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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”

#591

Post by calsy »

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…

The device still receives SMS messages, which makes all that wonderful iMessage security completely useless when receiving spam SMS messages with fake headers.

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

#592

Post by eek2121 »

smoldesu wrote: post #413
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…

> It’s really oppressive that Apple doesn’t let you install WhatsApp, Secret, Telegram, FB Messenger or any other communications app beyond their own. They fully control those app's access to their store; Apple has full say over which communication apps you install on your iPhone, full-stop.

You say this like it is a bad thing. I used Signal, which is an open-source messaging app. If Apple were censoring messaging apps I would agree with your seemingly negative sentiment, however, as someone who has pushed out apps to the Apple and Mac app stores, I can say they absolutely do not do that.

There are many reasons many IT folks actually prefer an iPhone over Android. The two biggest ones are privacy and security. Google, thus far, takes neither seriously. Google routinely sells your data (including location data, active timestamps for all apps, what you search for, the list goes on), and it routinely has malware show up on the play store. If Google could fix those issues and stop also murdering their various applications every year, maybe they'd be able to compete.

While it may sound like I have a hard-on for Apple products, I really do love Android, I just hate Google.

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

#593

Post by hot_gril »

stirlo wrote: post #541
hot_gril wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cause it's not terrible. It still works ok the way it is, and people tend to use FB Messenger or something if they want a more complex group chat with Android users in it. Considering that they do this even if it's an all-Android chat, I don't think it's Apple's fault, as scummy as they act with SMS. Also, people don't care for metric cause it's not better. Basing your system around the physical properties of water d…

If you grow up with metric none of these assumptions apply. You learn that 0C is cold, 20C is nice and 40C is hot. At what F do you need to worry about snow? like 30ish? Metric this is 0C so there's usefulness both ways.

Whether or not you grow up with it, you have to use an extra decimal point to differentiate between noticeably different indoor temps, and you can't say "it's in the 20s" or something and know what to wear. Memorizing 32˚F for freezing is a one-time thing, which really only matters for ice. You might have snow at 40˚F or no snow at 0˚F.

Believe it or not, people don't seem to know the ˚F boiling point of water, probably cause it's just not a factor in everyday life. Your kettle whistles when it's boiling.

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

#594

Post by pxeboot »

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…

> 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 can't be true. It is trivial to get iMessage working in a macOS VM with randomly generated hardware IDs.

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

#595

Post by sangnoir »

selectodude wrote: post #323
InitialLastName wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “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.

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

Has Apple fixed the bug where it wasn't relinquishing your phone number and blackholing all iMessages which were supposed to be downgraded to SMS instead?

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

#596

Post by Andrex »

simonjgreen wrote: post #367

SMS to me is solely the channel for machines to force a bad MFA implementation on me and couriers to tell me something is on the way/nearly there/delivered. All person to person comms, without exception, iPhone or Android users, is via WhatsApp. Anecdata from UK.

I far, far prefer a protocol over Zuckerware, but to each their own.

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

#597

Post by eek2121 »

kelnos wrote: post #215
rootusrootus wrote: post #156

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. 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 syste…

iMessage users don't get spam from other iMessage users. Also, iMessage lets you filter out 'known' and 'unknown' senders. Apple also will automatically flag/block certain messages if they are clearly spam.

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

#598

Post by altairprime »

pxeboot wrote: post #594
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…

> 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 can't be true. It is trivial to get iMessage working in a macOS VM with randomly generated hardware IDs.

If it was as simple as that, we would all endlessly be plagued by iMessage spam. It isn’t.

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

#599

Post by oefrha »

deadbunny wrote: post #480
tempsy wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SMS spam is real.

I've not had a single SMS/messaging spam message in the last decade. In the UK if that makes a difference, maybe we have effective laws around it? Not looked into it.

It’s not going to be uniform for everyone. The primary number I’ve used for ages doesn’t get SMS spam at all. A secondary number which probably got recycled from someone else receives multiple spam messages every single day.

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

#600

Post by Andrex »

baby wrote: post #404
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not end to end encrypted lol

That's a hard problem that a lot of smart people are trying to figure out. I'd say there's been good progress.

https://support.google.com/messages/answer/10252671?hl=en

I think this is exclusive to Jibe and Google Messages but a widespread (in terms of installs) proof-of-concept is still pretty cool, and better than nothing.

The bigger problem is adding E2E to SMS is going to attract the FBI's ire, they really really really like reading everybody's texts.

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