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It's time to stop texting

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Re: It's time to stop texting

#151

Post by andrewfromx »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #102
andrewfromx wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I remember getting a reasonable amount included in my 1999 plan. I remember 1997 as the year my brother called and asked "is it safe to put a credit card number on this site called amazon?" and 1998 and the first year I got a cell phone myself, but 99 as the txt year.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#152

Post by tzs »

LarryMullins wrote: post #109
Groxx wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 he…

When he said "unless you move out of their service area" he should have said "unless you move to a different geographic area".

Here is a summary of the rules [1] in the US. Key points from that page:

• If you're switching service providers and remaining in the same geographic area, you can keep your existing phone number. This process – often referred to as phone number porting – can be done between wireline, IP and wireless providers.

• If you are moving to a new geographic area, you may not be able to keep your current phone number when changing providers.

• Also, some rural wireline service providers may obtain waivers for the porting requirement from state authorities. Their customers may be unable to port their number to a new provider. If you are unable to port your number for that reason, contact your state public utilities commission for further information.

[1] https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/porting-keeping-your-ph...

Re: It's time to stop texting

#153

Post by tshaddox »

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.…

> 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.

I understand that this is supposed to feel like a clearly ridiculous example but my gut reaction is "well yeah, I hate the telephone and I'd be quite happy if I never have to give my phone number to anyone or answer a phone call again."

Re: It's time to stop texting

#154

Post by schvenk »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #69
jamespwilliams wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email falls at the very first hurdle presented in the article (“No privacy whatsoever” applies just as well to email as it does to SMS).

"No privacy whatsoever" is a bit of an stretch of an argument to make, specially when talking to the general public. You have way more privacy when sending a plain text SMS or an email than when sending a physical letter with a wax seal, and most people would argue that the latter is "private" for some definition of the word. I would even bet that any email leaks that most users would be afraid of are going to be cau…

The thing with email is it's only encrypted (even in transit) sometimes. So it kinda has the same issue as iMessage. If you're a Gmail user using Gmail's web app to email another Gmail user, you get encryption in transit (and it sounds like you might be able to implement E2EE as well). But if you email dave@somerandomemailserver.com, you won't know until you send the message whether it's encrypted.

As for envelopes and wax seals--it's an interesting question. It requires a lot less technical knowledge for someone to open that envelope than to spy on messaging traffic. On the other hand, a lot more people have access to the messaging traffic and can bring scripts to bear on it at scale.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#155

Post by schvenk »

torben-friis wrote: post #6
schvenk wrote: post #2

Just published. Abstract: Suppose you had two choices when chatting with your friends. The first will give you a great messaging experience, but you’ll need to sign up for a new app. The second requires no sign-up, but sometimes fails to deliver messages; sends tiny, blurry photos and videos; only works on your phone; confuses all your friends; and offers no privacy whatsoever. That choice is real. And if you’re like…

> (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.

To be fair, when I said "millions of others worldwide" I was making a (pretty safe) assumption. As the default messaging service on every phone, and with literally billions of phones out there, it seems pretty likely that in the entire non-US world there are millions of people using it.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#156

Post by schvenk »

alanbernstein wrote: post #96
_dain_ wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>confuses all your friends who exactly is confused by SMS?

I'm assuming this is referring to utterly broken iphone/android group messaging.

..and other things that, to be fair, I didn't fully spell out in the article. I suppose I could have said "periodically confuses your friends" because a lot of it has to do with switching phones, switching numbers, having more than one number, etc.—-things that aren't everyday affairs but also aren't that uncommon.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#157

Post by paraselene_ »

ryandrake wrote: post #34
adam_arthur wrote: post #11

People would stop texting if there were a common protocol for messaging not on SMS. I'm sure they exist, but until WhatsApp can communicate with WeChat etc, texting is unlikely to go away. This is one of the few areas where government mandated bridges may be required to allow for interoperability.

It still boggles my mind that here we are in 2023, and we still don't have a way to universally and interoperably.... "send text over the Internet to someone in real time". This should be dead simple. Yet, every chat app is still incompatible with every other chat app, and no company evidently sees any value in fixing this. And, whenever a new chat app emerges, lo and behold, it's also incompatible with every other c…

"send text over the Internet to someone in real time"

Sounds a lot like email with push-mail functionalities.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#159

Post by Rayhem »

tshaddox wrote: post #153
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.…

> 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. I understand that this is supposed to feel like a clearly ridiculous example but my gut reaction is "well yeah, I hate the telephone and I…

It's something of a clearly ridiculous example and I'm sure a lot of people (myself included) would prefer using more modern solutions 99% of the time. However, I suspect that when you tell most people that also means their 911 calls that basically cannot fail by law now also need to work on Discord or whatever they'll at least take a minute to think about the implications.

Re: It's time to stop texting

#160

Post by amf12 »

klodolph wrote: post #70

> Apple uses the green bubbles as a PR tactic to make Android users seem inferior. I've heard this sentiment before but it seems nothing short of insane to me. What's the foundation for this?

Here are some links which were posted on HN that discuss this.

- https://archive.fo/RJ7bl

- https://uxdesign.cc/how-apple-makes-you-think-green-bubbles-...

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