Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It's time to stop texting

dfeldman.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 206 posts

Re: It's time to stop texting

#101

Post by jvolkman »

nikeee wrote: post #64
below43 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I don't think replacing SMS with a private company/single organisation as the messaging platform provider is the solution (which is why I also count out WhatsApp also, despite currently relying on it heavily to communicate with Android users). I think in the end we need a cross-platform messaging protocol that replaces SMS/MMS that is not reliant on a single app vendor, provides end-to-end encryption and will be…

I understand the desire to just use the default app. I feel the same for most of the stuff I use. However, being based on standards is more like being based on the lowest common denominator. Moxie describes the issue pretty good in his post where he explains why signal is not federated (any more): https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/ When talking about things like encryption, RCS isn't that much better, i…

I think the only serious RCS client at this point is Google Messages, which defaults to E2EE when possible (i.e., both clients are Google Messages). All of the major US carriers have started shipping Google Messages by default. There are other clients like Samsung Messages and whatever crap carriers have tried to implement themselves, but It seems like they'll phase out.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#102

Post by atomicnumber3 »

andrewfromx wrote: post #58
smcin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What year was that tipping point, IYO? in the US

IMO 1999

Wasn't texting still super expensive up until the late 2000s? Imo texting didn't really assume it's recognizable quintessential form until you could send a text that was just "lol" and not be lambasted by your parents or spouse when the phone bill came.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#103

Post by LarryMullins »

theonlybutlet wrote: post #26
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.…

In the rest of the world the answer is simply Whatsapp. China it's WeChat. No need to discuss. You can also see if their contact is in the app.

It's very confusing to me that Europe seems generally skeptical of big American tech, but has evidently jumped straight into bed with Facebook's WhatsApp with far more enthusiasm than Americans.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#104

Post by rospaya »

pwinnski wrote: post #92

It's time to stop using RSS for podcasts, instead let's use Spotify. It's time to stop using https, instead let's use a new protocol owned by Facebook to visit web pages. It's time to stop using IRC, instead let's use Slack. It's time to stop using email, instead let's use a proprietary messaging app. OR let's not commit everything to corporate-controlled protocols and platforms, and keep SMS, RSS, HTTPS, email, and…

Telecoms and after that Apple killed SMS. I'm for open standards as much as the next guy, but we were forced into this situation by big corporations.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#105

Post by Eduard »

smcin wrote: post #20
torben-friis wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (and millions of others worldwide) Where else do SMS remain common? At least here in Europe they've been relegated to automatic communications, like receiving 2-factor codes. No one uses them for messaging. I think the app of choice is different per country, but I haven't met any non American that's still used to SMS.

That's simply untrue. Tens or hundreds of millions of people in Europe still use SMS, for messaging. If you're trying to say X% of people under the age of Y tend to use WhatsApp(iMessage/IG/SC/Telegram/Signal) for messaging, then what are X and Y? and in which European countries (it varies).

Tens or hundreds of millions of people in Europe still use SMS, for messaging?

I doubt that:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEurope/comments/mni2bx/sms_vs_me...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23412598

Re: It's time to stop texting

#107

Post by TylerE »

Rayhem wrote: post #19
nerdjon wrote: post #10

I understand the concerns that they are bringing up, but I feel like saying just download another app completely misses the point of my SMS is so popular. It is just... there. It does what I need it to do without standing in my way of communicating. It is also a standard that is not at the whim of a specific company shutting down a major service (that I am aware of) to continue communicating. I struggled for a while…

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.…

Kind of a bad example.

If I could have a TRUE pots phone, I'd jump on it.

Instead all you can get it psuedo-POTS jammed over VoIP.

Real POTS in the old days was actually kinda magic. You never had the "everyone talking over everone else" thing you get with any VoIP solution because you don't have a syllable or two (more if using cell) of hidden latency.

Other than the audio rolling off everything above about 3.5khz, real POTS is as close as you can get to being in the same room.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#108

Post by rr888 »

One advantage of SMS no one else has mentioned. It doesn't suck battery like running Whatsapp and Telegram and Signal and Messenger and Element like I am right now.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#109

Post by LarryMullins »

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.

> 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.

They're not required to do it, and they rarely let you do anything that isn't legally required?

Something doesn't add up here, because telecoms letting you port your mobile number to another provider is the status quo. I can't remember the last I heard somebody complain that they weren't able to port their number when changing providers. I've done it four times myself, and each time it was painless.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#110

Post by lostlogin »

Rayhem wrote: post #19
nerdjon wrote: post #10

I understand the concerns that they are bringing up, but I feel like saying just download another app completely misses the point of my SMS is so popular. It is just... there. It does what I need it to do without standing in my way of communicating. It is also a standard that is not at the whim of a specific company shutting down a major service (that I am aware of) to continue communicating. I struggled for a while…

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.…

> Problem: I need to contact a new acquaintance. Solution? Talk about messaging apps. Find the intersection of the ones you both use.

This is the beautiful thing about phone numbers. The likes of iMessage will use iMessage if both users have it.

Imagine a world where one app could use sms, iMessage, WhatsApp, Snapchat etc. It’ll never happen, but I can dream.

Post reply on HN