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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”

#841
post #268
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…

does WhatsApp still require you to hand over all your contacts to them when you sign up? None of my contacts gave consent for me to share their private information.

No, you don't have to give them your contacts, but doing so makes it easier to contact people

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

#842

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…

There are literally multiple internal Apple emails released through court testimony where Apple executives clearly explain how important iMessage is to lock-in to iPhone and how if parents can just buy an Android and install an iMessage app it would mean disaster.

In none of these emails is spam or privacy or security even mentioned.

The primary reason Apple is doing it for platform lock-in, plain and simple. They literally said so themselves internally. Any other explanation is fanboyism.

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

#843

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…

Apple users don't use SMS—they use iMessage. It's seamless and automatic. All your contacts are automatically there as long as you have a phone number or email address which is an AppleID. It's so seamless most people don't even realize they are using it.

There you go talking about the US again and assuming it represents the whole world. You Americans are so bad for that.

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

#844

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…

From the tech emails it seems they're more concerned about lockin than security.

https://twitter.com/techemails/status/1463558823109660677?la...

>short version - don't make mail, calendar, iMessage work on Android and it's impossible to switch

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

#845
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…

I finally got my elderly relatives on Whatsapp about 3 years ago.

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

#846
post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SMS is bigger than even iMessage, so if you can spam everyone with iMessage and more by using SMS, why would anyone bother with iMessage?

Bigger doesn't necessarily mean more profitable. IMessage is full of profitable phone owners

That receive messages over SMS in the same app...

What's the advantage of iMessage spam? Group chat spam? Higher quality video spam? Is that worth all the effort to do your spamming only on Apple devices?

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

#847

Earlier quoted context omitted.

woosh - read the comment again, it clearly implied the US has a prominent idea of whitelisting "compatible" handsets (ie; those bought from the network because unlocked is a hilariously quaint idea) whereas in Europe, unlocked handsets are generally the default, since people don't like it and regulations prevent it for the most part anyway, in those cases it's just incompatible/old/awful implementations, rather than…

You really gotta dial down the smugness. It made your comment difficult to actually understand and so annoying that I didn't want to finish reading it. Take whoosh back to reddit, please.

Case in point, not smugness, repeatedly having to explain the obvious to an audience that is not reddit and should know better

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

#848

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…

But... this is ridiculous on its face. SMS and iMessage both live in the Messages app. The only thing you achieve by locking down iMessage is that spam messages appear as green bubbles in Messages instead of as blue bubbles in Messages. It does literally nothing to prevent spam.

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

#849

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should Apple (or anyone) be on the hook for implementing proprietary extensions? Once you peel back the marketing schtick this is just demanding that Google be able to determine which proprietary services are included on an Apple product. That's ridiculous on its face. If the issue is interoperability with Android users, fine. Google had successful messaging apps on iOS (I used a few) and they destroyed them thro…

At the end of the day, what we need is interop, so Apple should be forced to either open the protocol, or adopt something that is already open. But either option is strictly better than the existing mess.

>or adopt something that is already open

Like SMS?

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

#850
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…

Want to reply on:

> Everyone just seems to use WhatsApp and Telegram (or if they don't know any better, Viber).

To remark that Telegram by default is not E2E encrypted, you need to explicitly start a "secret chat". And group chats are not encrypted as well. And when you start a secret chat it uses Telegrams "probably maybe secure, but possibly not because it's a non-standard in house built" encryption scheme with weird choices.

I absolutely love Telegram, but I will also definitely not use it for anything more confidential than mindless chatter and cat pictures".

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