know that whatever you write is only there for 15 minutes. That’s what I was told about it from the beginning. You can’t look back at old messages the way you can look at texts from a day ago, a week ago, three months ago.

My teen daughter and all her friends use it.

@jca2 That is not the case.
Chat threads from years old stay around (if you let the app back them up (automatically)).

There must be a setting to shorten the time messages are held. ALL the kids here use it because their parents can check their phone & find nothing after a certain length of time. Parents hate it!!

No idea what that is.

I have used it to video chat to family in England for free since they don’t have FaceTime. I have not used it extensively and the video display was kind of slow.

No. I don’t actually know what that is, nor others that I see mentioned, such as tumblr, imgur, spotify, snapchat, reddit, and I don’t know what all else. I don’t believe I have whatever perceived need they are meant to satisfy.

@Jeruba WhatsApp is a communication tool that a number of people use to save money on phone calls and video chats. It is not a social networking or dating site.

Local recovery groups started using it for group chats during lockdown two years ago, it was a good way to broadcast zoom info.