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It's time to stop texting

dfeldman.medium.com

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Re: It's time to stop texting

#71

Post by fitblipper »

The question the article proposes we ask ourself: "Am I fine with a bunch of people I don’t know, all of whom have my phone number and some of whom know where I live, reading all of this?"

Lots of people have in their mind something akin to a medical professional who can see their most intimate details and expect them to treat them with respect. They assume anyone with access to this will act professionally because they assume that is their job, and so the answer to that question is often "Yes".

It is clear to me personally that is not reality, but I'm not sure how to influence peoples perspective here.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#72

Post by tomxor »

nerdjon wrote: post #27
Rayhem wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this feels a lot like saying "My god, people, stop using telephones! Facetime has video! And the bitrate ! It's a million times higher! It's 2023, why would anyone use a POTS call?!" Sure, nicer technical specs are...nice, but they're a far, far second to solving a problem. In an sms world: Problem: I need to contact a new acquaintance. Solution: Exchange phone numbers because everyone has them. Text. Or call.…

> The impoverished I am a bit mad at myself for not even thinking about that. I know people who still use flip phones and this basically segments them out even further. I think we just need to look at AIM, MSN, whatever yahoo's was called. I think there is a good reason that those were very quickly replaced by just SMS. Even though I would argue that in many ways those were superior to SMS and had features that we re…

> I know people who still use flip phones and this basically segments them out even further.

We aren't all impoverished, it can be a conscious decision.

I like how SMS just works, it's far from perfect but feels closer to an independent tool, like a hammer - with the expectation that each time you pull it out of a toolbox it will continue to remain a hammer - other than that rare occasion when the head finally drops off you can rely on it doing it's job without getting in your face asking about updated ToS and changing how you have to hold the handle every few months before you smack a nail in the wall. It's the F-91w of the digital messaging world, somewhat quirky, a bit antiquated, yet provides permanence and doesn't fuck around. I also value privacy, and I can't rely on SMS for that, which is unfortunate.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#73

Post by recursive »

The alleged advantages don't add up much in my book. For the ones that even exist. Who is confused by SMS?

Having to install a new app is more of an inconvenience than all the drawbacks of SMS put together. (It's not just installing. You have to have an account, and track your credentials, and get new contact info, etc)

Re: It's time to stop texting

#74

Post by klodolph »

ariehkovler wrote: post #42

I don't think I've sent an SMS in more than five years. But outside of the US, everyone uses WhatsApp with E2E encryption baked in.

Depends on which country.

WhatsApp is the most common worldwide, but not the most common in every country. That could be Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or even something like LINE. (Yes, Messenger and WhatsApp are nearly the same thing these days.) If you have friends from different places you end up with most of the messaging apps installed on your phone.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#75

Post by LeifCarrotson »

alexb_ wrote: post #31
nerdjon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The impoverished I am a bit mad at myself for not even thinking about that. I know people who still use flip phones and this basically segments them out even further. I think we just need to look at AIM, MSN, whatever yahoo's was called. I think there is a good reason that those were very quickly replaced by just SMS. Even though I would argue that in many ways those were superior to SMS and had features that we re…

>I am a bit mad at myself for not even thinking about that. I know people who still use flip phones and this basically segments them out even further Don't worry, you're in good company - increasingly a gigantic amount of systems just assume that you have a smart phone and are willing to use it to do everything. And that you are fine having everything tracked and logged because you did it digitally. The assumption of…

I'm not so startled by the number of systems that assume you have a smart phone - most adults do - but am startled by the number of systems that assume you have access to a keyboard/mouse/monitor.

I have PCs at home and at work and a laptop that travels with me. I use these computers to do things like filling out forms, shopping, composing emails, reading PDFs, filing taxes, tracking my calendar, and otherwise interacting with businesses and governments that use computers.

A shocking number of my friends and family do all of these things on their smartphones. They're not impoverished, they might have a PC at work but none at home, they might even have an old laptop they haven't booted up in years...but they'll suffer through side-scrolling a PDF or typing on a ~3" square display (the top of their 6" display, with the bottom used for a touchscreen keyboard).

Re: It's time to stop texting

#77

Post by afavour »

Yeah, sure, SMS sucks. But this article is missing the forest for the trees. In fact it writes off the trees entirely:

> Switching platforms is a pain, and getting your friends to do it is even harder. I think the advantages are worth the pain in this case, but the pain is real. So make it easier and start small: find one friend who’s willing to experiment. Sign up together for Signal or Telegram, and take it for a spin. And go from there.

This is THE problem. The pros, cons and analysis of every alternative messaging service is fine but the simple fact remains that the vast majority of people will not switch because they have no problem with their current setup. The article takes the benefits of privacy and security as a given (and for an HN audience I think it's appropriate to) but experience shows that most people don't care. Getting them to care is the key here.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#78

Post by wigster »

Groxx wrote: post #24
josephcsible wrote: post #16

There's one gigantic advantage to SMS that no alternative app has come close to matching: your phone number is yours, so even if Verizon decides to drop you as a customer, you can move to one of their competitors and still be able to receive messages from everyone you could before. If you use WhatsApp and Meta decides to ban you, you're out of luck unless you gave a second means of communication to everyone you used…

> your phone number is yours Unless you move out of their service area. Or a number of other caveats. Then they're not required to allow you to port your number, and telecoms rarely do anything user-friendly-but-internally-costly that they're not legally required to do.

in the UK, mobile companies have to allow you to port it.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#79

Post by benjaminwootton »

ariehkovler wrote: post #42

I don't think I've sent an SMS in more than five years. But outside of the US, everyone uses WhatsApp with E2E encryption baked in.

Came here to post the same. 90% of my messaging is WhatsApp, 10% Telegram. The only thing I use SMS for is 2FA and even that is dying out in favour of push notifications.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#80

Post by ngrilly »

Great write up, and I agree with most of the article, in particular regarding SMS shortcomings, Signal and WhatsApp, but I’m not sure why I should trust Telegram *more* than mobile networks operators when messages are not E2E encrypted.
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