When advancements = leave-behind-ments

A short, matter-of-fact statement from this article about SMS apps hides something a bit more worrying:

Although SMS remains the only way to be sure of reaching anyone with a mobile number, in any country, very few apps currently support it. That’s partly due to the age of the protocol, and partly to advancements by WhatsApp and other messaging apps.

So, we're talking about "advancements" which give up on working for the majority of the population of this planet. The forward motion of the tech giants who own WhatsApp or the RCS protocol is exhilarating, but if you refuse to catch up, they won't slow down to match pace.

The age of a protocol shouldn't be a hindrance, or a reason to abandon it (or to keep supporting it, for that matter). The ubiquity of it should not be taken for granted. But SMS works, for me and for countless other mobile users, so speeding up into a walled-garden alternative is, in this case, harmful. (See also: RSS)