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Maybe I'm just using the wrong app, but as far as I know texting on Android is garbage. Plus having to get phone numbers is annoying when we're already connecte

by ajkjk 10y ago

Maybe I'm just using the wrong app, but as far as I know texting on Android is garbage. Plus having to get phone numbers is annoying when we're already connected on FB. And phone numbers are randomly loseable when getting new phones, and I can't access my texts from my computer, and I lose texts if I get a new phone, and attaching media barely works, and messages get broken apart at a character limit, etc etc. I'd rather use Messenger any day. Of course I don't like that it's controlled by FB, because I hate FB, but I'm probably going to keep using it until it's replaced by another free social media platform that 'everyone' is on by default.

dajohnson89 10y ago
I use hangouts (project fi) for texts. It's great! But yeah, the default messenger app for Android isn't good IMO.
- ajkjk 10y ago
  Hm. I really dislike Google's ecosystem, so I don't think I'm interested in switching to it. And my initial experiences with hangouts were super negative. I'm using an app (messenger?) that just puts a slightly better UI on Android texting, but it's still pretty bad. I should look into using Telegram, though. By far the biggest gripe with texting is that it's not persistent across devices. That's a core requirement that seems like it should have been solved a decade ago.
  - haldean 10y ago
    Realistically, how would Google sync texts between devices without sending your texts to Google? And once you're doing that, why not use Hangouts, which does, in fact, do pretty good cross-device sync? I ask as a fellow Google-avoider; I think your competing requirements are asking for an impossible thing.
    - ajkjk 10y ago
      Oh, that's just the big problem with Android texting. I'm avoiding Google for other reasons.
    - lotu 10y ago
      Apple's iMessage does this, each device has a public/private key that is shared. When you send a message it is encrypted with all of the recipient's devices public private keys. If the device is not on at the time Apple holds on to the encrypted message but cannot read it because the private key is stored on the device. The only downside to this is that you cannot sync old messages to a new device.

by ajkjk 10y ago

dajohnson89 10y ago

I use hangouts (project fi) for texts. It's great! But yeah, the default messenger app for Android isn't good IMO.

ajkjk 10y ago
Hm. I really dislike Google's ecosystem, so I don't think I'm interested in switching to it. And my initial experiences with hangouts were super negative. I'm using an app (messenger?) that just puts a slightly better UI on Android texting, but it's still pretty bad. I should look into using Telegram, though. By far the biggest gripe with texting is that it's not persistent across devices. That's a core requirement that seems like it should have been solved a decade ago.
- haldean 10y ago
  Realistically, how would Google sync texts between devices without sending your texts to Google? And once you're doing that, why not use Hangouts, which does, in fact, do pretty good cross-device sync? I ask as a fellow Google-avoider; I think your competing requirements are asking for an impossible thing.
  - ajkjk 10y ago
    Oh, that's just the big problem with Android texting. I'm avoiding Google for other reasons.
  - lotu 10y ago
    Apple's iMessage does this, each device has a public/private key that is shared. When you send a message it is encrypted with all of the recipient's devices public private keys. If the device is not on at the time Apple holds on to the encrypted message but cannot read it because the private key is stored on the device. The only downside to this is that you cannot sync old messages to a new device.