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GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

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Re: GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

#21
post #5

With a seemingly insurmountable workload - maintain an actually secure OS fork - for a small team, I wonder how GrapheneOS prioritizes things like messaging apps? I'm not saying it's wrong at all; I am just interested in the thinking inside a project like that. I can imagine many reasons to devote resources to it: * A platform is only as good as its apps. If they want to grow GOS in the general public, it requires a…

I you look at the commits of the new Messages app it's mostly made by 2 people whose Github profiles show them as employees of GrapheneOS and who are mostly committing to different system apps. So I assume they have a separate team of devs whose job it is to make the system apps.

IIRC when they started first announced their replacement for the AOSP camera they said they hired a developer specifically for it.

Re: GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

#22

How about some screenshots?

I constantly see those projects that would benefit from a screenshot in a readme, but for some reason the thought about adding one doesn't even come to the authors' mind, even though it's pretty obvious. I'd really like to know what's going on.

I think in many cases the authors value functionality much more then esthetics.

Which is a bummer because it is a complete different point of view from the more typical user experience

Re: GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

#24
post #4

Does it do RCS?

No. RCS is still quite hard to actually implement. There's an open issue for it but the effort is mildly herculean. AFAIUI though GOS does intend on providing an RCS impl eventually even if it takes years to do.

What's so difficult about implementing RCS from a technical perspective?

Re: GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

#25
post #4

Does it do RCS?

No. RCS is still quite hard to actually implement. There's an open issue for it but the effort is mildly herculean. AFAIUI though GOS does intend on providing an RCS impl eventually even if it takes years to do.

particularly if you want to support all of the message-body features, of which there are MANY. it's very business-comms oriented.

I broadly expect third-party RCS apps to drop that though, like how essentially none support all of MMS. did you know MMS supports slideshows (I built support for this once)? 3d objects (mimetype model/gltf+json)? "timed text" (mimetype text/mp4)?

Re: GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. RCS is still quite hard to actually implement. There's an open issue for it but the effort is mildly herculean. AFAIUI though GOS does intend on providing an RCS impl eventually even if it takes years to do.

What's so difficult about implementing RCS from a technical perspective?

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/117225561294973728

Re: GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. RCS is still quite hard to actually implement. There's an open issue for it but the effort is mildly herculean. AFAIUI though GOS does intend on providing an RCS impl eventually even if it takes years to do.

What's so difficult about implementing RCS from a technical perspective?

[deleted]

Re: GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

#28
post #5

With a seemingly insurmountable workload - maintain an actually secure OS fork - for a small team, I wonder how GrapheneOS prioritizes things like messaging apps? I'm not saying it's wrong at all; I am just interested in the thinking inside a project like that. I can imagine many reasons to devote resources to it: * A platform is only as good as its apps. If they want to grow GOS in the general public, it requires a…

A bunch of the AOSP apps feel like you have to rewrite them for modern standards now and then you can basically have them in maintenance mode for years. The AOSP messaging app has also lasted for 15+ (?) years and has basically had no maintenance from Google for many years.

Modernizing these apps seems very high-impact. These are the very first things a new user sees and after the initial modernization, they should be relatively cheap to maintain.

Re: GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I constantly see those projects that would benefit from a screenshot in a readme, but for some reason the thought about adding one doesn't even come to the authors' mind, even though it's pretty obvious. I'd really like to know what's going on.

I think in many cases the authors value functionality much more then esthetics. Which is a bummer because it is a complete different point of view from the more typical user experience

An image is functionality, as it provides significant information to the reader.

Re: GrapheneOS' rewritten Messages app is released

#30
post #5

With a seemingly insurmountable workload - maintain an actually secure OS fork - for a small team, I wonder how GrapheneOS prioritizes things like messaging apps? I'm not saying it's wrong at all; I am just interested in the thinking inside a project like that. I can imagine many reasons to devote resources to it: * A platform is only as good as its apps. If they want to grow GOS in the general public, it requires a…

[deleted]
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