4 ms·

I'm flabbergasted. This is going to royally mess up any android user trying to text an iphone user. Are they maybe trying to push apple to adopt RCS? I think we

I'm flabbergasted. This is going to royally mess up any android user trying to text an iphone user. Are they maybe trying to push apple to adopt RCS? I think we are still a good ways away from RCS working everywhere.

netsharc 5y ago
Most people in Europe use WhatsApp anyway...
- izacus 5y ago
  It really doesn't. (I also fail to understand how giving ownership to Facebook for all messaging is somehow an improvement in Europe.)
  - Maxburn 5y ago
    Maybe they took facebook money in order to drop support for MMS? Drive business to facebook. Profit!
    - netsharc 5y ago
      Hmm, I really don't think MMS is widely used in Switzerland. If Bob has an Android and wants to talk to Alice the iPhone user, Bob is not going to be SMS-ing/MMS-ing Alice, Bob will write Alice on WhatsApp (or Telegram, or Signal, the great WhatsApp-agree-to-our-new-EULA exodus also happened in Europe), which Alice will almost certainly have. Apple has no iMessage-moat in Europe. If you want to measure my certainty: I would bet 1000 Swiss Francs that if you went to the center of Zurich and asked 50 random people who have smartphones if they had one of WhatsApp/Signal/Telegram/Threema, they'd say yes.
      - Arainach 5y ago
        And yet if you asked if they had all of them, almost no one would say so. I have friends who have quit Facebook, I have friends fully dedicated to the Apple ecosystem, I have one or two privacy-focused ones who use Signal, and no protocol other than MMS that can talk to all of them.
        DocTomoe 5y ago
        Sure ... but it shapes with your circle of friends. Pick any two of the three, and you will reach virtually anyone. And pure luddites? Well, they don't have smartphones, usually.
        helmholtz 5y ago
        It doesn't matter if they don't have all of them. They make their choice. I have whatsapp, but have managed to convince a core group of friends to use Signal. We make do.
      - olyjohn 5y ago
        Nobody I know with an iPhone uses signal or WhatsApp. They just use iMessage. I'm constantly bugging my iPhone-owning family and friends to install Signal. Nobody cares. There's a reason the blue / green iMessage bubbles are such a hot topic among the youths these days. It's not because everybody uses 3rd party messengers.
        bonzini 5y ago
        In America or Europe?
  - pmontra 5y ago
    Ideally SMS first and then MMS would be free secure protocols with nice to use tools and no cost to use and everybody would use them. However they are not and most Europeans left SMS in the 2000s for instant messaging because of costs. Then we settled to either WhatsApp or Messenger or a combination of them according to the groups of people we meet with. Telegram is particularly good for large groups and is used especially by young or technical people. Any other IM is a rounding error. That FB owns both the major IMs is very unfortunate but people already voted with their apps.
- _trampeltier 5y ago
  A lot yes, but far from all.
ProAm 5y ago
Except that RCS is another DOA google product. Im not sure what they are thinking here. What if someone in Switzerland wants to contact someone in a different country that doesnt user Whatsapp or Telegram?
- nikau 5y ago
  > Except that RCS is another DOA google product. It's not a Google product. It's in use by 55 carriers globally.
  - Maxburn 5y ago
    Exactly, it's all over now.
lxgr 5y ago
Almost nobody in Europe uses SMS anymore (for person-to-person messaging, at least; it's still quite common for B2C, especially for two factor authentication). MMS was never popular in the first place.
- toxik 5y ago
  Stop presenting your N=1 data as truth. I text a half dozen people over SMS with regularity.
  - lxgr 5y ago
    So, N=7? I can't find a source now, but I remember seeing statistics that support my claims (i.e. a sharp drop in P2P messaging, partially offset by B2C volume for 2FA etc).

netsharc 5y ago

Most people in Europe use WhatsApp anyway...

izacus 5y ago
It really doesn't. (I also fail to understand how giving ownership to Facebook for all messaging is somehow an improvement in Europe.)
- Maxburn 5y ago
  Maybe they took facebook money in order to drop support for MMS? Drive business to facebook. Profit!
  - netsharc 5y ago
    Hmm, I really don't think MMS is widely used in Switzerland. If Bob has an Android and wants to talk to Alice the iPhone user, Bob is not going to be SMS-ing/MMS-ing Alice, Bob will write Alice on WhatsApp (or Telegram, or Signal, the great WhatsApp-agree-to-our-new-EULA exodus also happened in Europe), which Alice will almost certainly have. Apple has no iMessage-moat in Europe. If you want to measure my certainty: I would bet 1000 Swiss Francs that if you went to the center of Zurich and asked 50 random people who have smartphones if they had one of WhatsApp/Signal/Telegram/Threema, they'd say yes.
    - Arainach 5y ago
      And yet if you asked if they had all of them, almost no one would say so. I have friends who have quit Facebook, I have friends fully dedicated to the Apple ecosystem, I have one or two privacy-focused ones who use Signal, and no protocol other than MMS that can talk to all of them.
      - DocTomoe 5y ago
        Sure ... but it shapes with your circle of friends. Pick any two of the three, and you will reach virtually anyone. And pure luddites? Well, they don't have smartphones, usually.
      - helmholtz 5y ago
        It doesn't matter if they don't have all of them. They make their choice. I have whatsapp, but have managed to convince a core group of friends to use Signal. We make do.
    - olyjohn 5y ago
      Nobody I know with an iPhone uses signal or WhatsApp. They just use iMessage. I'm constantly bugging my iPhone-owning family and friends to install Signal. Nobody cares. There's a reason the blue / green iMessage bubbles are such a hot topic among the youths these days. It's not because everybody uses 3rd party messengers.
      - bonzini 5y ago
        In America or Europe?
- pmontra 5y ago
  Ideally SMS first and then MMS would be free secure protocols with nice to use tools and no cost to use and everybody would use them. However they are not and most Europeans left SMS in the 2000s for instant messaging because of costs. Then we settled to either WhatsApp or Messenger or a combination of them according to the groups of people we meet with. Telegram is particularly good for large groups and is used especially by young or technical people. Any other IM is a rounding error. That FB owns both the major IMs is very unfortunate but people already voted with their apps.
_trampeltier 5y ago
A lot yes, but far from all.

ProAm 5y ago

Except that RCS is another DOA google product. Im not sure what they are thinking here. What if someone in Switzerland wants to contact someone in a different country that doesnt user Whatsapp or Telegram?

nikau 5y ago
> Except that RCS is another DOA google product. It's not a Google product. It's in use by 55 carriers globally.
- Maxburn 5y ago
  Exactly, it's all over now.

lxgr 5y ago

Almost nobody in Europe uses SMS anymore (for person-to-person messaging, at least; it's still quite common for B2C, especially for two factor authentication). MMS was never popular in the first place.

toxik 5y ago
Stop presenting your N=1 data as truth. I text a half dozen people over SMS with regularity.
- lxgr 5y ago
  So, N=7? I can't find a source now, but I remember seeing statistics that support my claims (i.e. a sharp drop in P2P messaging, partially offset by B2C volume for 2FA etc).