Totally tangental but now that iPhone users are using RCS the chances of successfully sending them a message feels like its dropped by half to me-- that is about half the time my messages aren't getting through, to multiple individuals.
Beeper Mini is back
941–950 of 1001 posts
Re: Beeper Mini is back
#942Earlier quoted context omitted.
From everything I've read on the matter, I believe that the UX nightmare when you include a non-apple user is an intentional design choice, rather than an engineering problem that hasn't been solved. They want the experience to suffer when somebody outside of the ecosystem is involved so as to create social pressure for the outsider to change. The ironic part of all of this is that while the EU may be forcing Apple i…
WhatsApp is that middle ground in some parts of the world. Upon moving to Europe we discovered that WhatsApp is the preferred way to connect with friends, employees, social groups and schools. It was actually the driving factor in me conceding and setting up a FB account.
Why would you need an FB account?
Re: Beeper Mini is back
#943Earlier quoted context omitted.
From everything I've read on the matter, I believe that the UX nightmare when you include a non-apple user is an intentional design choice, rather than an engineering problem that hasn't been solved. They want the experience to suffer when somebody outside of the ecosystem is involved so as to create social pressure for the outsider to change. The ironic part of all of this is that while the EU may be forcing Apple i…
WhatsApp is that middle ground in some parts of the world. Upon moving to Europe we discovered that WhatsApp is the preferred way to connect with friends, employees, social groups and schools. It was actually the driving factor in me conceding and setting up a FB account.
I don't think you need a FB account to have a Whatsapp account unless you imply they are the same (which I don't think).
IIRC I have not ever linked the two nor should FB have...
Re: Beeper Mini is back
#944> We’ve made Beeper free to use. > Our Play Store ranking dropped precipitously on Friday. Really have to wonder what their play here is. What did they think would happen? Isn't it always going to be a cat and mouse game with Apple? Who would want to use a messaging service that works some days but not others, much less pay for it?
The comment from the author's original post is quite the non-answer.
"Side note: many people always ask ‘what do you think Apple is going to do about this?’ To be honest, I am shocked that everyone is so shocked by the sheer existence of a 3rd party iMessage client. The internet has always had 3rd party clients! It’s almost like people have forgotten that iChat (the app that iMessage grew out of) was itself a multi-protocol chat app! It supported AIM, Jabber and Google talk. Here’s a blast from the past: https://i.imgur.com/k6rmOgq.png."
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38531759
What did they think was going to happen? Who knows? But I guess they thought it was no big deal.
Re: Beeper Mini is back
#945Totally tangental but now that iPhone users are using RCS the chances of successfully sending them a message feels like its dropped by half to me-- that is about half the time my messages aren't getting through, to multiple individuals.
iPhone is not using RCS yet. It has only been announced, to be launched some time in 2024. See eg https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2023/11/17/appl...
Re: Beeper Mini is back
#946Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do financial institutions where you live use to communicate TOTP codes? Here in the states, it's almost entirely TOTP codes over SMS (via a shortcode).
Usually their app, sometimes SMS. SMS is outdated in a similar way that email is, it's something you use to receive notifications and messages from companies etc, it's not how you talk to your friends.
Thank you email is still somehow decentralized. I’m really frightened that sooner or later, one of the GAFAM tries to replace it with its own « open » solution.
Re: Beeper Mini is back
#947Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US, sure. Very few of the people in Earth live there.
Quite a few people commenting here live there. You also seem to be forgetting the most-populous country in the world – no WhatsApp there either. Between China and the US, that's already 20% of the global population unlikely to be using WhatsApp for most of their messaging.
Most populous is India now - lots of WhatsApp.
Re: Beeper Mini is back
#948> Messages will be sent and received via your email address rather than phone number. [...] Even worse, when iPhone customers added an Android phone number to an existing iMessage secure encrypted group chat, the Messages app would by default switch the entire group chat to using unencrypted, unsecure SMS. These two Messages features combine to create a terrible UX. When someone starts a group chat in Messages and in…
Whenever Apple tries to add significant new functionality to an already existing app, they screw it up. The combination of SMS/MMS and iMessage never made sense. Neither did the combination of purchased music and Apple Music. Or the traditional phone call with FaceTime.
Re: Beeper Mini is back
#949Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, android is far cheaper. Mostly they are using androids for socioeconomic reasons. I cited my sources. You claiming it’s bizarre is itself bizarre. Seems that you can’t handle the truth.
Come on there has been a free iPhone model offer from one carrier or another most of the time since iPhones came out.
:| I am not trying to get involved in the “iMessage makes incels” debate, but you’re wrong. Those iPhones aren’t free. You have to sign up for a multi-year contract to get the “free” iPhone and the base monthly price is increased by (iPhoneValue/LengthOfContractInMonths). It’s a loan.
A Moto G 2023 is $100, unlocked. With a competitively-priced prepaid MVNO, it’s $10 a month to maintain the line if using data becomes unaffordable for that month.
I’d love to know where I can get a free iPhone and get the same economics as described above. All I see is iPhones for $x00 with a $60/month/line minimum. Even on MVNOs.
Re: Beeper Mini is back
#950Why are people obsessed with “breaking into” Apple’s walled garden? There are already secure cross platform messaging services like Signal or WhatsApp that has feature parity with iMessage. This is a solved problem that doesn’t need another solution.
Because its the Hacker ethos. People need to be able to modify any software to suit their requirements and not have to blindly follow the prescription of a company whose interests may not align with yours.