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Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

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Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#51

Post by eloisant »

eigenvector wrote: post #40
eloisant wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, I'd rather have a messaging system controlled by carriers but distributed among all of them (like SMS and RCS) than a messaging system fully controlled by a single company like Whatsapp, Telegram, Allo, iMessages and so on. I can still switch carriers and be able to communicate with my friends. The only issue I have with SMS is that it costs money when I'm not in my home country.

Re. being able to switch carriers and still communicate, what happens when you travel and (temporarily) get a local SIM? Are you suddenly messaging all your existing contacts from an unrecognized foreign number "Hi, it's John, this is my temporary Thai number..." and then relying on that message not getting binned by some spam algorithm? What prevents carriers from charging extra for RCS messages originating abroad?

In France we get to keep our phone number when we switch operators.

Travel is an issue yes, but I think it's worth it to have a truly decentralized system.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#53

Post by andybak »

eigenvector wrote: post #40
eloisant wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, I'd rather have a messaging system controlled by carriers but distributed among all of them (like SMS and RCS) than a messaging system fully controlled by a single company like Whatsapp, Telegram, Allo, iMessages and so on. I can still switch carriers and be able to communicate with my friends. The only issue I have with SMS is that it costs money when I'm not in my home country.

Re. being able to switch carriers and still communicate, what happens when you travel and (temporarily) get a local SIM? Are you suddenly messaging all your existing contacts from an unrecognized foreign number "Hi, it's John, this is my temporary Thai number..." and then relying on that message not getting binned by some spam algorithm? What prevents carriers from charging extra for RCS messages originating abroad?

> what happens when you travel and (temporarily) get a local SIM?

The real fix would be sensible roaming charges so you don't need to.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#54

Post by andybak »

baybal2 wrote: post #39
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s funny because they squashed open standards when they were the big player and then push for open standards when they’ve lost market share. I wish companies believed in open standards for the value they bring to society, rather than selectively supporting them based on competitive interests.

I think there is a pattern with Google: Social network: Orkut was their one and only working social network. Google - it is not great, so we raze it to the ground and make a better product... and they were trying to do so for last 12 years. Messenger: Talk was their one and only working messenger. Google - it is not great, so we raze it to the ground and make a better product... and they were trying to do so for last…

Some of your examples aren't as convincing as others. Picasa was mostly renamed and migrated to Google Photos - which is a fairly good product. (The desktop app was a casualty in the process however)

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#55

Post by salimmadjd »

If I was to summarize the problem of Google is this: Google does not hire entrepreneurs.

They're great at hiring engineers. They're great at hiring MBAs from top business schools. But their hiring process does not leave room for unusual rouge entrepreneurial people.

I mentioned this to a person whose company was bought by FB and later became an investor. He agreed and he said, he was interviewed by google but they didn't hire him. So he started his company and a few years later sold it to FB. I know this in anecdotal. But I think Google just lacks the entrepreneurial blood. Someone to hustle a product with a cohesive strategy and vision and finding the way to build it up and turn it into a massive success.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#56

Post by andybak »

dandare wrote: post #21

I don't see a single reason to invest myself into Google messaging product once again. I was adamant gtalk/hangout user but you can only fuck me over so many times.

I've actually just quietly gone on using hangouts and ignored whatever strategy statements they make. It's not perfect but it still works and I see no reason to stop.

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#57

Post by DRW_ »

eigenvector wrote: post #40
eloisant wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, I'd rather have a messaging system controlled by carriers but distributed among all of them (like SMS and RCS) than a messaging system fully controlled by a single company like Whatsapp, Telegram, Allo, iMessages and so on. I can still switch carriers and be able to communicate with my friends. The only issue I have with SMS is that it costs money when I'm not in my home country.

Re. being able to switch carriers and still communicate, what happens when you travel and (temporarily) get a local SIM? Are you suddenly messaging all your existing contacts from an unrecognized foreign number "Hi, it's John, this is my temporary Thai number..." and then relying on that message not getting binned by some spam algorithm? What prevents carriers from charging extra for RCS messages originating abroad?

Why are you changing your number just because you switch carriers?

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#58

Post by bb88 »

icebraining wrote: post #37
bhaavan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://xkcd.com/927/ Relevant xkcd.

Not really; the proliferation has been due to proprietary protocols, not due to efforts to create standard unifying ones.

To be honest, in the fine print in of that XKCD it says "See: ..., instant messaging".

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#59

Post by lifthrasiir »

galadran wrote: post #34

No end to end encryption = no interest. If I use this to communicate with a business (or person!), the carrier can read every word. No thanks. Hell. You can't even download the standards documents without giving GSMA a name and address and consenting to receive promotional material...

Oh. Thank you for pointing that out. I thought that Allo supports E2E so will chat, but that was my sloppy reading of The Verge article [1]:

> But, like SMS, Chat won’t be end-to-end encrypted, and it will follow the same legal intercept standards. In other words: it won’t be as secure as iMessage or Signal.

Dammit.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/19/17252486/google-android-m...

Re: Google changes its messaging strategy again: Goodbye to Allo, double down on RCS

#60

Post by seabrookmx »

dandare wrote: post #21

I don't see a single reason to invest myself into Google messaging product once again. I was adamant gtalk/hangout user but you can only fuck me over so many times.

To be fair, the migration from Talk to Hangouts was pretty smooth, and Hangouts still works.

Google gave up pushing Hangouts for consumers but I don't think it's going anywhere, as it's a big part of G-suite for corporate customers. Though with Slack and Discord I'm sure it's usage isn't as strong as it once was.

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