Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage
Samsung has joined Google’s campaign to force Apple to make iMessage RCS-compatible—but European regulators are more likely to get that job done.
Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage::Samsung has joined Google’s campaign to force Apple to make iMessage RCS-compatible—but European regulators are more likely to get that job done.
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Unless the EU makes them use RCS they never will. In the US iMessage is literally THE REASON people buy the iPhone. It's their main selling point. They don't care how much pressure you place on them, they aren't going to lose those sales willingly.
I have seen people literally say they like that iMessage is exclusive, and they like to keep Android users away/separate
It was reeking of classism in addition to being generally a terrible thing to read
I've heard of people not responding to the wrong colored bubbles or being judgemental, like my $1,200 phone is better than your $1,200 phone?
What an American problem. 😂
Bullet dodged. Thinking you're hot shit because you use the ultimate basic removed phone is just ridiculous.
I mean, guys have the same thing going on. Fickle knows no gender.
I think basic removed is not a gender specific phrase, I personally use the meme removed on myself even as a cis guy.
In so many ways.
That's just sad. Not even sports teams or musicians, but over a walled-gardened messaging app?
I knew a 29 y/o woman that switched to iPhone so that others with iPhones would see her text messages bubble as blue instead of green. Imagine blowing over a thousand dollars so that someone else sees blue rather than green in text messages. Meanwhile, I can make the bubble colors whatever color I want on my Android.
I honestly blame Apple for abusing the societal penchant for forming tribes around random things.
Top whack android phones aret really cheaper than iPhones these days so it's not classism as such. Yanks just seem to love to tribalise everything, see masks during Covid as another example. I think it's a result of having a two party political system.
I know it's not actually a thing, it was about how they were talking about it
💀
Nothing. Google Messages app has all the same features. The only problem is that Apple refuses to also support RCS (which Google messages uses) and so if an android user sends a message to an iPhone user, the iPhone user gets it as an SMS. If the Android user sends a picture, the iPhone user receives it as an MMS.
In the rest of the world this is not an issue because most people use WhatsApp or Signal or Viber or any other local messaging app. Also most android phones have the Messages app as default which means if you message another Android user they will get it over WiFi/data in the messages app.
But in the US for some reason the iPhone users consider getting an SMS as somehow bad and that the Android user is poor or inferior because they sent an SMS.
It's totally stupid and only a US issue, but it's so strong that teenagers will be bullied if they don't have an iPhone for iMessage. So they all get iPhones in order not to be bullied. And this way Apple makes mega sales.
This is the reason I got my first IPhone. This is also the same reason why I left IPhone.
I'm glad you left. Welcome to the good side 👍
The fact that other people they know also use it.
The app itself is pretty much the same as any other modern messaging app, but network effects are everything when it comes to messaging services.
This is why you see entire countries where everyone has WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger or Telegram, depending on what other people in the country are using.
Encryption, photos are higher quality through it (this is where "Android cameras are bad" came from,) typing indicators, sending messages over Wi-Fi, iMessage games, and message effects.
Some of that isn't i-message specific though, right? I have a Pixel and it has high quality pictures, typing indicators, reads receipts, sends over wifi... the other stuff I don't think Android has but that's a bit gimicky anyway. Not trying to be an android fan girl but I really don't understand what makes i-message better.
The problem is the walled garden, both ecosystems have those features but they don’t work together. If all your friends have iPhones, there’s a lot of pressure to also have an iPhone. And once you’re in, you’re not likely getting out unless all your social circle does at once. That kind of lock in is extremely valuable.
I have an android and use Textra as my messaging app. I can see iPhone reactions and also react to messages agnostic of the other phone's OS
It isn't better, but it's an extreme example of Americas corporate fanaticism, everywhere else people say "well if Apple and Google don't play nice together, we'll use a third party app and skip it all". In the US they say, "if you don't have an iPhone that makes you worse than me somehow so this allows me to lord it over you".
I agree that all the stuff iMessage has that RCS doesn't is gimmicky, I'm, an Android user myself...but if you have an Android and someone you want to text has an iPhone, you're both using SMS.
All of this is available on just about every messaging service, so the real answer is tribalism and lack of consumer education.
But still, if you have an Android and someone you want to text has an iPhone, you're using SMS, not RCS.
I do believe RCS-compatibility for iMessage would make take a chunk out of iPhone sales honestly.
I message people on iOS from my android all the time, we use WhatsApp and the problem is solved.
Um, no, most of us just use WhatsApp
But most iPhone sales are in a region where WhatsApp is irrelevant.
