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“It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

android.com

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

#781

Post by dzikimarian »

rodgerd wrote: post #377
ivoras wrote: post #205

This is a US thing, right? Haven't received an SMS from a real person (in other words, all SMSes I get are 2FA etc) for, at least 5 years, maybe 10. Even people who use iPhones don't send SMSes, MMSes or anything as obsolete (including RCS). Everyone just seems to use WhatsApp and Telegram (or if they don't know any better, Viber). Locale: Central Europe. So, why would anyone stick to the obsolete stuff? Are there re…

> This is a US thing, right? This is the leading surveillance capitalism company trying to lay the groundwork to break the privacy of Apple's messaging system, demanding that Apple give up the privacy that it provides its paying customers, because it is intolerable to Google that there exists data that it doesn't have access to. The rest is noise from morons who think that you don't deserve privacy unless you sysadmi…

Supporting RCS doesn't give Google access to iMessage data. Currently SMS is also not encrypted.

Also number of times per week there are posts complaining about current state of capitalism in US, but then if walls of garden built by company with one of the highest valuations in history are endangered, hundreds of cultists will defend them with fire in their eyes and little merit in their words (see recent threads about EU legislation).

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

#782

Post by x0x0 »

kazinator wrote: post #466
shireboy wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gist of the article has been a soapbox of mine for years. We wouldn't stand for "you can only send Gmail email to other Gmail users" (Fidonet people know), and shouldn't settle for similar with messaging. That said, this spam angle is an aspect I hadn't fully considered.

How easily can you mail a Google calendar item to Google user, using non-Google software?

Calendar sorta works -- the meetings yes, but things like suggesting a new time or co-viewing calendars to find a time don't.

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

#783

Post by williamscales »

altairprime wrote: post #59

Most businesses, consumers, and developers universally continue to ignore the primary reason that iMessage is a closed platform, rather than an app on every platform as iTunes is: Apple is using device serial numbers for anti-spam, supported by a fully-authenticated hardware and software stack that does not allow user modification. This permits Apple to simply “console ban” any Apple device that spams on iMessage. Th…

No post body was provided.

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

#784

Post by pmontra »

kelnos wrote: post #185
gumby wrote: post #161

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. It’s really oppressive that Apple doesn’t let you install WhatsApp, Secret, Telegram, FB Messenger or any other communications app beyond their own. While it’s all sweetness and li…

Defaults matter. I too have WhatsApp, Signal, Google Chat and a few others on my phone, but the fragmentation is annoying to deal with, and getting social groups (or even individuals) to move to a single consolidating messaging platform turns out to be much more difficult than I expected. If the default chat app is featureful and universally supported, people tend not to stray toward non-default alternatives unless t…

The default chat app and the technical merit dosn't matter. What matters is what people we want to chat with. Most of my friends and groups are on WhatsApp. Some prefer to use Telegram, me too. A very few living outside the country use FB Messenger. Nobody use SMS unless for emergencies, if they think the recipient has no data connection. RCS is totally unknown. If I say RCS somebody will ask me "the newspaper company?"

Making people switch is possible (use Telegram to chat with me), making a group switch is impossible as there is always at least one person that doesn't want to install a new app or can't (phones with tiny storage.) Anything else is irrilevant in my country. There are probably some friends of mine using iMessage when chatting with somebody they know to have an iPhone. They still to have to use WhatsApp to chat with everybody else.

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

#785

Post by jonathankoren »

bagacrap wrote: post #95
firloop wrote: post #89

Feels like sort of a non issue, even the bottom of the page pushes people to apps like Whatsapp/Signal. If Google wants better iPhone messaging - can’t it just ship its solution in the App Store? Not really sure why Apple must update iMessage for Google to get what it wants. I personally love iMessage and use it and Signal primarily - I don’t like the idea of Google dictating its feature set, especially considering i…

No, Google isn't trying to ship another messaging app. It's trying to improve the interoperability of Android and iPhone when using phone number texting. Your experience in iMessage when texting with an Android user would be improved.

It's about the color of the messages.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-...

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

#786

Post by aembleton »

DennisAleynikov wrote: post #739
navanchauhan wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to setup on a dedicated Mac server. You could also use a jailbroken iPhone / iPod touch

At that point just make a hackintosh VM and run it from there. Why even buy apples stuff if you're not gonna use it.

It'd probably consume less power, and as you'd have to leave this on 24/7, that is worth considering.

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

#787

Post by aembleton »

macintux wrote: post #292
radiojasper wrote: post #122

I still don't get why people use SMS/MMS anyway? I've been using WhatsApp for ages now and so does everybody else in my country - and every country I've been in, apart from China and Japan. My friend who's from the US once said "I've paid for those text messages, so I'm going to use them!" But if I send him a text from Europe to the US, I pay 1 damn euro per delivered text. WhatsApp is free! Is there any viable reaso…

WhatsApp was appealing before it got sucked into the FB vortex. Thanks, but no thanks. If there were a single 3rd-party messaging platform that I trusted, and my friends started using it, sure. But since 75% use iPhones/iMessage, and the rest SMS, why in the world would I use WhatsApp?

To exchange photos and video with those on Android.

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

#788

Post by thomasahle »

aquanext wrote: post #50

I use an iPhone and have never experienced any of these issues with blurriness. Do they have specific examples? As others have said, I think I'm good with the way things are right now.

Ask a friend with an Android to text you a video, and see if it looks sharp or blurry. Using RCS as fall back would literally change nothing for you, except better quality conversations with Android users.

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

#789

Post by aembleton »

kelnos wrote: post #310
cgrealy wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Group messages to anyone regardless of platform. SMS is crap for group chats, and imessage doesn't work if someone in the group isn't using ios. Now, you absolutely might not care about those things, but millions of people definitely do.

> SMS is crap for group chats SMS doesn't do group chats; I think you're thinking of MMS. I agree that it's not a great experience, though. > Group messages to anyone regardless of platform. That's the thing though; that's not true. WhatsApp might be available on both Android and iOS, but it only works if the person you want to talk to has it installed and has set up an account. That requires coordination. If I meet…

I think this is region specific. In the UK and a lot of western Europe, you'd probably assume that the other person does have Whatsapp installed and just try messaging on that. If that didn't work, then you might try Messenger or SMS.

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

#790

Post by thomasahle »

thiht wrote: post #75
Veuxdo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per the article, they do affect iPhone users.

It doesn’t. Messages fallback to SMS when I talk to my parents or friends who don’t have an iPhone and… it works. I can send text, photos, etc. and it works. Some accusations are ridiculous, like how white on green is somehow illegible compared to white on blue? Come on.

> I can send text, photos, etc. and it works.

Only if "low quality blurry images and video" is your definition of "it works". Or maybe you've just never checked what the image actually looks like on the receiving phone.

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