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Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

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Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#141

Post by collinrapp »

smt88 wrote: post #135
angulardragon03 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> also sends gray bubbles Incoming messages are _always_ gray on iOS, irrespective of the use of iMessage or SMS. Your solution is not any different in this regard.

I’ve never seen a gray bubble and have received incoming messages from all different types of accounts

Then there’s a misunderstanding here. I have an iPhone. When I open my Messages app and view a conversation with someone with an iPhone, my outbound messages are blue and their messages to me are gray. When I open a conversation with a non-iPhone user, my outbound messages are green and their messages to me are still gray. Are you sure you’ve never received a incoming gray message? Because that doesn’t seem possible, unless you’re talking about something other than what I and the person you responded to are talking about.

As far as I can tell, the OP’s insistence that their service won’t send gray messages seems entirely disconnected from reality.

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#142

Post by ada1981 »

angulardragon03 wrote: post #133
garygao wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iMessage for Business is very restrictive and has a really long approval process. On top of this, it also sends gray bubbles and doesn't allow any outbound, which prevents consented outbound use cases such as form fill text back.

> also sends gray bubbles Incoming messages are _always_ gray on iOS, irrespective of the use of iMessage or SMS. Your solution is not any different in this regard.

Incorrect.

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#143

Post by [deleted] »

smt88 wrote: post #135
angulardragon03 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> also sends gray bubbles Incoming messages are _always_ gray on iOS, irrespective of the use of iMessage or SMS. Your solution is not any different in this regard.

I’ve never seen a gray bubble and have received incoming messages from all different types of accounts

[deleted]

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#144

Post by 542458 »

angulardragon03 wrote: post #133
garygao wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iMessage for Business is very restrictive and has a really long approval process. On top of this, it also sends gray bubbles and doesn't allow any outbound, which prevents consented outbound use cases such as form fill text back.

> also sends gray bubbles Incoming messages are _always_ gray on iOS, irrespective of the use of iMessage or SMS. Your solution is not any different in this regard.

It looks like in iMessage for business, the phone’s user’s outbound messages show as dark grey (as opposed to normal iMessage and SMS/RCS which show outbound messages as blue and green respectively). I assume this is supposed to communicate that you’re talking to a different sort of entity, not a normal person on a phone.

Personally I don’t see why you’d care. My business isn’t trying to pretend to be a normal person using a phone, so why would it matter?

https://www.apple.com/ios/business-chat/

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#145

Post by satvikpendem »

garygao wrote: post #130
zitterbewegung wrote: post #109

Why would I use this instead of using iMessage for Business that is the official way and is more robust and doesn’t violate ToS. If you get shut down I have to redo this setup using Apple ?

iMessage for Business is very restrictive and has a really long approval process. On top of this, it also sends gray bubbles and doesn't allow any outbound, which prevents consented outbound use cases such as form fill text back.

> iMessage for Business is very restrictive and has a really long approval process

For good reason, so companies don't abuse it.

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#147

Post by garygao »

collinrapp wrote: post #141
smt88 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never seen a gray bubble and have received incoming messages from all different types of accounts

Then there’s a misunderstanding here. I have an iPhone. When I open my Messages app and view a conversation with someone with an iPhone, my outbound messages are blue and their messages to me are gray. When I open a conversation with a non-iPhone user, my outbound messages are green and their messages to me are still gray. Are you sure you’ve never received a incoming gray message? Because that doesn’t seem possible,…

yes, what I originally meant was that Apple iMessage for Business has gray bubbles for the messages that you're sending (or the ones that would normally be blue)

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#149

Post by garygao »

Banditoz wrote: post #69
garygao wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple wouldn't ban us since we're not doing anything that would qualify as spam or abuse. Even if that hypothetical event does happen, we have SMS/RCS fallback systems in place so no conversations get stopped or lost

> Apple wouldn't ban us... To me this screams you haven't talked to Apple. Given how macabre they were towards Beeper Mini, I almost expect the same treatment for Chert. Nonetheless, best of luck if you can pull it off.

I think what we're doing is fundamentally different from Beeper in terms of positioning. Beeper is trying to offer an additional interface to iMessage when it already exists for humans. What we're doing is giving agents the ability to interact with iMessage users, which is something that fundamentally can't be done on the current interface.

The fact that Apple hasn't banned agents like Poke is a good indicator that they're not necessarily against agents on iMessage.

Re: Launch HN: Chert (YC P26) – Twilio for iMessage

#150

Post by garygao »

systima wrote: post #146

Is this allowed under Apple's ToS? I recall the Beeper Mini debacle not so long ago, and fear that this may be a house built on sand.

Apple is not necessarily against programmatic messaging. In fact, they actually developed Applescript for people to do so. Beeper was using it to replace the iMessage interface when it already exists, which is why I think Apple was against it. We're doing something fundamentally different - allowing agents to interact with humans on iMessage, which is something that the current iMessage interface cannot do.
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