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“It’s time for Apple to fix texting”

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

#831
post #809

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem here is […] I categorically refuse to accept that sort of thing. It is a perceived problem specifically for you (and, based on the arguments presented so far, it appears to solely based on the personal dislike rather than on objective grounds). If you refuse to accept it, that is solely your personal choice, and I, for one, have no objections to you being able to exercise freedoms to make your own choic…

I think the thing you're missing is that the spam countermeasure we're talking about relies on the sender's phone being locked down, not the recipient's. If spammers can get around this by just using non-locked-down phones, the whole thing is pointless. It only works if you require everyone's phone to be locked down.

That is why I mentioned the universal/global, non-trackable digital identity as a solution and a posion pill for the locked down device. Such a digital identity has to be decentralised, resistant to ID theft attacks and a wide range of other attack vectors and, most importantly, be independent of hardware vendors so they could never wield influence over their users.

If an identity can be verified via a presented assumed persona (supplied as a proxy for the identity in question) as a third party identity verification service call, locking down a device becomes redundant (although the hardware vendor will likely continue to do so for other reasons). It does not seem likely that the identity management is going to be solved any time soon though.

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

#832
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…

France here. I use SMS every single day, moreso than any specific given messaging app. I also routinely use Whatsapp with North Africans and Live Messenger with old FB contacts.

These things are highly localized.

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

#833
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…

(From the US)

I have never even considered downloading an app to text people… because I just text them. I’ve never understood or needed something different. I’m only now piecing together that this is an American thing though.

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

#834

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…

[deleted]

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

#836
Apple would rather Android users feel isolated and thus pressured into adoption of a superior product than enhance iMessage to be RCS compatible. In Europe, people rarely use iMessage for group chats at all, WhatsApp / Telegram / Threema / Signal are defacto group chat apps for this very reason. People know iMessage is not multi-device friendly and no benefit to using it. I imagine this problem is nowhere near their list of actual problems worth looking at.

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

#837
post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t know what these words mean sure

I know what the words mean, but I don't know what the ends are doing. Facebook practically controls either end, unless users are reverse-engineering. I also don't know what the middle is doing. Client still trusts the server to give the correct identity aka pubkey for the other clients. Server could give its own and mitm, like a corrupt root CA for TLS. Yes this requires more deliberate action on FB's part, so it's a…

No the middle is not trusted, that’s the whole point of end to end encryption. Users can check security keys. Also yes some people are reverse engineering clients. If you’re claiming that the whatsapp clients are backdoored and faking the end to end encryption claim that would be a pretty big news

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

#838
post #386

I always thought iMessage was the dumbest thing. I’m abroad, I try to iMessage someone because I know it’s going to be free: oops, it downgrade to text and I end up paying. Or I’m on a bad wifi connection: oops, I will not use your signal and just block. In any case everybody I know uses whatsapp so I don’t think it’s a huge deal. Texts are for spams or restaurant waiting lists.

Then disable ‘send as SMS if iMessage fails'. There’s a toggle for it.

I just use whatsapp instead

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

#839
post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I'm a proponent of keeping SMS around, but then what's the incentive to move to RCS? The actual "open" parts of RCS don't seem any better.

Apart from better media, typing indicators, etc., RCS allows richer metadata (like content types) and various side channels (AFAIK) that allow extensions like E2E to be added. SMS is just 160 characters. I believe Google will share their E2E spec with others. They published an overview a while ago [1], but presumably they'd offer more to someone wanting to actually implement it. 1: https://www.gstatic.com/messages/pa…

Better media is a valid point, but I feel like mentioning typing indicators right after totally takes away from it. It felt so out of place in the article as well. Sorry, but who gives a fuck? All you need to do is wait a couple more seconds and you will know whether the recipient got your message, because in 99/100 cases, guess what follows the typing indicator? A message. I honestly do not get the benefit. If anything, it stresses me out.

Sorry to pick and choose from your comment. Like I said, the other points are definitely valid. It's just this feature I don't understand bringing up.

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

#840

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. Egads, no. The abuse heaped on me by Apple pales in comparison to the spam phone calls and emails I get. If I start getting spam via iMessage, I'll be an extremely unhappy camper.…

Apparently PRISM has not been a wake up call. What do people need ? Apple coming and killing their cat ?

Even knowingly using child labor wasn't enough [0] - or people just don' know about it, so spread the word please. This is how Apple actually care about children unlike what their PR says [1].

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25607386

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28309202

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