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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”

#221

Post by vzaliva »

isatty wrote: post #206
vzaliva wrote: post #187

Apple messaging is super annoying. I use Android phone but also have an iPad. Whenever I chat with someone on iPhone, is suddenly decides to route all messages via iMessage instead of SMS and I do not see them on my phone. You have to disable iMessage in iPad to avoid this.

I don’t see how this is a problem. If you want to use an inferior method then it should be opt out (like you are doing) instead of the other way around.

The opt-out is global. I could not keep using iMessage on iPad and SMS on Android as long as Apple account is associated with the same mobile phone number.

Also, changing the mode of communication withot asking or informing users sounds like a bad idea. I send you SMS from my phone. You see it in your iMessage and type a reply and it goes back to my iPad.

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

#222

Post by dt2m »

Seanambers wrote: post #135
jacooper wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Apple is going to be forced anyway, the EU's Digital Markets Act will be enforced soon. And fines are up to 20% of global revenue .

As an iPhone user I do not like EU dictating how Apple software should work at all. The same with chargers as well. Sure we can all have a discussion about how it should work - but having bureaucrats decide is the worst idea ever.

As much as I agree with this in principle, there is absolutely no denying that Apple is abusing their power when it comes to consumer lock-in.

I find it very hard to argue against regulation which is only meant to make devices more interoperable. USB-C for charging is mature enough at this point that it seems reasonable to declare it THE charging port.

An interesting - partially ironic - observation here, is that Apple actually designed the reversible USB-C connector and submitted it to the USB-IF - a team of bureaucrats. Bureaucrats, who of course previously were responsible for blunders such as micro-USB-B 3.0, and more recently, the ambiguous shitshow that is the current state of the USB spec.

I wholeheartedly believe that Apple is such a design-driven company that they would actually engage with regulators again (gasp, even the EU), if they were to come up with a better connector design down the road. Everybody wins.

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

#223

Post by cgrealy »

stonemetal12 wrote: post #183
radiojasper wrote: post #122

I still don't get why people use SMS/MMS anyway? I've been using WhatsApp for ages now and so does everybody else in my country - and every country I've been in, apart from China and Japan. My friend who's from the US once said "I've paid for those text messages, so I'm going to use them!" But if I send him a text from Europe to the US, I pay 1 damn euro per delivered text. WhatsApp is free! Is there any viable reaso…

It comes preinstalled, works, is free. Why would I look for a different messaging app? What does WhatsApp do that the preinstalled, free, messaging app doesn't?

Group messages to anyone regardless of platform.

SMS is crap for group chats, and imessage doesn't work if someone in the group isn't using ios.

Now, you absolutely might not care about those things, but millions of people definitely do.

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

#224

Post by nomel »

dfabulich wrote: post #176
nomel wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The green used on the website is significantly brighter than on an iPhone. In fact, on the iPhone, I would say the green gives better contrast than the white text on a blue background. For direct messages, the colored bubbles are only used on messages you send. Messages received are always white text on black background (dark mode) or black text on grey background (light mode). edit: my bad. "increase contrast" optio…

I just took screenshots of an Android green text bubble and the https://www.android.com/get-the-message/ site, and used Photoshop's eyedropper tool to compare colors. They're the exact same shade of green, #48dd8f. But it's not just you! The green on Google's site looks visually brighter because the entire bubble is on a blue background. On iPhone, the green is normally on a white background. Now, try setting your iP…

No, not for me. I'm seeing much darker on my phone:

On the page: #75d993

In the video: #58bf5d

From my iPhone (iOS 15.6): #317332

Edit: scratch that! Apparently I turned on “increase contrast” years ago.

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

#225

Post by kelnos »

sergiotapia wrote: post #170
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 hear you believe me. But in the past five years, I have received so much call spam that I just don't answer my phone anymore. Imagine that, the primary use of a phone and it's all cocked up. Imagine what happens to imessages if they leave it open. Blame the cretins that spam people.

Sounds like iMessage spam is already a problem (if another poster in this thread is to be believed).

Since I'm on Android, I'm stuck using SMS a lot, since most people I know have iPhones. I do get some SMS spam, but not a ton, and most of it is auto-flagged and I never see it.

> Blame the cretins that spam people.

SMS and voice call spam is actually a solved problem, but carriers have been dragging their feet implementing the solutions (and have lobbied the US government to give them more time). Killing spam does not require our devices to be locked down. Carriers deserve some blame here too.

But I don't really care about blame, I care about outcomes. Blaming spammers isn't going to fix anything. Forcing carriers to implement the required technical measures to stamp out spam... that could actually work.

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

#226

Post by sneak »

This is spam for the Android operating system, nothing more.

Google claiming that RCS includes end-to-end encryption here is misleading.

Encryption got explicitly axed from the RCS spec because carriers don't like it.

The end-to-end crypto they're talking about is a custom Google thing and not part of RCS.

Friends don't let friends use unencrypted everyday communications.

Reject RCS and reject Google platform marketing.

PS: Note also that iMessage has a crypto backdoor maintained by Apple for the FBI; Google should not be encouraging iMessage to become more useful/popular, as this reduces privacy and makes people less safe.

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

#227

Post by ThatPlayer »

unethical_ban wrote: post #74
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google cannot legally ship, as part of Android, a carrier-agnostic messaging app like iMessage.

Could you elaborate? I've never heard this before.

It's illegal tying[0]. Google used to force Chrome and Google Search as part of Google Play Store requirements. And were fined a few years ago by the EU[1]. Pretty much most of this reasoning could be applied to a messaging app too.

[0] https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_18_...

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

#228

Post by thiht »

MattJ100 wrote: post #83
thiht wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XMPP sucked, you guys have to stop bringing it out over and over again. Not having a common experience between clients because of that stupid « X » sucked. There’s an impossible to solve mismatch between XEPs supported by the clients and the servers. XMPP is dead for reason, stop trying to bring it back

Because of the "stupid X", modern XMPP supports far more than it used to, and isn't stuck in the past like email and SMS. There is a mismatch between iMessage (Apple) and RCS (Google's flavour of the month). To the point where there is almost no sensible interoperability between the two. All XMPP does is provide answers to "If I want to implement feature X, how should that look on the wire". Just as the XMPP Standard…

> Because of the "stupid X", modern XMPP supports far more than it used to, and isn't stuck in the past like email and SMS.

Yeah, it’s dead. Maybe XMPP supports shiny stuff. But no client or server support them, and if they do it’s like they don’t understand the spec the same way.

A protocol should not be extensible, it should be full featured and regularly updated to include new needs. It should also propose a reference implementation and an official client so that there’s a clear baseline.

Matrix is doing it way better than XMPP ever did.

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

#229

Post by [deleted] »

guelo wrote: post #159
nomel wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The green used on the website is significantly brighter than on an iPhone. In fact, on the iPhone, I would say the green gives better contrast than the white text on a blue background. For direct messages, the colored bubbles are only used on messages you send. Messages received are always white text on black background (dark mode) or black text on grey background (light mode). edit: my bad. "increase contrast" optio…

It's objectively much worse contrast. https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/B3-CB781_1017ST_2_... My contrast tool says the blue contrast is 3.4:1 while the green is 1.9:1

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