“It’s time for Apple to fix texting” • Hacker News Board

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#541

Post by stirlo » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:01 AM UTC

hot_gril wrote: post #379

pwpw wrote: post #234

This is such a weirdly US specific issue. It's hard to understand why people in this country refuse to adopt a data-based messaging service such as Signal or WhatsApp like the rest of the world has. Why are US citizens so set on having a terrible experience when messaging half of the population? How did other countries decide that using platform agnostic messaging services are better? I believe the UK has a similar s…

Cause it's not terrible. It still works ok the way it is, and people tend to use FB Messenger or something if they want a more complex group chat with Android users in it. Considering that they do this even if it's an all-Android chat, I don't think it's Apple's fault, as scummy as they act with SMS. Also, people don't care for metric cause it's not better. Basing your system around the physical properties of water d…

If you grow up with metric none of these assumptions apply. You learn that 0C is cold, 20C is nice and 40C is hot. At what F do you need to worry about snow? like 30ish? Metric this is 0C so there's usefulness both ways.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#542

Post by mattkrause » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:02 AM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #213

tantalor wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's a default.

Blue is the default, because iOS always tries iMessage first in preference to SMS.

There's a setting for that too.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#543

Post by thomasahle » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:03 AM UTC

Karupan wrote: post #518

thomasahle wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> regardless of what aesthetic and design choices somebody in Apple's UX team makes for their built-in messaging app It's not about aesthetic design, and it's not just about high schoolers. Lots of grown up Apple users don't like adding Android users to their group chats, because falling back to MMS degrades the messaging experience for everyone. Things like images sending in low enough resolution to be useless. As a…

> As a European moving to the US, I can attest how hard it is to get Apple users to switch their group chats to WhatsApp/Facebook/Signal I see this as more of a cultural problem. When I travel back to India, I don't complain that I can't use iMessage since iPhones are a rarity. Instead, I install whatever app I need to be involved in a group. And I weigh the cost against the value I get - if it's too much of a change…

> Instead, I install whatever app I need to be involved in a group.

While it wouldn't be their preference, I'm sure most Android users wouldn't mind installing iMessage to better talk with their iPhone friends.

That would require iMessage being an open standard, or Apple releasing a client for Android. Some commenters mention that the Digital Markets Act might force Apple to do this. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, and assuming they don't want to open iMessage, it would be nice of them to just support a better fallback option.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#544

Post by GekkePrutser » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:03 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #280

kelnos wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather live in a world with spam than a world where corporations get to decide what I run on my devices, and cripple a bunch of critical applications if I decide I want to, y'know, actually do whatever I want with the hardware I own. I'm not unsympathetic to Apple's difficulties and goals here (assuming this spam problem is actually the reason, though I'm skeptical that there aren't also self-serving reasons that…

> rather live in a world with spam than a world where corporations get to decide what I run on my devices So use Android! I have friends with Android. We use WhatsApp abroad and SMS at home. The messages are green and I can't tapback. That's it!

But group chats don't work over SMS. That's a big deal-breaker IMO.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#545

Post by dymk » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:03 AM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #162

dymk wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard this issue ever raised by anyone in real life. I've only seen it brought up in internet tiffs about how Apple is using green message bubbles to "shame" non-Apple users. Which is similarly straw-graspy.

Given how cruel and capricious children tend to be, it would not surprise me in the least that iPhone-using US teenagers ostracize peers with Android devices because of the green bubbles.

During my highschool years, kids were bullied both for having and for not having both iPhones and Android phones.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#546

Post by fastball » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:03 AM UTC

paulryanrogers wrote: post #516

rootusrootus wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds like other people in this thread already get a lot of iMessage spam Same folks who didn't realize that all messages show up in the same color, the blue bubbles only happen when you send . They're getting SMS spam. > I just don't want to be locked into a system where that's the only choice. Who's locked in? I can and have switched back and forth between iPhone and Android devices. My contacts are sync'd betwe…

> Who's locked in? I can and have switched back and forth between iPhone and Android devices. The cost to switch is not trivial for most of the world. And the cost of iPhones is high compared to the alternatives.

> The cost to switch is not trivial for most of the world.

Why not?

> And the cost of iPhones is high compared to the alternatives.

Given that the discussion is about switching from Apple being hard, this seems like the opposite of the point you're trying to make.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#547

Post by yieldcrv » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:04 AM UTC

RCS implementations are broken too, Google adding their own expanded or nonstandard implementation

But a step in the right direction

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#548

Post by smachiz » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:05 AM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #123

altairprime wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple could easily charge $1/mo or $10/year for iMessage on secured devices, with automatic refund and prorated cancellation if no secured device is signed in within a given billing period; and then discount $1/mo if one or more Apple devices are signed in and active during a given billing period. They'd make a billion dollars a month off of secured Android users, without exposing themselves to any new spam whatsoeve…

Hell, they could charge a token amount for un -secured devices, which I imagine could make things prohibitively expensive for spammers. I would (grudgingly, because the whole thing is just stupid) pay 3 bucks a month or so to be able to message iPhone users from Android without dealing with unreliable message delivery and ordering, and photos and videos pixelated to hell. I have a ton of barely-recognizable videos of…

Because the overlap between spammers and unscrupulous people with credit card numbers is 0?

They're just going to use prepaid cards they scammed from people to buy iMessage and absolutely spam the crap out of that.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#549

Post by nr2x » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:05 AM UTC

The unconventional hair color is why I know I can trust this dude in the video.

Re: “It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

#550

Post by 2muchcoffeeman » Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 1:06 AM UTC

efitz wrote: post #528

selectodude wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need an Apple ID to use iMessage. Just an Apple device.

Uh, don't you need an Apple ID to activate an iPhone?

Phone still works without an ID. No idea if this means that you can only send SMS messages though.