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“It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

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

#681
post #561

RCS itself does not support E2E encryption. That’s an extension Google developed. It only works if BOTH people are using Google’s Messages app. Group chats? Totally plain text in the clear. No encryption at all. RCS is not good enough. Fix the issues, develop something better, I don’t care. Only E2E is good enough.

SMS/MMS, which is the only iMessage fallback today, is not E2E.

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

#682

RCS is dead. The Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI) has given up. Google is the one still pushing for it. iMessage is simply a big Apple moat. Why would Apple give it up to enhance Google's business position? Google wants us to pick theirs over Apple's. Also note that to my knowledge, RCS is not available in all countries. The other funny thing is that Google complains about SMS being insecure -- all while RCS…

A lot has happened with RCS since that random article. * All of the major US carriers announced that they'd ship Google Messages by default on android phones (including RCS). I believe Verizon was the last one [1]. * Google enabled end-to-end encryption by default for 1:1 chats [2]. They've said that e2e for group chats is coming later this year [3]. * Samsung replaced their own messaging client with a tweaked versio…

To add to this, Xiaomi and Oppo, which collectively dominate the South Asian markets and has big presence in Europe, also dropped their own messaging app a few years ago in favor of Google Messages app.

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

#683

I setup a BlueBubbles server on a spare Mac and I installed the BlueBubbles App. Boom. iMessages on Android. Done. Messaging is already extremely fragmented. BB is only the eighth messaging app on my phone. Considering getting on Beeper to consolodate this madness. Matrix/Element was too rough to utilize as is. Almost everyone I text with is on iMessage in the US. 95% or more of my regular contacts. Many are often ou…

I have not had this experience. Google Messages has been incredible at stopping spam for me. Android is best in class on calls as well. I was seeing memes about car warranties and looked it up. Apparently a big problem with spam calls. Haven't seen a spam call on my pixels in years. All filtered into the ether.

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

#684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using iMessage requires an Apple ID. The Messages app on iPhones supports both SMS/MMS and iMessage because it’s a phone and needs to support SMS. But without being signed into an Apple ID on the device the Messages app only handles SMS/MMS, i.e., green chat bubbles.

That isn't true. You can use iMessage without an Apple ID on a phone. It uses your phone number. I promise you of this.

Promise all you want, but in the US you can’t activate an iPhone without an Apple ID. Yes, you can set iMessage to only send/receive iMessages using your phone number. However, you cannot set it up in the first place without an Apple ID.

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

#685
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because of historical reasons. Americans had free texting for decades. Entire segments of phones were released dedicated to the texting experience with full keyboards. When the iphone came out it had unlimited data, but it was the exception not the norm, and it was slow as hell. People don't want to use data for something they already got for free, plus there's the whole network effect issue. Everyone has a phone num…

For what it's worth all the reasons you listed also apply to the UK market, however WhatsApp dominates here so I think there's a missing piece to the puzzle.

I would guess UK has better cell coverage than the U.S. Data is too unreliable while you are out and about to be reliant on a chat app versus a text that will pretty much always reach you.

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

#686

I setup a BlueBubbles server on a spare Mac and I installed the BlueBubbles App. Boom. iMessages on Android. Done. Messaging is already extremely fragmented. BB is only the eighth messaging app on my phone. Considering getting on Beeper to consolodate this madness. Matrix/Element was too rough to utilize as is. Almost everyone I text with is on iMessage in the US. 95% or more of my regular contacts. Many are often ou…

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

#687

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as you can see in my comment "what is Apple's motive for giving up their moat?" Edit: I am not sure I understand why the downvote. Also disagreement should not be expressed with downvote. I was stressing that my point (and Apple's I guess) is it doesn't make business sense what Google is asking.

SMS isn't their moat, though. They wouldn't give up iMessage. Supporting RCS (again, in addition to iMessage) would make their product better: it would allow higher quality media to be sent to and received from non-Apple users; it would allow for typing indicators and read receipts with non-Apple users; and (perhaps most importantly) it would allow - if Apple adopted Google's extensions - e2e encryption with non-Appl…

If that's not called moat, I don't know what is.

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

#688
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone in the US (if there is at least one android user in the chat)

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.

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

#689
post #684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn't true. You can use iMessage without an Apple ID on a phone. It uses your phone number. I promise you of this.

Promise all you want, but in the US you can’t activate an iPhone without an Apple ID. Yes, you can set iMessage to only send/receive iMessages using your phone number. However, you cannot set it up in the first place without an Apple ID.

https://www.macworld.com/article/673831/how-to-use-an-iphone...

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

#690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t expect Apple to ever allow unsecured devices into the iMessage network.

iMessage worked fine on Jailbroken iOS devices since.. always.

Jailbreaking iOS doesn’t affect the OS on the Secure Encoave chip. Crypto attestations of device identity can be protected from alteration by jsilbreakers.
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