7 ms·

The biggest challenge for android IMO is Apple's Messages. It's clearly a degraded experience having an android user in the GC that some people will create a se

The biggest challenge for android IMO is Apple's Messages. It's clearly a degraded experience having an android user in the GC that some people will create a second GC without the android user in it.

dorfwald 3y ago
Do people in the US really use Apple Messages? I've never encountered it here in Europe. It's basically all just WhatsApp or - if you're in more "tech-y" circles - Telegram or Signal.
- jamil7 3y ago
  Even as an iOS user/developer it’s hard for me to imagine people choosing to use messages over one of the alternatives, I don’t get this about the US. Is it really a status thing?
- kwanbix 3y ago
  Same, I don't get why would people use Apple Messages that is only for android over Whatsapp. What is the advantage of APple Messages?
- throw2awaymay 3y ago
  [dead]
- 121789 3y ago
  Yes. It’s the default messaging app for iOS, which is very popular in the US. It has strong network effects now. No one I know in the US uses WA unless they are immigrants. Everyone else is iMessage, snap, or SMS for android
- Jtsummers 3y ago
  SMS/MMS is still (sadly) quite common in the US and on iPhones that means using the built-in Messages app. So if you want a non-SMS/MMS that's also widely used in the US you get it "for free" by using iMessages from the same application if you're an iPhone user. And this chat also works with your non-iPhone contacts because it switches to SMS/MMS for them. For whatever reason WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and others never won out on Android in the US so the Android users didn't bring along their iPhone using network to those clients either (in bulk). Google of course has lost out because of their own foolishness: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-of-instability-the-history-of-google-messaging-apps/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-...
michaelmrose 3y ago
Other than the deliberately lower contrast text what is different? I've never had an Apple phone myself.
- supertrope 3y ago
  If all members of a group chat use iMessage the experience is relatively smooth and modern. When at least one member is not using iMessage the entire group chat falls back to MMS. Photos and videos sent over MMS are heavily re-compressed. There's no encryption or read receipts. iMessage only features like stickers don't work. There's still various MMS interoperability glitches like out of order delivery, emoji turning into :1234:, and failed delivery. When the smartphone era began cellular carriers required customers to buy both data and SMS/MMS components of their service plan. iMessage let iPhone customers save on the SMS/MMS tariff portion of their cellphone plan. [1] Eventually carriers reacted to protect their revenue by simply bundling unlimited SMS/MMS and calling into a new higher base plan price. That killed motivation for Americans to adopt a free alternative like Whatsapp unlike the rest of the world. The messages app on iOS mostly abstracts away whether a message is delivered over the Internet or legacy MMS, except for this blue/green color. Apple considers iMessage popularity an important vendor lock in moat. Carriers don't have any motivation to deploy RCS as it won't yield any more revenue, and especially since Apple won't. Customers strongly refer free messaging over paid and take the path of least resistance. People generally just pick the lowest common denominator communication channel instead of burning time and social capital getting their friends and acquaintances to install Signal, Whatsapp, etc. Message fragmentation is also not helped by Google's constant re-branding and product cancellations. In markets where non-smartphone owners cannot be ignored, the lowest common denominator is still SMS or email. [1] https://9to5mac.com/2012/05/04/att-ceo-imessage-disrupts-our-messaging-revenue-stream-unlimited-data-was-a-mistake/ https://9to5mac.com/2012/05/04/att-ceo-imessage-disrupts-our...

The biggest challenge for android IMO is Apple's Messages. It's clearly a degraded experience having an android user in the GC that some people will create a second GC without the android user in it.

dorfwald 3y ago

Do people in the US really use Apple Messages? I've never encountered it here in Europe. It's basically all just WhatsApp or - if you're in more "tech-y" circles - Telegram or Signal.

jamil7 3y ago
Even as an iOS user/developer it’s hard for me to imagine people choosing to use messages over one of the alternatives, I don’t get this about the US. Is it really a status thing?
kwanbix 3y ago
Same, I don't get why would people use Apple Messages that is only for android over Whatsapp. What is the advantage of APple Messages?
throw2awaymay 3y ago
[dead]
121789 3y ago
Yes. It’s the default messaging app for iOS, which is very popular in the US. It has strong network effects now. No one I know in the US uses WA unless they are immigrants. Everyone else is iMessage, snap, or SMS for android
Jtsummers 3y ago
SMS/MMS is still (sadly) quite common in the US and on iPhones that means using the built-in Messages app. So if you want a non-SMS/MMS that's also widely used in the US you get it "for free" by using iMessages from the same application if you're an iPhone user. And this chat also works with your non-iPhone contacts because it switches to SMS/MMS for them. For whatever reason WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and others never won out on Android in the US so the Android users didn't bring along their iPhone using network to those clients either (in bulk). Google of course has lost out because of their own foolishness: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-of-instability-the-history-of-google-messaging-apps/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-...

michaelmrose 3y ago

Other than the deliberately lower contrast text what is different? I've never had an Apple phone myself.

supertrope 3y ago
If all members of a group chat use iMessage the experience is relatively smooth and modern. When at least one member is not using iMessage the entire group chat falls back to MMS. Photos and videos sent over MMS are heavily re-compressed. There's no encryption or read receipts. iMessage only features like stickers don't work. There's still various MMS interoperability glitches like out of order delivery, emoji turning into :1234:, and failed delivery. When the smartphone era began cellular carriers required customers to buy both data and SMS/MMS components of their service plan. iMessage let iPhone customers save on the SMS/MMS tariff portion of their cellphone plan. [1] Eventually carriers reacted to protect their revenue by simply bundling unlimited SMS/MMS and calling into a new higher base plan price. That killed motivation for Americans to adopt a free alternative like Whatsapp unlike the rest of the world. The messages app on iOS mostly abstracts away whether a message is delivered over the Internet or legacy MMS, except for this blue/green color. Apple considers iMessage popularity an important vendor lock in moat. Carriers don't have any motivation to deploy RCS as it won't yield any more revenue, and especially since Apple won't. Customers strongly refer free messaging over paid and take the path of least resistance. People generally just pick the lowest common denominator communication channel instead of burning time and social capital getting their friends and acquaintances to install Signal, Whatsapp, etc. Message fragmentation is also not helped by Google's constant re-branding and product cancellations. In markets where non-smartphone owners cannot be ignored, the lowest common denominator is still SMS or email. [1] https://9to5mac.com/2012/05/04/att-ceo-imessage-disrupts-our-messaging-revenue-stream-unlimited-data-was-a-mistake/ https://9to5mac.com/2012/05/04/att-ceo-imessage-disrupts-our...