Upgrading Messaging on Android in the U.S. with RCS • Hacker News Board

Re: Upgrading Messaging on Android in the U.S. with RCS

#161

Post by JohnFen » Fri, Nov 15, 2019, 4:49 PM UTC

flattone wrote: post #160

JohnFen wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said I feel like we're going into this weird place where you have to have a cell phone even though every day i feel like wanting to have one less and less. I hear you. I reached that place a couple of years ago. My current smartphone probably has 2 or 3 years of life left in it, so I'm considering that as a deadline for coming up with an alternate plan. In thinking about it, the main thing I like about having…

>First, I badly want out of the Android ecosystem, so I going to carry a real pocket computer that runs real Linux. Contender: https://pocket.popcorncomputer.com/

Yeah, I'd already investigated that, but it doesn't meet my needs. The Gemini might, but I have to investigate a couple of things. If that doesn't work for me, then I'll just build my own.

Re: Upgrading Messaging on Android in the U.S. with RCS

#162

Post by cookiecaper » Fri, Nov 15, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

tw04 wrote: post #159

what_ever wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This experience is so far above and beyond anything google has offered to date I don't even know where to begin. I know about notifications being hidden when locked and expanded/shown only when you unlock. On Android, you can hide notification details from certain apps and show the details for others. For some apps I am okay to not worry about seeing the details of the notifications without unlocking the device. I…

>I actually hate FaceID and like fingerprint unlock better so I don't really care about that. But by so far behind, you mean not caring if the eyes are open, sure they are far behind. I guess it doesn't really matter if you prefer touch unlock, it's gone from the Pixel 4 with no signs of ever coming back. But with a really, REALLY bad implementation. Oh, someone can murder me and unlock my $1,000+ phone? Solid decisi…

> I'm more than happy to give up a little choice in exchange for not having every aspect of my life uploaded to google's servers with a promise they won't do anything I don't like with it.

Android is the platform that gives you some actual control over this. Buy a Pixel, trivial bootloader unlock, and then install Replicant [0] or any of the several other privacy-first ROMs.

If you don't want to go that far, you can replace Google's proprietary APIs/system services with components from MicroG [1]. There are many implementations of the location APIs that can be configured to ping back to a personal server or log to a local file rather than submitting the data to Google, for example. Pull up F-Droid and they're all over the place.

If you want to stop an app from talking to the outside world, get NetGuard (100% free software, buy the pro version instead of chickening out and building it yourself to save 8 bucks) or AFWall+. These are advanced apps that allow users to control and monitor network activity closely, applying rules that allow/disallow network access at given times or on given connections (e.g., "never let Signal use my work's wifi network"), reports consumption, and even allows the user to collect pcaps.

There are many similar options for all kinds of things on Android. I admit that I have never used an iOS device full-time, but it's always because every time I consider it and start to do any of the basic research to see if any of this is tenable, the answer is always an immediate and loud "no, Daddy Apple wouldn't let anything bad happen, so all of that is silly". Please let me know if things have changed.

The point is that it's your choice how much you're going to disclose/transfer on [unlockable] Android hardware. On an iPhone, you are stuck with "Apple knows best". If you actually care about control of your data, it seems you'd prefer the platform that gives you control over it, rather than the one that just says "Hey, we're not as bad as Google, so you can trust us!"

[0] https://replicant.us/

[1] https://microg.org/

Re: Upgrading Messaging on Android in the U.S. with RCS

#163

Post by superturkey650 » Fri, Nov 15, 2019, 10:42 PM UTC

what_ever wrote: post #99

superturkey650 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the parent, but I recently switched to an iPhone and I'm liking it. On Android, I was constantly using new Apps, looking at /r/android for release announcements, and getting excited about all the new releases. Then, at some point, I realized I just wanted a phone that works. That's when I switched to Apple. That's not to say my Pixel didn't do everything my iPhone does. It could do it all and in many cases it cou…

Couldn't you use your Android phone as you are using your iPhone? It was your choice after all to go to /r/Android and try out new apps. I am pretty sure you are using the same 90% of apps on iPhone now that you used on your Android. And for the other 10% you could very well have settled on something and be done with it. I bet you will be looking at /r/Apple in a few months.

That's how I tried to use my Pixel but between losing Hangouts, having the UI changed seemingly randomly (how many different homescreen changes are really necessary?), and the constatn bait and switch of Google releasing core apps and dropping them (Allo and Duo), I gave up. Using Nova for my homescreen helped, and I probably could've stuck to Messages but I would lose the ability to see my messages from my computer. I've had my iPhone going on a year now and haven't needed to look at /r/Apple a single time.

Re: Upgrading Messaging on Android in the U.S. with RCS

#164

Post by ckrailo » Sun, Nov 17, 2019, 8:06 PM UTC

superturkey650 wrote: post #163

what_ever wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't you use your Android phone as you are using your iPhone? It was your choice after all to go to /r/Android and try out new apps. I am pretty sure you are using the same 90% of apps on iPhone now that you used on your Android. And for the other 10% you could very well have settled on something and be done with it. I bet you will be looking at /r/Apple in a few months.

That's how I tried to use my Pixel but between losing Hangouts, having the UI changed seemingly randomly (how many different homescreen changes are really necessary?), and the constatn bait and switch of Google releasing core apps and dropping them (Allo and Duo), I gave up. Using Nova for my homescreen helped, and I probably could've stuck to Messages but I would lose the ability to see my messages from my computer.…

I appreciate and agree with lots of your commentary, but just wanted to point out that Messages on the web is a thing now via https://messages.google.com/ and scanning a QR code in the Messages app. (It's one of the things I was looking for after leaving the iMessage ecosystem.)

Re: Upgrading Messaging on Android in the U.S. with RCS

#165

Post by ckrailo » Sun, Nov 17, 2019, 8:26 PM UTC

what_ever wrote: post #99

superturkey650 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the parent, but I recently switched to an iPhone and I'm liking it. On Android, I was constantly using new Apps, looking at /r/android for release announcements, and getting excited about all the new releases. Then, at some point, I realized I just wanted a phone that works. That's when I switched to Apple. That's not to say my Pixel didn't do everything my iPhone does. It could do it all and in many cases it cou…

Couldn't you use your Android phone as you are using your iPhone? It was your choice after all to go to /r/Android and try out new apps. I am pretty sure you are using the same 90% of apps on iPhone now that you used on your Android. And for the other 10% you could very well have settled on something and be done with it. I bet you will be looking at /r/Apple in a few months.

^ This.

My iPhones usually got janky after using tons of apps but always after jailbreaking them (and installing yet more apps). Same with Android. Stay clean on mobile!