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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”

#321

Post by kelnos »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #192
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…

SMS is the only federated messaging system guaranteed available on all cell phones. That makes it more useful than any walled garden.

It's weird to me that so many people don't seem to get that. SMS/MMS are terrible in many ways, but they have the benefit of the universal network effect, without even trying.

Sure, if I want to send someone videos, or do regular group chats, I'm going to find an alternative platform. But if it's just a casual contact, or I don't anticipate needing these things, I'll just stick with SMS.

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

#322

Post by zaik »

thiht wrote: post #228
MattJ100 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 refer…

I use XMPP because unlike Matrix, XMPP is properly standardized and not a product by a single VC funded startup.

If you ever have multiple independent implementations a single monolithic spec will always only be partially supported (or there is only a single useable implementation like Synapse), so no different than having extensions.

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

#323

Post by selectodude »

InitialLastName wrote: post #193
gumby wrote: post #161

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. It’s really oppressive that Apple doesn’t let you install WhatsApp, Secret, Telegram, FB Messenger or any other communications app beyond their own. While it’s all sweetness and li…

> “standard” tied to a phone number subscription that brings along all the retrograde privacy nightmares of Big Telecom since the bell system broke up. Is there a way to make an account with Apple that isn't tied to a mobile phone number? If so, I've never been able to find it.

You don't need an Apple ID to use iMessage. Just an Apple device.

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

#324

Post by tomjakubowski »

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…

The white on green is only used for the SMS messages you sent in the conversation.

Incoming messages are always black on grey, for SMS and iMessage both.

If the color scheme actually impacts legibility, it would only affect messages which you yourself wrote. It wouldn't have any effect on legibility of messages other people wrote, where that really matters a lot more.

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

#325

Post by asdff »

vzaliva wrote: post #199

One way looking at it is that carrier job is only to provide data service. They should not be in the business of messaging. Users (and market) will chose to use whatever messaging service they want. This even applies to voice. I rather do Signal voice call than carrier voice call with most of my friends. Better quality, encryption, etc.

I think that is shortsighted because data service does not overlap cell service. Go into a grocery store and try and imessage a photo. If your stores are anything like mine it just won't work, until you defer to sending it via SMS, at which point it sends instantly no problem. At the end of the day I'm not paying for data service, I'm paying for data service plus cell service. I want cell service, it has benefits and is not replaced by data only service.

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

#326

Post by selectodude »

altairprime wrote: post #293
rootusrootus wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're 100% sure it's iMessage and not SMS, report it to Apple. They can ban that account.

They’ll ban the entire device used to send it, not just the one account. But see also elsethread “wait, how do I know this was delivered over iMessage”, since MMS allows the From field to be an email address.

On the top of the first message it'll either say Text Message or iMessage. If it's an iMessage and you delete the thread without replying, it'll ask if you want to report the message as spam.

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

#327

Post by asdff »

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…

Because most Americans are texting for free

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

#328

Post by Rebelgecko »

Liquix wrote: post #253
Angostura wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Google conclusively found there was a statistically most pleasing shade of blue in their 41 Shades of Blue experiment. This type of testing can be and is being leveraged for profit. It's not too difficult to imagine Apple tuning iMessage vs. SMS colors to be perfectly calming/nauseating respectively.

It's also worth noting that the current version of iMessage uses contrast levels that don't follow Apple's own HIG (the early green bubbles did, but the shade of green has gotten lighter and lighter over time)

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

#329

Post by renewiltord »

kelnos wrote: post #116
altairprime wrote: post #59

Most businesses, consumers, and developers universally continue to ignore the primary reason that iMessage is a closed platform, rather than an app on every platform as iTunes is: Apple is using device serial numbers for anti-spam, supported by a fully-authenticated hardware and software stack that does not allow user modification. This permits Apple to simply “console ban” any Apple device that spams on iMessage. Th…

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…

And I'd rather the opposite and the current situation offers us both that choice.

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

#330

Post by treesprite82 »

nomel wrote: post #224
dfabulich wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Could you upload a screenshot from your phone? Searching images online I see plenty that roughly match the colors they're using on the video/website, but none as dark as your iPhone. Reference: https://i.imgur.com/PlGjjQg.png

Maybe a personalization option?

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