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> Messages will be sent and received via your email address rather than phone number. [...] Even worse, when iPhone customers added an Android phone number to a
by js2 3y ago
> Messages will be sent and received via your email address rather than phone number. [...] Even worse, when iPhone customers added an Android phone number to an existing iMessage secure encrypted group chat, the Messages app would by default switch the entire group chat to using unencrypted, unsecure SMS.
These two Messages features combine to create a terrible UX. When someone starts a group chat in Messages and includes a single non-Apple device, it converts the chat into a group MMS at which point anyone in the group who was added by Apple ID email address starts receiving the messages via email with text messages arriving as text attachments to those emails.
The from/to addresses look like 2345678901@domain with domains such as mypixmessages.com, mms.att.net, mypixmessages.com, icmms1.sun5.lightsurf.net, etc.
It doesn't matter if you have a phone # associated with your Apple ID in addition to an email address. If the person who starts the chat accidentally uses your email address (which Messages makes both very easy to do accidentally and very difficult to notice because Messages hides the actual address behind the contact name) and there's a single non-Apple device in the group, you get to be on the receiving end of a barrage of emails from which you cannot unsubscribe.
When Messages converts a group to MMS, it really needs to make it obvious which recipients are email addresses and which are phone #s... it should either not hide the information behind the contact name and/or for cases where a contact has both a phone # and email addresses, it should favor the phone #.
- ElijahLynn 3y agoSounds like a great UX to me!!! /sarcasm
- bdavbdav 3y agoI almost forgot that you could MMS to email addresses. Crazy times of old.
- wutwutwat 3y agoYou can also usually send a SMS by sending an email to your provider, ie 9495551212@vtext.com, which is the poor man's way to wire up alerting to text the on call if you've yet to implement or afford a solution with proper sms/twilio support https://www.verizonwireless.com/pdfs/user_guides/How_To_Txt_Messaging.pdf https://www.verizonwireless.com/pdfs/user_guides/How_To_Txt_...
- 98codes 3y agoSpammers haven't, that's for damn sure
- pathartl 3y agoWhen I was in high school and not allowed to have a cell phone, I had to use email via Gmail in my PSP's web browser in order to message people. I relied on these addresses so heavily and many people gave me weird looks for "oh btw, I need to know which carrier you have so I can get the right email address"
- technothrasher 3y agoWhen I was in high school and not rich enough to have a cell phone, I had to wait until midnight for my BBS to dial the upstream FidoNet host and exchange messages.
- hornban 3y agoFrom everything I've read on the matter, I believe that the UX nightmare when you include a non-apple user is an intentional design choice, rather than an engineering problem that hasn't been solved. They want the experience to suffer when somebody outside of the ecosystem is involved so as to create social pressure for the outsider to change. The ironic part of all of this is that while the EU may be forcing Apple into supporting RCS to fix the situation, Google has resisted every effort to extend RCS to their own Voice platform. It's really a shame that Microsoft gave up on mobile, because they really could be a real middle ground for the rest of us that just want interoperability.
- judge2020 3y agoLet's imagine it is an engineering problem; how do they solve it? Give a disclaimer that "your communications are not encrypted" and turn the bubbles maybe light green?
- bushbaba 3y agoWouldn’t entire thread need to be light green. Wouldn’t android users not see the Tapbacks/threads in same visual UX. It makes sense to turn it off entirely than to deliver a subpar and confusing UX
- rezonant 3y agoActually both tapbacks (for a long time) and reply threads (since the latest iOS release) are both supported in MMS group conversations. The iPhone will send a tapback as an SMS message such as "Liked 'contents of message that was liked'" and other iPhones convert that back into a tapback. Google Messages also does this (and in fact did it before Apple did). iOS does not convert Google Messages style tapback messages into tapbacks though, so iPhone users only have half of the solution. As for reply threads, when it's used it creates a lot of confusion for non iPhone users and it's not clear how Google Messages and other texting clients can fix it post-hoc. I'm not even sure how iOS reconstitutes it-- perhaps Apple sends some message metadata on the side via iMessage?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dontlaugh 3y agoIt hardly matters, almost everyone on earth uses WhatsApp for group chats.
- mardifoufs 3y agoI'm not American and I've never seen anyone use WhatsApp. I only use it to text my family back in Morocco. Facebook Messenger is even more universal than WhatsApp in my experience
- dontlaugh 3y agoSure, that one is popular too. My point was that almost no one uses iMessage group chats.
- MetaWhirledPeas 3y agoThat's obviously not true or we wouldn't be having many of these discussions.
- dontlaugh 3y agoIt’s clearly a US vs everyone else thing.
- rootusrootus 3y agoDespite your username, I just have to laugh. Millions of Americans use something other than iMessage. Apple doesn't have anything like a monopoly.
- wkat4242 3y agoTrue but it only takes one or two to become a problem, unless you really have a small circle of friends.
- deleted 3y ago
- dbbk 3y agoI live in the UK and have not seen an MMS conversation in about 15 years. This is crazy.
- alickz 3y agoeven SMS is seen as outdated here i feel
- barkerja 3y agoWhat do financial institutions where you live use to communicate TOTP codes? Here in the states, it's almost entirely TOTP codes over SMS (via a shortcode).
- desas 3y agoUsually their app, sometimes SMS. SMS is outdated in a similar way that email is, it's something you use to receive notifications and messages from companies etc, it's not how you talk to your friends.
- pjerem 3y agoThank you email is still somehow decentralized. I’m really frightened that sooner or later, one of the GAFAM tries to replace it with its own « open » solution.
- ruszki 3y agoIt’s really not that decentralised anymore. I don’t have anything fancy, I just use a custom domain. About every fifth site can’t send email to it. I’ve heard that if you have your own server, it’s even worse, to the point that you need to pay for some proxy which helps you avoid such problems, and also avoid that almost everything recognise your emails as spam.
- pjerem 3y ago
- Der_Einzige 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- riscy 3y agoEven if this bizarre claim were true, that wouldn’t make them “incels”, as they voluntarily chose to use Android. Desperate men blaming everyone and everything for their own dating shortcomings is nothing new.
- Der_Einzige 3y agoNo, android is far cheaper. Mostly they are using androids for socioeconomic reasons. I cited my sources. You claiming it’s bizarre is itself bizarre. Seems that you can’t handle the truth.
- tehwebguy 3y agoCome on there has been a free iPhone model offer from one carrier or another most of the time since iPhones came out.
- dqv 3y ago:| I am not trying to get involved in the “iMessage makes incels” debate, but you’re wrong. Those iPhones aren’t free. You have to sign up for a multi-year contract to get the “free” iPhone and the base monthly price is increased by (iPhoneValue/LengthOfContractInMonths). It’s a loan. A Moto G 2023 is $100, unlocked. With a competitively-priced prepaid MVNO, it’s $10 a month to maintain the line if using data becomes unaffordable for that month. I’d love to know where I can get a free iPhone and get the same economics as described above. All I see is iPhones for $x00 with a $60/month/line minimum. Even on MVNOs.
- sgerenser 3y ago
- kccqzy 3y agoWhenever Apple tries to add significant new functionality to an already existing app, they screw it up. The combination of SMS/MMS and iMessage never made sense. Neither did the combination of purchased music and Apple Music. Or the traditional phone call with FaceTime.