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Google's messaging experience has been incoherent until the last couple of years. I switched long before that partially because of how awful the experience was,

by chomp 3y ago

Google's messaging experience has been incoherent until the last couple of years. I switched long before that partially because of how awful the experience was, not because of blue bubbles. Whenever I ask someone the point of using Android, I always get back an answer of "oh, it's because it prioritizes user choice, I can sideload APKs, it's cheap" or something along those lines. But I'm old, I just want a device that mostly works and nothing more than that, and Android (historically) hasn't been it. Worth noting that my iPhone 8 plus still receives updates, a support cycle that long is something unheard of in Android circles.

ChuckNorris89 3y ago
There's cross platform messengers like Signal. In EU most population uses WhatsApp as it's the most populat cross platform messenger here and if a first party experience for bot Android and iOS users without any bubble discrimination. Why is Apple or Google the only messaging option for you? Those are not the only services on the market. I feel like you're missing the forest from the trees here.
- Klonoar 3y ago
  If they’re discussing the bubbles issue, then the existence of Signal/etc is somewhat irrelevant. It’s a social problem, not a technical one - and that friends group is on the blue bubble train.
  - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
    Yes, the bubble issue does not exist if we use cross platform messaging apps. Nobody is forced to use iMessage. It' mostly an US issue. Europeans, latin Americans and other large demographics, don't have the bubbles struggle because people don't default to iMessage but cross platform messaging platform to not discriminate anyone. Crazy, I know.
    - Klonoar 3y ago
      I know. I have lived outside the USA and this is not lost on me. You are missing the point though. The social issue exists in the USA and that is what they're complaining about. It does not matter what the rest of the world does when this thread is based on that - in a thread about US iPhone market share, no less. Cross-platform-apps would've been the solution for this already if they had any shot of doing so.
    - elondaits 3y ago
      In Argentina everyone is on WhatsApp… but it’s not “to not discriminate anyone”. It’s because when WhatsApp came about we were still paying through the nose for SMS… so it was seen as “free text messages”. Then voice messages became super popular because it’s faster for people on phones with no/bad dictation and subpar/broken touchscreens and/or predictive not adjusted for local language (Spanish varies wildly from country to country, specially colloquially).
- vinyl7 3y ago
  Its because getting people to download and sign up for another app is friction. Everyone already SMS in america because its free, unlike other countries where you have to pay per message. I have friends from Africa and India, and they use whats-app when communicating with people in their home country because it costs money to send regular SMS.
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    SMS is also free on most of Europe's plans. But apps are just much nicer. Encryption, photos (MMS really sucks). Easily having a group chat which is really a pain with SMS. Sending files... History on all my devices, full scroll back. SMS is just so outdated. The only problem with the apps is that people use different ones. But I use matrix with bridges to unifi them all into one. Very much like beeper.com .
  - kyriakos 3y ago
    SMS here is used for spam and 2FA. Even the government and utilities companies use viber for many things.
- chomp 3y ago
  I use Signal. It's ok. I don't use it amongst friends or family because in the US we usually stick to what's installed by default on phones, which historically has been SMS or iMessage. The only people in my life that use Signal are a couple of my clients. They are only on Signal because as they have confided in me, they are distrustful of the government. I can't really start a campaign to get people to switch to Signal, I don't have that much social capital to burn with my friends/family. And I personally would never use WhatsApp, and while I understand the history of its ubiquity, I can't bring myself to pull myself back into Mark Zuckerberg's ecosystem.
  - tapoxi 3y ago
    I find it really funny that having friends and family use a different app is considered bothersome but it isn't when they push you to buy a $500+ phone.
_ea1k 3y ago
That's around the time of the Pixel 2 XL, IIRC. They wouldn't get base OS upgrades, except in emergencies. I bet they are still getting updates Chrome, Gmail, Maps, and all the other core functionality from Google, though. Notably, the most security sensitive element is the system web browser. This also gets updated even when the base OS does not. Android and iOS are different worlds. For most users, the update lifecycle differences are not large.

by chomp 3y ago

ChuckNorris89 3y ago

There's cross platform messengers like Signal. In EU most population uses WhatsApp as it's the most populat cross platform messenger here and if a first party experience for bot Android and iOS users without any bubble discrimination. Why is Apple or Google the only messaging option for you? Those are not the only services on the market. I feel like you're missing the forest from the trees here.

Klonoar 3y ago
If they’re discussing the bubbles issue, then the existence of Signal/etc is somewhat irrelevant. It’s a social problem, not a technical one - and that friends group is on the blue bubble train.
- ChuckNorris89 3y ago
  Yes, the bubble issue does not exist if we use cross platform messaging apps. Nobody is forced to use iMessage. It' mostly an US issue. Europeans, latin Americans and other large demographics, don't have the bubbles struggle because people don't default to iMessage but cross platform messaging platform to not discriminate anyone. Crazy, I know.
  - Klonoar 3y ago
    I know. I have lived outside the USA and this is not lost on me. You are missing the point though. The social issue exists in the USA and that is what they're complaining about. It does not matter what the rest of the world does when this thread is based on that - in a thread about US iPhone market share, no less. Cross-platform-apps would've been the solution for this already if they had any shot of doing so.
  - elondaits 3y ago
    In Argentina everyone is on WhatsApp… but it’s not “to not discriminate anyone”. It’s because when WhatsApp came about we were still paying through the nose for SMS… so it was seen as “free text messages”. Then voice messages became super popular because it’s faster for people on phones with no/bad dictation and subpar/broken touchscreens and/or predictive not adjusted for local language (Spanish varies wildly from country to country, specially colloquially).
vinyl7 3y ago
Its because getting people to download and sign up for another app is friction. Everyone already SMS in america because its free, unlike other countries where you have to pay per message. I have friends from Africa and India, and they use whats-app when communicating with people in their home country because it costs money to send regular SMS.
- wkat4242 3y ago
  SMS is also free on most of Europe's plans. But apps are just much nicer. Encryption, photos (MMS really sucks). Easily having a group chat which is really a pain with SMS. Sending files... History on all my devices, full scroll back. SMS is just so outdated. The only problem with the apps is that people use different ones. But I use matrix with bridges to unifi them all into one. Very much like beeper.com .
- kyriakos 3y ago
  SMS here is used for spam and 2FA. Even the government and utilities companies use viber for many things.
chomp 3y ago
I use Signal. It's ok. I don't use it amongst friends or family because in the US we usually stick to what's installed by default on phones, which historically has been SMS or iMessage. The only people in my life that use Signal are a couple of my clients. They are only on Signal because as they have confided in me, they are distrustful of the government. I can't really start a campaign to get people to switch to Signal, I don't have that much social capital to burn with my friends/family. And I personally would never use WhatsApp, and while I understand the history of its ubiquity, I can't bring myself to pull myself back into Mark Zuckerberg's ecosystem.
- tapoxi 3y ago
  I find it really funny that having friends and family use a different app is considered bothersome but it isn't when they push you to buy a $500+ phone.

_ea1k 3y ago

That's around the time of the Pixel 2 XL, IIRC. They wouldn't get base OS upgrades, except in emergencies. I bet they are still getting updates Chrome, Gmail, Maps, and all the other core functionality from Google, though. Notably, the most security sensitive element is the system web browser. This also gets updated even when the base OS does not. Android and iOS are different worlds. For most users, the update lifecycle differences are not large.