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Apple Invites

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Re: Apple Invites

#941

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only problem I have with this, as an android user, is that there's probably no API available for someone to build an integration for other platforms if the market was there. I don't expect Apple to go and create cross platform clients for every service they put out, they're not a service first company, they're an Apple service first company.

That's a big problem though. They're targeting a class of use cases currently covered by iCalendar family of open protocols[0] and handled by every calendar and e-mail app there is. Because of their narrowed focus on features most relevant to individuals, families and groups of friends, they'll be able to deliver a superior experience there for people on their platform - and they have both enough users and the correc…

Do you have a personal stylist or doctor that sends you direct calendar invites?

Usually a friend just DMs me and tells me to show up somewhere.

Re: Apple Invites

#942

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are ways to send iMessages programmatically. Apple does check for spam, but it’s not foolproof. And of course, it won’t help you against a targeted attack.

If there are ways, please share any documentation you have on it. I haven't found anything useful, myself.

I didn’t research it that much, but a good place to start would be AirMessage [1] or Mautrix [2]. Both of these require a Mac to work – it might work on a Hackintosh, though, or maybe using same tricks those forks of OpenHaystack use to run without a Mac (no pointers here, sorry). Hope this helps!

[1]: https://github.com/airmessage/airmessage-server

[2]: https://github.com/mautrix/imessage

Re: Apple Invites

#943

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty easy actually - most open source software fits the bill. Quality software can be pretty cheap to make per user. The only problem is services where hosting costs need to be paid somehow and network effects mean that for-profit competition will win the market even if the product is inevitably enshittified. Doesn't matter how good your open and community funded event platform is if Apple and Facebook can aff…

What open source software is a "nice thing"? We're talking about high quality user experience here. I don't think it's controversial to say that's vanishingly rare in OSS.

Actually it's proprietary software that's more likely to be full of anti-patterns and flows designed in the interest of the corporation rather than the user while advanced functionality is missing because it might confuse the lowest common denominator user. Looking flashy and retard-safe design does not make a high quality user experience.

Re: Apple Invites

#944

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want Apple iMessage to be clearer on iOS. Right now, iOS users can't as easily understand the difference between iMessage and SMS, and I think it would make what's happening clearer to users if the apps were separate. If you opened the "SMS" app to get your sms 2fa codes and talk to android users, and your "iMessage" app separately to talk to iPhone users, it would make people less mad when they open their iMessage…

The point is that iPhone users try to use iMessage, and right now apple's weird SMS integration with it makes them accidentally use SMS and get annoyed. I disagree that the "annoyed" people are "trying to use iMessage." I think they're just trying to message their friends. They are annoyed because the only common protocol supported by all parties in the conversation kind of sucks sometimes. Apple has made the correct…

Indeed. Pretty much everyone I know is "texting" with their friends and using whatever is the default app on their phone. Some people will use Whatsapp for specific groups/events, but that default text app is very commonly used.

This reminds me of a conversation with an iPhone-using elderly relative who wanted to text friends in their retirement home:

ER: Why is it that when I send text messages to my friends they sometimes never get them?

Me: When you get messages are the bubbles green?

ER: Yes.

Me: Is there bad phone signal in this area?

ER: Yes.

Me: OK, that means your friends are using Android phones, so your messages are being sent by a method called 'SMS' which isn't very reliable, particularly when phone signal is poor.

ER: I don't really understand that. What I can I do to fix it?

Me: You and your friends could install an app such as Whatsapp or Signal and send your texts with that.

ER: No, I'm not installing an app!

Me: You could persuade your friends to buy iPhones.

ER: They won't do that.

Me: You could wait a few months and Apple will most likely activate a new system called "RCS" on iPhones which might make messages with your friends a bit more reliable.

ER: That's no good, I need to fix it now.

etc. etc.

Re: Apple Invites

#945

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that iPhone users try to use iMessage, and right now apple's weird SMS integration with it makes them accidentally use SMS and get annoyed. I disagree that the "annoyed" people are "trying to use iMessage." I think they're just trying to message their friends. They are annoyed because the only common protocol supported by all parties in the conversation kind of sucks sometimes. Apple has made the correct…

Indeed. Pretty much everyone I know is "texting" with their friends and using whatever is the default app on their phone. Some people will use Whatsapp for specific groups/events, but that default text app is very commonly used. This reminds me of a conversation with an iPhone-using elderly relative who wanted to text friends in their retirement home: ER: Why is it that when I send text messages to my friends they so…

being sent by a method called 'SMS' which isn't very reliable, particularly when phone signal is poor...

Not that it is relevant to overall point, but this is the exact opposite of my experience. I've been in plenty of situations where it is impossible to make calls because the signal is so bad, but communicating with SMS has worked perfectly. As my signal gets weaker and weaker, SMS is always the last thing to fail.

Re: Apple Invites

#946
post #945

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. Pretty much everyone I know is "texting" with their friends and using whatever is the default app on their phone. Some people will use Whatsapp for specific groups/events, but that default text app is very commonly used. This reminds me of a conversation with an iPhone-using elderly relative who wanted to text friends in their retirement home: ER: Why is it that when I send text messages to my friends they so…

being sent by a method called 'SMS' which isn't very reliable, particularly when phone signal is poor... Not that it is relevant to overall point, but this is the exact opposite of my experience. I've been in plenty of situations where it is impossible to make calls because the signal is so bad, but communicating with SMS has worked perfectly. As my signal gets weaker and weaker, SMS is always the last thing to fail.

Interesting. I don't think I've noticed that, but I have run into various issues with SMS when there's poor signal. On one occasion I could receive but could not send, just at the perfect time when someone was waiting for me and I was unable to get to them.

Re: Apple Invites

#947

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you know that in iMessage, Android user texts are the same color as iOS user messages? It's true. As the iOS user, it is your own messages that are green or blue depending on whether it was sent using iMessage or SMS. It's useful feedback about whether your message was sent on a reliable channel. I know it became a whole thing and that Apple has allowed it to remain as such. But it's not really an apt analogy.

Do you not view RCS as being a reliable channel?

At a minimum, it isn't encrypted between iOS and Android users.

Re: Apple Invites

#948
post #738

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not as if SMS is e2e encrypted right? Is RCS worse in that dimension in some way?

RCS is supported by Apple for quite some time now, though?

Apple's RCS is not encrypted, nobodies RCS is encrypted unless you happen to be Google.

Re: Apple Invites

#949
post #256

Brilliant move. The transition of the major social networks over the last 10-15 years -- from being a space for friends to interact to being a space to consume content produced by "unconnected" entities like influencers -- has created a huge opening for someone to claim the friends and family network. There is no one better positioned (at least in the U.S. where iPhones are the majority handset) than Apple.

I think Apple already has claimed the "friends and family network" via iMessage. Did Facebook go to a groups/influencer algorithm by choice or is it the result of IRL friend posters all moving to private chats once everyone got iPhones?

Nobody uses iMessage in Spain. People swear by Zuck's spyware

Re: Apple Invites

#950

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there are ways, please share any documentation you have on it. I haven't found anything useful, myself.

I didn’t research it that much, but a good place to start would be AirMessage [1] or Mautrix [2]. Both of these require a Mac to work – it might work on a Hackintosh, though, or maybe using same tricks those forks of OpenHaystack use to run without a Mac (no pointers here, sorry). Hope this helps! [1]: https://github.com/airmessage/airmessage-server [2]: https://github.com/mautrix/imessage

Thank you.
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