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US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

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Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#201

Post by zormino »

e40 wrote: post #163
mattmcknight wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's abandonment of Hangouts was phenomenally stupid, and it should itself really have just been an evolution of Google Talk. It's a symptom of something very wrong in the incentive structure and product portfolio management there where you have to roll out a new application to add a feature, and the various applications cannot interoperate. Perhaps the underlying issue is that none of these made money directly.…

It's even more stupid when you find out that Hangouts is still alive and well for Google Fi customers. I'm one and I haven't stopped using Hangouts, even though most of the people I know on GFi use something else because they read it was being turned off. The fact is, Google doesn't yet have a replacement for something they stopped developing years ago. It is completely insane.

Google has a nasty habit of making solid features/apps available for everyone, then building an in house device/service that can use said feature, then making that feature exclusive to their new service in an attempt to drive consumers to it. In the end they just piss people off and whatever they were trying to do fails.

The latest update to chrome on Android in the last few days removed support for 90/120hz devices. Now everyone who was enjoying a nice smooth chrome experience on the OnePlus 7 pro, Razer phone, etc. has a nice jarring switch to 60hz when they open chrome.

This happened at the exact same time as they announced the new pixel 4 would be a 90hz phone, with exclusive 'smooth display'. Bleh.

Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#202

Post by alanbernstein »

Barrin92 wrote: post #96
alanbernstein wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android is one arm of Google's data collection apparatus. Using an Android device allows Google to do this: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline?pb . Is this intrusive?

Given that only I can see that data (which is even stated on that very webpage), no I don't consider it intrusive. If the provision of basic services by Google to me without third parties is intrusive, then ios is intrusive in the very same way because it is 'apple's data collection apparatus'. Apple, like Google collects a vast amount of data on its users. And in addition i'm sure you're aware that google paid apple…

Of course you're welcome to use any meaning of "intrusive" you like. I don't see any problem with having both Apple and Google, and many others, on that list.

Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#203

Post by Gaelan »

asclepi wrote: post #97
Kadin wrote: post #64

I switched to iOS (via a used iPhone on a BYOD plan) primarily for iMessage. I was tired of being the odd man out, missing out on things that were being planned via group messages, etc. Nobody was going to switch to an entirely different mode of communication just for my sake, so the existence of theoretical alternatives doesn't really matter. (And I do try to use Facebook Messenger for group chats, so as not to lock…

> Nobody was going to switch to an entirely different mode of communication just for my sake Please elaborate. No iPhone user has to switch from the "iMessage" app to the "SMS" app to reach an Android user or include an Android user in a group chat. While it does indeed involve a different mode of communication, it's all handled seamlessly in the background from the same app. In fact, if it wasn't for the coloring, t…

If you start an SMS (MMS?) group chat with >10 people, any AT&T customers (and possibly others—I'm not sure) attempting to reply will end up replying to 10 arbitrary members, leading to a huge pile of separate chats, each missing a few people. Even under 10 people, SMS/MMS group chats don't support features like adding/removing group members, among others. It's a substantially worse UX.

Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#204

Post by gen3 »

klondike_ wrote: post #168

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish 1. Apple embraced SMS with the original iPhone 2. Apple added encryption and other enhancements to messages which were not compatible with any other phone 3. Extinguish users who use traditional SMS/MMS by downgrading quality of service and disabling enhances features What we really need is a universal internet messaging protocol like Email, something that everyone agrees on and can delive…

How did they extinguish anything? The new added features to iMessage are not part of the SMS spec. They didn't take any features away, or degrade the experience.

Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#205

Post by SergeAx »

corndoge wrote: post #176
qwerty456127 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use Telegram, Luke! :-) It's almost perfect. The only thing I can imagine that could make it better is an option to sort its contacts list manually.

>It's almost perfect All it needs is research-verified encryption!

Oh, come on! The $200000 bounty for breaking Telegram encryption is there forever. SHA-1 BTC piñata was broken in 2017[1], and MTproto still stands.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13714987

Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#206

Post by comex »

allana wrote: post #173
rconti wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for bringing up how this is Google's fault -- or, at least, the failure of Google and everyone else who isn't Apple. iMessage has lots of problems. I've screwed it up a lot of times switching SIM cards, I can never understand why it needs to know if I want to contact my iMessage contact by email or by phone number, or why the messages thread differently depending on what I use. But it GENERALLY works okay. Mea…

>I use Signal with one friend, and just about every time I launch the damn app on my phone or desktop, it complains that I need an update, or I need to re-link something If you regularly need to relink Signal Desktop, it is likely your disk is failing and corrupting the sqlite DB that Signal Desktop uses. Back up your other data ASAP!

I've repeatedly needed to relink Signal Desktop when launching it after long spans of non-use (months). The first time was probably at least a year ago, if I had to guess, and I've had no signs of disk failure.

Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#207

Post by SergeAx »

corndoge wrote: post #176
qwerty456127 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use Telegram, Luke! :-) It's almost perfect. The only thing I can imagine that could make it better is an option to sort its contacts list manually.

>It's almost perfect All it needs is research-verified encryption!

Russian government needed to use it's leverage on a telco to break into political activist's Telegrams[2] about the same time some script kiddies easily broke into dozen of celebs' iClouds.

[2] https://www.ft.com/content/74d5ce00-12dd-11e6-839f-292294709...

Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#208

Post by NotSammyHagar »

Kadin wrote: post #64

I switched to iOS (via a used iPhone on a BYOD plan) primarily for iMessage. I was tired of being the odd man out, missing out on things that were being planned via group messages, etc. Nobody was going to switch to an entirely different mode of communication just for my sake, so the existence of theoretical alternatives doesn't really matter. (And I do try to use Facebook Messenger for group chats, so as not to lock…

My son and all his friends just use discord. they are a mix of android and ios, discord or another third party app meets their needs.

Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#209

Post by zifnab06 »

Kadin wrote: post #64

I switched to iOS (via a used iPhone on a BYOD plan) primarily for iMessage. I was tired of being the odd man out, missing out on things that were being planned via group messages, etc. Nobody was going to switch to an entirely different mode of communication just for my sake, so the existence of theoretical alternatives doesn't really matter. (And I do try to use Facebook Messenger for group chats, so as not to lock…

Google always does what they decide is best. This is their main fault - they take the inane edge case and design a tool for it.

If they made spoons they'd be sharp. You'd cut your mouth on them, but they'd be insanely efficient at scooping ice cream, although entirely useless to a normal human as a spoon.

Re: US Gen Z and the iMessage Lock-In

#210

Post by petre »

rconti wrote: post #89
Kadin wrote: post #64

I switched to iOS (via a used iPhone on a BYOD plan) primarily for iMessage. I was tired of being the odd man out, missing out on things that were being planned via group messages, etc. Nobody was going to switch to an entirely different mode of communication just for my sake, so the existence of theoretical alternatives doesn't really matter. (And I do try to use Facebook Messenger for group chats, so as not to lock…

Thanks for bringing up how this is Google's fault -- or, at least, the failure of Google and everyone else who isn't Apple. iMessage has lots of problems. I've screwed it up a lot of times switching SIM cards, I can never understand why it needs to know if I want to contact my iMessage contact by email or by phone number, or why the messages thread differently depending on what I use. But it GENERALLY works okay. Mea…

We use Wire. It has none of those annoyances, works on the desktop, web, iOS, Android, has voice calls and conferences.

Also, Signal didn't quite work in the UAE.

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