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Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

jibe.google.com

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Re: Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

#51

Post by rtkwe »

dheera wrote: post #7

Ick. I wish we could kill SMS/Whatsapp/Wechat/LINE already and just do everything over e-mail or some other cross-platform, multi-login protocol. I hate being tied up to one device to message people. I change devices on the order of minutes, move over the course of a day between a few locations that all have devices I own, and don't regularly carry or look at my cell phone if I am already staring at something bigger…

Google Voice w/ SMS in Hangouts might fit your use case. I've never tried it with multiple cellphone numbers so I can't say how well it handles that. It does send from your Google Voice number so in theory it should be able to deliver message sent to you to multiple devices and keep your sent messages in sync. I know my sent messages appear just fine in multiple phones and on the web interface.

Better it works pretty seamlessly for people not using it because it just appears to come from a regular phone number to them. They just have to have that number also entered in their phone. That's one of the major hurdles to having a good replacement for SMS is that if it doesn't integrate into normal SMS there's a friction if Alice doesn't have a phone that can use the fancy new SMS replacement that Bob and Carol are hooked on.

edit: I see someone beat me to this suggestion.

Re: Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

#52

Post by profeta »

eximius wrote: post #10

Anybody have a good source on what the heck RCS is? I've never heard of it until now. I will google also, but I bet someone knows of an introduction they'd recommend.

it is an attempt to standardize what whatsapp made popular: instant messaging with authentication based on phone number.

the spec even includes the big-brother way of you having to hand over your contacts to pair the phone numbers to other users that whatsapp sadly made the norm.

Re: Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

#53

Post by PaulHoule »

_hpqv wrote: post #36

Wow, RCS seems pretty bad from a privacy standpoint. The spec is available on the GSMA website [0]. The relevant section is 2.13.1.3 of "Rich Communication Suite 6.0 Advanced Communications Services and Client Specification Version 7.0-final draft" available in the specification ZIP. TL;DR: Encryption seems to be included but for voice and video only. They have _deliberately_ compromised messaging security to be vuln…

I think RCS is just bad since it has been around since 2007 with "little or no take-up" as mentioned in Wikipedia.

Re: Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

#54

Post by toast0 »

trebor wrote: post #26
habosa wrote: post #9

As a long-time SMS user, getting widespread RCS support is the biggest future mobile phone innovation I am looking forward to. SMS is wonderful because you can send a message to any mobile phone user regardless of their nationality, operating system, hardware, carrier, etc. However it has a few major flaws: cost, speed, lack of group messaging, limited multimedia support. The shortcomings of SMS have fueled the rise…

Here's irony for you: basic text messaging is almost free to the carriers, because it actually happens on the cellular protocol's control channel. [1] Your phone maintains that connection persistently (I think), so fitting SMS messages into idle time makes it virtually free. The SMS cost is just a profit center for carriers, but this explanation also accounts for the speed of delivery, etc. > Look at what happens to…

> Here's irony for you: basic text messaging is almost free to the carriers, because it actually happens on the cellular protocol's control channel.

The airtime is basically free (although, if send/receive volume is high, this ends up with more of the control messages sent than would have been with an idle phone), but routing and storing the messages in transit isn't. Also, a lot of carriers have contracted out their SMS systems and are paying their contractors per message. Everybody charges everyone else for SMS between carriers as well.

Re: Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

#55

Post by profeta »

grahamburger wrote: post #25
dheera wrote: post #7

Ick. I wish we could kill SMS/Whatsapp/Wechat/LINE already and just do everything over e-mail or some other cross-platform, multi-login protocol. I hate being tied up to one device to message people. I change devices on the order of minutes, move over the course of a day between a few locations that all have devices I own, and don't regularly carry or look at my cell phone if I am already staring at something bigger…

Google Hangouts does this for SMS. You can send/receive real SMS from your Google Voice number from any connected device.

hangouts does everything BUT this.

