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Isnt Apple adopting RCS and won't that solve the green / blue bubble issue? Personally if it's a business / marketing advantage unless their hand is forced for

Isnt Apple adopting RCS and won't that solve the green / blue bubble issue? Personally if it's a business / marketing advantage unless their hand is forced for business reasons they should never change it.

runjake 3y ago
Apple is adopting RCS, and no, that won't solve the green/blue bubble issue. They'll still distinguish RCS and SMS from iMessage. iMessage is Apple's value-add and has its own app ecosystem, apparently/allegedly true E2E. *> Personally if it's a business / marketing advantage unless their hand is forced for business reasons they should never change it.* Yep, that is Apple's intent, according to Apple emails leaked from various court cases.
- dbbk 3y ago
  To the vast majority of people though it will solve the problem. Android to iPhone communication will be close enough to the iMessage experience.
  - runjake 3y ago
    Yeah, maybe it will make some improvement for Android people, who are the majority of the mobile market. For iPhone users, they'll still be some non-blue bubble people who lack the E2E[1] and tight iMessage app integrations that are popular among iPhone users these days. At least until governments possibly intervene. 1. E2E insofar as not carrier-accessible (unlike RCS), which is a bit of a hot button issue in the US, post-Snowden/PRISM. If carriers have access to RCS payloads or even metadata, they will most definitely harvest it for marketing purposes, as well as ship it off to the US government.
lotsofpulp 3y ago
Green/blue bubble is about the prior probabilities people use to make assumptions about others. E.g., if you use Android/iPhone, there is a prior probability of x% of being y type of person. WhatsApp/Signal have been available for a long time for anyone that has wanted group chats with modern capabilities.
- mholm 3y ago
  WhatsApp/Signal involve other people you want to communicate with having those apps, which is fairly unlikely in the US (at least outside of tech/international social groups). Only chat apps out here you can count on are facebook messenger, sms/rcs, groupme, or imessage. iMessage is probably the best of these.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    I have directly asked many relatives/friends in their 20s/30s, and they have told me they would assume an Android user has a higher likelihood of being “weird”. The barrier to entry to installing WhatsApp or Signal is near zero, just a minute of one’s time. And given that most everyone is using Meta’s other apps anyway, the privacy costs are moot. In fact, all of the people I asked have WhatsApp already, but mostly to remain in legacy group chats with older family.
    - paul7986 3y ago
      Also in many countries Android is a sign of your social/economic class as many such headsets are super inexpensive compared to an iPhone. If Apple started a new color "purple," that indicates sent via iPhone 15 Max well then that would be a further marketing boost for the multiple millions of ppl who care about social class & flaunt it. Apple overall is a luxury brand another one of their marketing strategies.
- fragmede 3y ago
  Whatsapp and signal don't load messages that were sent before joining a channel, a modern feature that slack has had since launch.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    I would not expect/want that behavior from a chat app. If I was having a conversation with 3 people, and then a 4th person walked up and joined the conversation, I expect them to not be privy to anything discussed prior to them joining. A “channel” that shows all participants the entire history seems more like a private forum thread than a “chat”, and should probably be distinguished separately.

runjake 3y ago

Apple is adopting RCS, and no, that won't solve the green/blue bubble issue. They'll still distinguish RCS and SMS from iMessage. iMessage is Apple's value-add and has its own app ecosystem, apparently/allegedly true E2E. *> Personally if it's a business / marketing advantage unless their hand is forced for business reasons they should never change it.* Yep, that is Apple's intent, according to Apple emails leaked from various court cases.

dbbk 3y ago
To the vast majority of people though it will solve the problem. Android to iPhone communication will be close enough to the iMessage experience.
- runjake 3y ago
  Yeah, maybe it will make some improvement for Android people, who are the majority of the mobile market. For iPhone users, they'll still be some non-blue bubble people who lack the E2E[1] and tight iMessage app integrations that are popular among iPhone users these days. At least until governments possibly intervene. 1. E2E insofar as not carrier-accessible (unlike RCS), which is a bit of a hot button issue in the US, post-Snowden/PRISM. If carriers have access to RCS payloads or even metadata, they will most definitely harvest it for marketing purposes, as well as ship it off to the US government.

lotsofpulp 3y ago

Green/blue bubble is about the prior probabilities people use to make assumptions about others. E.g., if you use Android/iPhone, there is a prior probability of x% of being y type of person. WhatsApp/Signal have been available for a long time for anyone that has wanted group chats with modern capabilities.

mholm 3y ago
WhatsApp/Signal involve other people you want to communicate with having those apps, which is fairly unlikely in the US (at least outside of tech/international social groups). Only chat apps out here you can count on are facebook messenger, sms/rcs, groupme, or imessage. iMessage is probably the best of these.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  I have directly asked many relatives/friends in their 20s/30s, and they have told me they would assume an Android user has a higher likelihood of being “weird”. The barrier to entry to installing WhatsApp or Signal is near zero, just a minute of one’s time. And given that most everyone is using Meta’s other apps anyway, the privacy costs are moot. In fact, all of the people I asked have WhatsApp already, but mostly to remain in legacy group chats with older family.
  - paul7986 3y ago
    Also in many countries Android is a sign of your social/economic class as many such headsets are super inexpensive compared to an iPhone. If Apple started a new color "purple," that indicates sent via iPhone 15 Max well then that would be a further marketing boost for the multiple millions of ppl who care about social class & flaunt it. Apple overall is a luxury brand another one of their marketing strategies.
fragmede 3y ago
Whatsapp and signal don't load messages that were sent before joining a channel, a modern feature that slack has had since launch.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  I would not expect/want that behavior from a chat app. If I was having a conversation with 3 people, and then a 4th person walked up and joined the conversation, I expect them to not be privy to anything discussed prior to them joining. A “channel” that shows all participants the entire history seems more like a private forum thread than a “chat”, and should probably be distinguished separately.