this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2024
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Sure, the other option is having it tied to an email, which is reliant on your single vendor and is also an easier way to create an army of spam bots. Phone numbers at least are transferable between carriers.
The email vendor doesn't really matter though unless you are sending or receiving emails. Phone numbers require you to pay a carrier every month. And while most people have phone numbers, some don't, especially children.
My mum used iMessage to communicate with my sister before she got a phone number. If she switched to Android, I guess there's Google Chat, but you know how Google is with their chat apps.
Ideally you'd be able to choose between phone number OR email. Like iMessage.
That's far from the only option. I can think of half a dozen relatively mainstream options off the top of my head (Signal, Telegram, Whatsapp, Discord, Matrix, Skype), though I think the first three still want a phone number. There are many more.
The trouble is getting people to agree on one.
Signal is now "phone number to login to the account, but you can share a username with other people"
Not 100% but better than some.