My understanding of "Android cameras bad" came from snapchat on Android literally taking shittier pictures and videos for some reason.
It took a screenshot of the viewfinder instead of an actual shot with shutter settings etc.
The EU has dragged Apple through the mud in order to make them change for the better, they will be able to do the same.
If what the first commenter said is true. They will just implement RCS or an alternative in the EU and make up some reason why they can't or won't for the US market.
I'll take it. Whatever makes them suffer at least a little bit. (Apple, that is.)
USB C was a hardware change. Economically it was not viable to run separate production lines of lightning/ USB-C phones.
RCS is a software issue. Supporting RCS in certain regions but not others (the US for example) is much simpler.
True. So true in fact that I'd be willing to bet that even if the EU made them implement RCS they still wouldn't do it in the US. USB-C only worked because it's a hardware change and maintaining separate lightning and USB-C models and accessory ecosystems doesn't make sense. RCS is a software change that costs them nothing to NOT use in the only market where it would hurt them.
Agreed
In most of Europe, nobody uses an apple phone, so the pressure to get them to use a different protocol is fairly low.
It is not literally the reason.
Yeah this thread is wild.. like no imessage isn't literally the reason people buy iPhones. And iMessage doesn't have "higher quality photos."
Everytime I discuss apple vs android with colleagues, it always boils down to "but come one, you can't take someone with green bubbles seriously". And we all work as developers for god's sake. iPhone users are more shallow than you think.
And yes iMessage has way higher image quality than sms, just like RCS has
And yes iMessage has way higher image quality than sms, just like RCS has
MMS resolution seems fine for me and on Android, if I try to send a photo via SMS, my phone will alert me and suggest that I send that particular text (with a photo attachment) via MMS.
Group chats in RCS weren’t even end-to-end encrypted on Android until August of this year. Green texts are a security risk.
Okay so now that it has encryption, what is the security risk?
If you're that concerned with security, shouldn't you be using Signal and try to convince others to do so? iMessage is E2E encrypted but Signal is platform-agnostic and has better security/privacy.
I don’t care but you have to convince Apple. People really pile on for the most trivial of comments.
I can't speak for the others, but I'm just curious as to why iMessage's quirks are heavily put up with. With the options of messaging apps nowadays, the "green bubble" stuff seems like an arbitrary problem.
Sure, it's stock software, but plenty are willing to switch off Edge/Safari for Chromium browsers. I understand that there's strong social pressure to conform to using the same messaging service. I think it's something that can be worked around with any proficiency with tech, along with a good argument to the social circle. I managed to get off Messenger this way and it worked great.
Personally I'd rather find the best message service than use what everyone else uses, but that's just me. It's not a big problem at the end of the day, really. People value different things with their tech, and that's fine.
Network effect. It’s easier to convince the one green text to switch than to convince everyone to switch to an alternative. Even in my one immediate family we only have one Android. As a result we have two group threads, one of which excludes that number so images and videos will go through at full quality. Message is the default so people use it. I’m aware that’s not the case in other countries.
😂, a security risk 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Are you Edward Snowden that you think it's such a massive risk?
You are delusional. I use text messages all the time and there is zero risk.
Is there zero risk or do you think there is zero risk? Text messages can absolutely be intercepted by your service provider
Don't you think you're a bit paranoid? Does the service provider care to know that you sent a message to your friend saying "great party last"? Or to your wife, "pick up bread and milk please"?
I'm quite sure they are not wasting their time doing that.
If what you need to say is so secret, you should not be using iMessage, SMS or WhatsApp but something stronger like Signal, Matrix etc
I don't think it's paranoid to not want any intermediary to know what you're talking about, even if all you're talking about is innocuous things like groceries.
Besides, they don't have to "waste time" on anything. They've got computers to collect it all.
Of course, like you said, Signal or Matrix are potential solutions for that, but you still need to get both sides to agree on using them. SMS have the advantage that everyone has a phone number and can thus use them. Upgrading to RCS will secure this insecure-yet-very-popular medium.
I understand that but as we know from Edward Snowden, the CIA literally have direct server access to all of Apple servers, Google servers, Amazon servers and Microsoft servers to name a few.
So they can just log in and view your iMessages at anytime. Or have the system collect them. This was part of the Patriot Act that requires the tech companies to make sure the government can view all of this at any time to identify terrorists.
That means the server definitely has the encryption key to your conversations. However you are protected from having a snooper snoop your line using snoop tools because the connection to the server is encrypted