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Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

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Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#281

Post by lotsofpulp »

rgbrenner wrote: post #97
edent wrote: post #14

I was working on RCS systems back in 2012. It was the future back them - incredible low latency for messaging and gaming, rich messaging, and a decent SDK. How did carriers fuck it up so badly that, a decade later, it's barely a blip on the messaging landscape? The were so desperate to stop OTT (over the top) services that they... locked everything down in the hope that customers wouldn't churn. It backfired spectacu…

Reminder to everyone who wonders why WhatsApp and iMessage won: US phone carriers used to charge $0.10 to $0.25 per message. Yes, it was as ridiculous as it sounds. There used to be news articles about kids racking up hundreds of dollars on their phone bill. Here's one from the same year the iphone was released: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/0...

I disagree, unlimited domestic SMS/MMS was common by iPhone 3G (summer 2008) I specifically remember getting an unlimited plan from ATT, which was novel.

However, international SMS/MMS was extremely expensive, and that was the main impetus for WhatsApp. It required no password or making accounts or remembering all of that, hence all non tech savvy people could easily use it. And it worked flawlessly, with zero exorbitant international charges, because you knew everything was going via data.

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#282

Post by JohnFen »

commoner wrote: post #80

Excellent. The next step is for Google to release a free and open source way for Android developers to build apps that send RCS messages. Currently, the only messaging app on Android that fully supports RCS is Messages by Google, which is closed source and requires Google Play Services to activate RCS features. Also, end-to-end encryption is not part of the RCS specification, but is a proprietary extension to RCS tha…

> the only messaging app on Android that fully supports RCS is Messages by Google

Plus, unless they fixed it, if you enable RCS and then regret it and disable it again, anybody who texted with you via RCS will no longer be able to text you at all. Things won't revert to SMS.

This bit me pretty hard, but I finally fixed it by changing my phone number.

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#283

Post by danaris »

X-Istence wrote: post #117
andrewmunsell wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that blue represents E2EE and not simply iMessage? If data isn't available and the iPhone sends an SMS, like you mentioned, the bubble is green, but this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with encryption. For example, the satellite SOS messages are represented as gray. It seems more like the color represents the transport.

Because blue means iMessage and iMessage means E2EE. Grey and Green means not encrypted. Simple.

That's your own interpretation of it.

You could say "blue means it supports link embedding; green means it doesn't" and it would be just as true.

Personally, I strongly suspect that Apple views it as "blue means Apple; green means NIH."

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#284

Post by cesarb »

ralferoo wrote: post #229

As an Android user, it'd be nice if replying "No" to "Do you want RCS?" meant "Never ask me again" and wasn't just interpreted as "ask me again in next week and every week thereafter".

> and wasn't just interpreted as "ask me again in next week and every week thereafter".

It gets even worse; last week, on a relative's phone, after weeks of clicking "not now" it just force-enabled RCS, and displayed something like a "we automatically enabled RCS for you, here's what you should do if you want to disable it again" (completely confusing said non-technical relative). Needless to say, I quickly went into the settings and disabled it again; I just hope that it having been enabled for a few minutes doesn't mean it will no longer be able to receive messages from RCS users (like the rumors I heard many years ago of people who enabled iMessage and later changed back to Android no longer receiving any SMS from iMessage users).

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#286

Post by hospitalJail »

jmull wrote: post #198
sonicanatidae wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love when people comment on the color of a text message. It makes it real easy to know who to block, because they worry about entirely the wrong things.

If you socially exclude someone because they care about the color of text message bubbles, don't you care at least as much as they do? More, probably, because if they just mention it and you block them, that's disproportionate.

I hate racists and hating racists doesnt make me a bad person.

I hate people who judge others based on $1000 dollar Veblen goods. Also I make more money than them, so I'm very aware that the person who cares about bubbles is being exploited by Apple's psychology and marketing department. So... maybe I don't hate them, maybe we should feel sorry for them.

Or maybe we need to hate them because its a deterrent against corporations exploiting insecurities.

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#287

Post by albert180 »

vineyardmike wrote: post #253
viraptor wrote: post #237

I wonder what's the play here. They seem to make noise about RCS recently and give it attention, even though it seems they'll be forced by the EU to open up the iMessage system soon. Apple is not known for Google's "let's have 5 different communication apps at the same time", so... what's happening here?

There’s probably a few things at play. First, not every iPhone user can be iMessage-only and SMS is a shitty experience. In most non-US countries, they’re not winning the iMessage shame battle, they’re driving people to WhatsApp. They’d probably rather people use the built in messaging app, which will incentivize you to use iMessage. Secondly, getting more involved gives them opportunities to embrace/extinguish rcs (…

RCS is already End to End decrypted by default on Pixel Phones

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#288

Post by thedaly »

filoleg wrote: post #256
thedaly wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> green bubbles give her the ick I mean, I guess I would be grateful to have such an earlier indicator that someone is not worth pursuing. Truly, who cares.

It’s not that they would reject you if they already had some sort of a connection formed with you or that they consider having “green bubbles”to be an absolute dealbreaker. But if you have 5 similarly good on paper dating candidates, you are in the very initial stage of the process with them, and you need to narrow down the list, I don’t think it is that unreasonable to do so based on “the ease of texting.” You gotta…

Are you serious? You think that the brand of mobile device a potential suitor uses is a good metric to eliminate candidates?

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#290

Post by hospitalJail »

nerdix wrote: post #213
jmull wrote: post #56

> the green bubble shame set to end I'm betting the non-Apple bubbles will remain green... and remain a bit stigmatized. It was never about the resolution of pictures and even technical limitations around group chat was just part of it. It's a social thing and the technical protocol is incidental. Dr. Seuss probably explained it best in The Sneetches.

Yes, there is no way they give up Green vs Blue. I'm sure they'll make up some excuse why it makes sense to keep the distinction. But the reality is that the Millennial and Gen Z bubble culture has been a big driver behind their market share increase in the US. And if Gen Alpha adopts the same culture (and doesn't rebel against norms created by prior generations like young people tend to do) then Apple will have a ne…

"Nah, green bubble is a point of pride. You didn't fall for Apple's marketing tricks, you are the edgy person who Thinks Different." This concept alone will make it so it never reaches 100%.

Not to mention, Apple's security is so terrible, I imagine corporations are going to be banning iphones. Its never going to be a monopoly or a near monopoly.

Apple's positioning is targeted to people who buy Veblen goods. As long as there is a market for phones that are high quality, Apple will never get a 'near' monopoly.

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