In Russia, people stopped sending each other SMS before smartphones even became mainstream. At the time they were becoming mainstream, ICQ was the instant messaging service to use, and of course there was an unofficial ICQ client for just about anything that had a screen, a keyboard, and a network interface. Also VKontakte, but that was easily accessible via Opera Mini.

Right now 99.9% of those Russians who use the internet can be reached via either VKontakte or Telegram. WhatsApp is also popular, but thankfully not around me so I was able to delete my account and never look back.