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“It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

android.com

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Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#211

Post by etchalon »

drcongo wrote: post #42

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. The company that has had 47 different messaging apps and changes them weekly trying to lecture the company that nailed it first time. Grow up Google.

Absolutely.

Google can't act indignant that Apple isn't following their lead after they tried, and failed, repeatedly, to follow Apple's.

Google wanted a proprietary messaging service like iMessage for Android. They failed. They failed so many times they gave up and became champions of RCS, a standard the carriers were limping towards supporting.

Google pretending they're now champions of open standards and Apple is the big-bad meanie is ridiculous.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#212

Post by trebbble »

Evidlo wrote: post #164
trebbble wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US here. On the old end of "millennial", if that matters. More than 95% of my personal communication with other humans I know (remote communication, that is, not in-person, obviously) is in WhatsApp. The rest is phone and SMS and that's all older family. SMS, like email, is mainly for machines to talk to me.

That sounds horrible to be so locked-in.

We're not, so it isn't.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#213

Post by rootusrootus »

tantalor wrote: post #175
dymk wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Messages sent via SMS/MMS are green, messages sent via iMessage are blue. If you send a message via SMS/MMS to an iPhone user, it's green. There is no detection if the user on the other end is an Android user.

So it's a default.

Blue is the default, because iOS always tries iMessage first in preference to SMS.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#215

Post by kelnos »

rootusrootus wrote: post #156
kelnos wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather live in a world with spam than a world where corporations get to decide what I run on my devices, and cripple a bunch of critical applications if I decide I want to, y'know, actually do whatever I want with the hardware I own. I'm not unsympathetic to Apple's difficulties and goals here (assuming this spam problem is actually the reason, though I'm skeptical that there aren't also self-serving reasons that…

> I'd rather live in a world with spam than a world where corporations get to decide what I run on my devices, and cripple a bunch of critical applications if I decide I want to, y'know, actually do whatever I want with the hardware I own. Egads, no. The abuse heaped on me by Apple pales in comparison to the spam phone calls and emails I get. If I start getting spam via iMessage, I'll be an extremely unhappy camper.…

Sounds like other people in this thread already get a lot of iMessage spam, so I guess you've just been lucky? And it shows that this attestation junk doesn't actually curb the spam problem, so it's just an analogue of security theater.

Anyhow, sure, if you want to give away your freedom to actually own your devices, just so you don't get spam... I guess that's your choice. I just don't want to be locked into a system where that's the only choice.

Regardless, iPhones also receive SMSes. If it's impossible to spam over iMessage, they'll just use SMS. If it becomes impossible to spam over SMS, then presumably Apple can implement similar measures for iMessage that don't require us all to have hermetically-sealed, locked-down devices.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#216

Post by r_klancer »

Angostura wrote: post #160
blinkingled wrote: post #107

> iPhones make texts with Android phones difficult to read, by using white text on a bright green background. Wow. I can't really come up with anything creative to blame Google for this one. Whatever you want to say about Google's messaging mess and RCS - Apple seems to go out of their way to make it inconvenient to text with Android users. Also it doesn't sound like Google's asking Apple to give up iMessage - just t…

This is the most trivial complaint I've ever read. I'm in my 50s and I have zero problems reading green bubbles - it just means that it hasn't been sent via iMessage - if I send to an iPhone and sending falls back to SMS it looks just the same. I can't believe people get that upset about green v blue.

Let's be clear. Green vs blue is a bit of a red herring.

The real issue is that Apple has to have some fallback protocol for texting with non-iMessage devices, but refusing to upgrade the fallback protocol beyond SMS/MMS makes the texting experience worse for everyone, as described in the article.

(To avoid additional red herrings. No one is thinking here about opening up iMessage itself to non-Apple clients, just upgrading the fallback option. Also, I can't speak for everyone, but among the non-terminally-online Gen Xer and late-Millennial Americans I know, "texting" means using the built-in app on your phone. Switching to another app is a relationship step. Many of them are blithely unaware that they can't "just" text a photo or video to me or other Android users, nor that I can't just sign out of a group chat when I feel like it.)

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#217

Post by QuarterReptile »

Once upon a time, I couldn't see myself moving to an iPhone because of the limited options for ad blocking. Now that ad blocking on Brave iPhone presumably works, Apple's messaging behavior is the last thing that keeps me away. On the occasions when I get stuck in a group chat outside Signal and someone has an iPhone, it always seems to break the chats. Otherwise the iPhone mini seems like it would be a great option.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#218

Post by jabbany »

rootusrootus wrote: post #186
tick_tock_tick wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny thing is the EU doesn't give a fuck and is going to force them.

I find it interesting how many HN'ers now think bureaucratic control of technology is a Good Thing(tm).

I find it interesting how many HN'ers now don't think consumer protection is a good thing.

(Actually, in hindsight it isn't that surprising. Tech companies only make the money they do because of the lack of consumer protections... so definitely in most HN'ers interest to keep the status quo.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#219

Post by icehawk »

ypeterholmes wrote: post #52
drcongo wrote: post #42

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. The company that has had 47 different messaging apps and changes them weekly trying to lecture the company that nailed it first time. Grow up Google.

But isn't the request for a cross platform standard? Sure Apple got their own internal standard right, but the experience across platforms still matters.

Yeah it does and Google removing XMPP federation from Google talk should means

"What happens when they no longer stand to benefit the most?"

should probably come up.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#220

Post by chizhik-pyzhik »

cgrealy wrote: post #195
dcormier wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s very ableist of you. About 1 in 12 males are colorblind. I’m in this group. I find white text on a bright green background very difficult to read.

Which is why there are accessibility settings for exactly that.

sure, but why keep an inaccessible default?
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