The UI shows several user accounts that you have to keep switching. it is a total nightmare.

then, the worst offense, you have absolutely no idea if you send a message to someone, if it will go via hangouts http IM message or via SMS. you have zero control/feedback from the UI. The ONLY way to know, is to create contacts with just email address and others with just phone numbers. and even then, sometimes it will go via hangouts IM when you send to a phone number-only contact.

the separation between an app for first class SMS (and nothing else) and google voice (for google voice) was the right choice and it still works.

DO NOT pair gvoice to hangouts. you've been warned.

Re: Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

#57

Post by dheera »

crumpled wrote: post #40
dheera wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but Google Voice is only available in the US. I have my Google Voice number forwarding to my e-mail which is nice. Of course, just actually using e-mail would be preferable. With e-mail I have one permanent address that hasn't changed in 15 years, and won't change anytime soon. Hangouts+SMS seems more like a bridge to the pre-mobile-internet era to me, a time when people were identified by a location-dependent n…

"Yes, but Google Voice is only available in the US." It would be more true to say: Google Voice only provisions US phone numbers. I have used my google voice number to make and receive calls and SMS messages from other countries. You CAN use it worldwide, it's only TCP/IP data after all. Unfortunately, you can't count on MMS working if you send to a non-US carrier. But MMS is only good because of its de facto status,…

At least now, Google only permits you to get a Voice number if you can prove you have another US number to forward to (they dial you to verify). Although I do have a US number, that's only because I happen to be working in the US right now; if I weren't I probably wouldn't.

Also a lot of apps in various other countries (notably China, because I'm familiar with it) do registrations via SMS, in which you need a +86 number in order to register, period. Smaller companies don't have the infrastructure to send international SMS verification numbers. Larger Chinese companies (e.g. Weibo, Wechat) permit registration with a US number, but they're larger companies who have servers in the US and infrastructure with US SMS gateways. So running around the world with a US number isn't always practical. If SMS is dethroned as a "de facto" communication method that everyone is expected to have, this might change. Other places besides China may also have a similar situation.

Re: Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

#58

Post by grahamburger »

profeta wrote: post #55
grahamburger wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Hangouts does this for SMS. You can send/receive real SMS from your Google Voice number from any connected device.

hangouts does everything BUT this. The UI shows several user accounts that you have to keep switching. it is a total nightmare. then, the worst offense, you have absolutely no idea if you send a message to someone, if it will go via hangouts http IM message or via SMS. you have zero control/feedback from the UI. The ONLY way to know, is to create contacts with just email address and others with just phone numbers. an…

When I'm using it I have a drop down next to where I send the message that lets me select sms or hangouts that seems to work as expected. I can choose which number to send to or to send a hangout. Maybe it's been a while since you tried it? I vaguely remember having problems like that in the past.

I respect your opinion about separate apps for sms/messages, but I personally don't believe that was the right choice. I strongly prefer having one app to use over switching all the time.

Re: Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

#59

Post by NetOpWibby »

Animats wrote: post #50
dheera wrote: post #7

Ick. I wish we could kill SMS/Whatsapp/Wechat/LINE already and just do everything over e-mail or some other cross-platform, multi-login protocol. I hate being tied up to one device to message people. I change devices on the order of minutes, move over the course of a day between a few locations that all have devices I own, and don't regularly carry or look at my cell phone if I am already staring at something bigger…

"I wish we could kill SMS/Whatsapp/Wechat/LINE already and just do everything over e-mail or some other cross-platform, multi-login protocol." That's an workable idea. What's needed first is to improve the transmission speed of short emails. I was once considering writing a mail forwarder for servers that don't have mailboxes, one that would open an outbound SMTP connection to the destination host before closing the…

I love this idea, thanks for sharing.

Re: Google Jibe: Better carrier messaging for everyone

#60

Post by danyork »

eximius wrote: post #10

Anybody have a good source on what the heck RCS is? I've never heard of it until now. I will google also, but I bet someone knows of an introduction they'd recommend.

RCS is the legacy telcos ongoing attempt to try to somehow get into the messaging game that all of the Internet-based communications app are doing (WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Line, Kik, Skype, iMessage, etc.).

Basically, they'd like all their SMS revenue back!

Dean Bubley had a great analysis - "Google + GSMA announcement on RCS is no gamechanger" : http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/google-gsma...

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