751–760 of 902 posts
Whatsapp is known for banning accounts that use any kind of third party clients. For Android users on iMessage (insane achievement!) obviously this isn't such a big issue, as they didn't have an account before, so the sanction of being banned is not so important. I would never dare, however, to switch over my WhatsApp to a 3rd party client. Do you have something planned in this regard?
Is there any way to do this on iPhone? I use a Google Voice number since Google Voice came out, and I would love to iMessage from it, but Apple won't let me add it as a number for the device.
I'm sorry but don't understand exactly what this is. Is it a universal text app that you can use for all your contacts? Or do you need to know if the person you're texting with has an iPhone or not? Given the excitement and number of upvotes I'm obviously missing something, but I'm at a loss.
The excitement is because previously it was impossible for Android users to communicate with iPhone users over iMessage. If you're not in the US, you probably won't get this, but in the US it's very easy to be "the odd man out" as the only Android user in a group of friends. Group chats between iMessage and Android users is basically horrible right now - I seriously considered getting an iPhone solely because friends…
Yes I'm not in the US. Here in France (Europe?) pretty much everyone uses Whatsapp; it's not a problem to do normal text between Android and iOS, but I'm not aware of group chats that would be exclusive to iPhone users (I have never been offered/asked to join an iMessage group).
This seems like it won't last, but it's AWESOME and I really hope you survive Apple's inevitable attempts to kill this. A universal chat application would be amazing, and will maybe help bring attention to the value of standards and interoperability (hopefully by governments/regulators).
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But it often not that simple, anyone who has done cross-platform development can tell you this by heart, it doesn't matter what you do, you must adhere to the lowest common denominator. Interoperability isn't free.
I'm not asking them to implement these things on every platform, but it's not difficult to make documentation they certainly already have about protocols available.
The same is also true, say about AirDrop, if apple makes it "Open" and they have to make a breaking change for security or whatever reason, they can't feasibly even make an update available for non-apple devices let alone enforce it.
Now "Apple" has broken your non-apple device and along with it their reputation.
Open is good, but the cost is non-zero.
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How do you run the binary if that's not OK? In order to install it, The binary gets copied from the installer (dmg/zip/app store/CD install media), and then to run it, it gets copied from your hard drive to RAM, so that's clearly okay in some circumstances. Furthermore, once it's on my hard drive, I can copy it over and over again in random places on my hard drive for funsies and the operating system will gladly coop…
In my very limited understanding, distribution is the key. It’s legal for Apple to distribute Apple binaries. It is not legal for someone else to distribute Apple binaries. Copying a binary from installer to app folder: not distribution Putting the binary on a USB and giving it to your buddy: gray area, not worth prosecuting, but maybe technically distribution Uploading the binary to a GitHub repo titled “Apple binar…
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I feel so old. What is it that I'm missing out in iMessage that is so important? Honest question, I've been texting since t9 and have never owned an Apple device.
It provides a much better group messaging experience than SMS (you can see who’s in a group and add and remove people), delivery/read receipts, better image quality, is encrypted (although that gets somewhat negated by automatic iCloud backups), and is free as long as a data connection is available. Of course many other messengers offer most of these features too, but for some reason, no alternative has been able to…
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On the contrary, the EU law that enforces interoperability should put some wind under this project's wings.
Exactly what I thought
If Apple is able to update the protocol in such a way that it requires some kind of signed attestation from the secure enclave (basically a DRM) they’ll get legal protection.
Also. Nobody uses iMessage in the EU. It’s all WhatsApp here. Blue bubbles are an American obsession.
Great work, this looks very cool and seems to work well. I hope one day to see a local backup option, as it's important to me that my chats are not lost.