7 ms·
Lack of MMS is a shortcoming that really affects only North America. MMS is not widely used elsewhere. Really, getting Whatsapp to work through an Android emula
by Mediterraneo10 6y ago
Lack of MMS is a shortcoming that really affects only North America. MMS is not widely used elsewhere. Really, getting Whatsapp to work through an Android emulation layer like Anbox is the higher priority for much of the world now.
- teekert 6y agoI believe there are Matrix/Element - WhatsApp bridges. They require some setup and its not for everyone but for me it would be an option.
- kop316 6y agohttps://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/ https://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/
- pmontra 6y agoI agree about Whatsapp but I'm really curious about the reason why MMS is a thing in North America. It's been basically dead in Europe even at the launch of 3G in 2003.
- twicetwice 6y agoMy understanding is that the US got free unlimited texting long before Europe did -- so Europeans were still paying by the text when WhatsApp/etc arrived and they jumped on that, but since they weren't/aren't paying per text Americans were/are much less motivated to switch, so social inertia keeps MMS alive. This could be totally wrong though, my evidence is just from talking to European friends.
- elboru 6y agoSounds reasonable, something similar happened in Hispanic America, SMS was really expensive, so as soon as WhatsApp showed up everyone jumped to it. Actually I’ll bet WhatsApp was the main motivation to get a smartphone during those years.
- JoshTriplett 6y ago> I'm really curious about the reason why MMS is a thing in North America Everyone on almost every phone has MMS, no matter what else they might have. It's the common language.
- norenh 6y agoWhat are you talking about? I live in Sweden and tons of people (including me) does not have whatsapp and uses MMS as a protocol that works with everyone. Most people here have one or two other means of messaging but it is not the same type so MMS is the safe fall-back when unsure or if it fails.
- muyuu 6y agothat honestly surprises me, it isn't the case in the UK or any of the EU countries I visit ; I haven't seen or used an MMS for maybe 20+ years it would be interesting to map MMS usage worldwide, maybe it's a more important feature than I thought EDIT: correction, I actually tried MMS once or twice with a phone circa 2007-2008, just checked (so not quite 20 years)
- nagisa 6y agoCan confirm, never seen MMS used for anything but my service provider sending me notifications about voicemail. Everything and everybody else uses SMS.
- pengaru 6y agoSMS and MMS are completely integrated here in the US, you have no visibility into wether it's an MMS or SMS you're sending/receiving - it's just "messages" in my experience. So if you take a smartphone photo, and send it to a phone number contact in a message, boom, you just sent an MMS. A majority of random american public wouldn't recognize the MMS acronym, despite likely using it regularly.
- muyuu 6y agosending "pics by SMS" is something people wouldn't even expect to work here in the UK in my experience (and it probably doesn't work for most of them, several networks/plans don't support them or bill them separately) visiting the US back in the day I realised just how different the "phone culture" was, for instance there was such a thing like being charged for receiving calls (in ~2008) and drastically different coverage maps, etc - I have no idea how things are now over there
- eikenberry 6y agoIt's the default messaging app on every phone everywhere so there's nothing to install or convert to (from MMS, which everyone is already using) and nothing to get everyone to agree on. It's kind of crap, but it works and is ubiquitous. I'm kind of surprised it isn't still a thing in Europe. Did cell phones just not take off until the mid 2000s when there were other options available.. so MMS didn't have the inertia it has in the US? It is pretty ingrained here, for example all take out services use MMS to give you order status and, AFAIK, they don't support other messaging systems.
- MartijnBraam 6y agoSMS does exist, it's just that mms that's weird for EU users. It used to be expensive and support was horrible. My current provider doesn't even support mms anymore.
- eikenberry 6y agoOk, that makes sense. MMS is more the default here and is used mostly instead, not exactly sure why. But SMS would work fine for most of the use cases.
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- pmontra 6y agoIt was the cost. It drove people away from SMS to IP protocol messaging systems which also had a better UX. SMS used to cost quite a lot.
- hombre_fatal 6y agoEarly adoption -> early cultural incumbency. e.g. Mexico had cellphone penetration so low until recently that it got to skip the SMS/MMS era entirely. You would have needed a certain critical cultural mass using MMS to still be using it in 2020.
- admax88q 6y agoI'd much rather the only open source phone in the world not focus on proprietary messaging protocol, especially one which is overly hostile to third party clients. I think Anbox is a mistake for the Librem. If you want android apps just run android. All this effort to have a totally independent OS, but really just run android apps on it.
- hackernewslol 6y agoAnbox is more meant as a "transition" than a end-goal, similarly to forwarding your email when you change addresses. It isn't meant as a permeate solution, more as a way for users to transition to FOSS tools without having to leave everything immediately. At the same time, we have had plenty of time to migrate so I see where you are coming from.
- BiteCode_dev 6y agoUntrue, here in France I regularly use MMS. There are 1000 different messaging apps, some are on whatsapp, some are on telegram, some are on "new thing". But MMS works with anybody with a phone, and you don't even need a good internet connection. For a quick picture, a contact card or a small voice message, it's great.
- eznzt 6y agoDoes everybody use MMS, or do you regularly use MMS? Because your complaint about messaging apps sounds like the usual Linux user stuff. Most people will just use whatever app is more common (which according to this is Messenger) https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7RQwoJ8z83Zi65NDMvmHKVU0WxBJIrh9szeW_v63iawFYoRE7Ay499ylT0cvNrQJXKaYMxiB2PyOZKnR82h0yxAghk5JFmQ0uefdqFruKB4BMoMKE-JdDvD5FYDX6Y73GSz40nCj https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7RQwoJ8z83Zi65NDMvmHKVU0Wx...
- BiteCode_dev 6y agoPeople don't use mms, they send stuff using their sms app, which decide to use an mms or not. In fact, long text messages are often turned into mms under the hood. People just don't know about it. As long as it works transparently, they don't have to.
- eznzt 6y agoDo people actually use SMS? Aren't they bloody expensive?
- pta2002 6y agoIt's free in a lot of places.
- BiteCode_dev 6y agoSms, mms, and phone calls are included in a lot of cheap unlimited contracts accross europe.
- 6y ago
- elric 6y agoDo you have any numbers to back up that bold claim? Smells like a sweeping generalization to me.