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The main benefit of iMessage over all the other messaging platforms is there's a lot less spam. I hope this decision doesn't threaten that.
by asimpletune 4y ago
The main benefit of iMessage over all the other messaging platforms is there's a lot less spam. I hope this decision doesn't threaten that.
- ChuckNorris89 4y agoAnecdotally I never received any spam on the other proprietary messaging platforms, except SMS.
- Jochim 4y agoTo add my own: I've received one, maybe two spam SMS messages in my entire life, none at all in the last few years. I have received one or two spam messages in WhatsApp.
- m_eiman 4y agoFacebook Messenger is pretty spammy for me, as is Twitter DMs.
- ChuckNorris89 4y agoOk but I was talking about dedicated messenger apps, not the messaging feature of what are basically social media apps. Those are all full of spam if you've got enough contacts and liked enough things.
- foepys 4y agoIs that a problem worldwide or more localized to the US? I am using Signal, Threema, and WhatsApp and never received spam on any messanger, only occasionally via SMS.
- nordsieck 4y agoI receive more spam than legitimate messages on WhatsApp. But I also don't use it a whole lot. I suspect that, a bit like email addresses, being very selective about who you give your "address" to is the most important bit. Sadly, phone numbers, unlike email addresses, are such a small address space that it's possible to just message all of them.
- AlchemistCamp 4y agoI live 10,000km away from the US and can confirm that I get more spam on androids than when using iMessage. It wasn’t the main reason I switched back to iOS with my newest phone but it was a reason.
- pier25 4y agoI've been using Android for years and I rarely receive any spam via SMS or Whatsapp. Maybe once or twice a year.
- sofixa 4y agoMaybe it depends on the Android vendor, but my OnePlus' "Messages" (the SMS app) automatically blocks a lot of spam messages automatically and it's quite good at it. On the contrary I have friends with iPhones who get spam/phishing messages.
- SllX 4y agoVia SMS like everyone else with a mobile phone here, and especially around election dates. Apple’s done a few things recently to mitigate this and last election I reported a lot of phone numbers for spam to my carrier using a mechanism Apple built-in; so we’ll see if it starts to make a difference within a couple of years time.
- barkerja 4y agoMultiple times a week I receive WhatsApp spam. Generally it's trying to add me to a crypto group or someone trying to phish information. The only other service/medium where I get comparable (really any) spam is SMS/email. I've never, and I mean never, have received a spam message over iMessage.
- ThatPlayer 4y agoThe actual Digital Markets Act text does say the end user should have the choice to enable/disable the interoperability. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32022R1925#007.007 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A...
- dkonofalski 4y agoAnd they do. There's a toggle in iMessage for whether or not to fall back to SMS.
- justapassenger 4y agoIs that a personal anecdote or is there data to back this up? My anecdote is that iMessage is only place where I get spam almost daily. All other messengers - once per month, at most.
- asimpletune 4y agoNo I don't have data to back it up. I say this because I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the reason why apple/google cooperation broke down was because apple insisted on banning spammers and google didn't want to. I have no idea where I saw that other than it was mentioned in a HN comment somewhere. I remember that it made sense and seemed plausible to me at the time because I've also actually never received a spam iMessage in my whole life. It never even occurred to me in that moment this was the case until I read that comment and was like, "O yeah, right, I've actually never gotten spam on iMessage come to think of it." I just assumed that to spend spam via iMessage required apple hardware or that for one reason or another it just wasn't very viable. On the other hand, I have gotten a lot of sms spam in the past, and I continue to get spam on WhatsApp. As a side note, my sms spam has decreased dramatically after I ported my mobile number to google voice vs. when my carrier was T-Mobile. It's anecdotal but still telling.
- rootusrootus 4y agoThere are people in this discussion posting opposite experiences from you, so it's probably all anecdata either way. But I think it's a convincing argument that SMS is significantly more vulnerable to spam because the price of entry is negligible and it lacks the traceability that comes with a requirement to have an Apple ID to use iMessage. I hope you're reporting the spam you get to Apple, because the fastest way to stop it is to have the offending account terminated.