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Why are y’all so intent on using iMessage? I (honestly) don’t understand the serious passion behind forcing Apple to open it to everyone. SMS still gets throug

by jmye 3y ago

Why are y’all so intent on using iMessage? I (honestly) don’t understand the serious passion behind forcing Apple to open it to everyone. SMS still gets through, and other apps still work. It seems weird to focus so much on this and not on just using something that fits your use case, but maybe I’m missing something.

shrimpx 3y ago
It's because SMS is unencrypted, and this is an effort to have secure communication between iOS users and Android users (since iMessage is Apple-device-only). There's also a status factor, where Android users are lowly "green bubbles" in iMessage, which signals decreased security and questionable support for the interactions available to iMessage users. Of course everyone can switch to Signal and this is a moot point, but millions of Apple users use iMessage and aren't likely to switch.
- grok25 3y ago
  > Of course everyone can switch to Signal and this is a moot point, but millions of Apple users use iMessage and aren't likely to switch. Doesn’t this mean that most people simply don’t care?
  - shrimpx 3y ago
    On the iOS side people don't care, but apparently on the Android side they do?
- jmye 3y ago
  How many people really care about encrypted text messages? Most of the time, I’m sending my girlfriend pictures of our dogs. If I cared about encryption, we’d download something else (or use gchat or whatever). This just doesn’t seem like it should be that big a deal.
  - shrimpx 3y ago
    Yeah it seems like it's more about "blue bubble" status than it is about encryption.
freedomben 3y ago
This has been discussed ad nauseam. In the US, not being a "blue bubble" can have a very high social cost and get you excluded from groups and communication opportunities. People just want to be able to communicate without ridiculous walled garden vendors throwing stupid road blocks in their way and making things artificially harder to get you to "buy your mom an iphone."
- grok25 3y ago
  The fact that some people are snobs doesn’t justify the government dictating software specifications to Apple.
  - freedomben 3y ago
    It's not just snobbery. There are real and serious usability issues. When doing group communication between an iPhone and a group member who is in Android user. The entire group chat gets downgraded to SMS, which means a lot of messages don't get through the way they were intended, and images and videos are so downgraded as to be unusable. The people that I know personally who are affected by this, it has nothing to do with snobbery and everything to do with pragmatism. People on iPhone will only use iMessage in the United States. It's stupid, it's absurd, it's self-inflicted, but ultimately it is what it is and all the advocacy of moving to something else is not moving the needle.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  If Americans are this dumb, I don't see why they need any laws to protect them. Why would I want to be part of any groups that won't have me because I don't use an iPhone? Thankfully, here outside America, this isn't an issue: absolutely no one uses SMS or cares about this stuff.
  - Jtsummers 3y ago
    > If Americans are this dumb, I don't see why they need any laws to protect them. They aren't. The bubble color thing is an exaggerated claim and a lot of whining from a bunch of clowns. No one actually cares in the US except for a bunch of children (who are always prone to following trends for the sake of following the trend) and a handful of immature adults. The rest of the country doesn't know or care

by jmye 3y ago

shrimpx 3y ago

It's because SMS is unencrypted, and this is an effort to have secure communication between iOS users and Android users (since iMessage is Apple-device-only). There's also a status factor, where Android users are lowly "green bubbles" in iMessage, which signals decreased security and questionable support for the interactions available to iMessage users. Of course everyone can switch to Signal and this is a moot point, but millions of Apple users use iMessage and aren't likely to switch.

grok25 3y ago
> Of course everyone can switch to Signal and this is a moot point, but millions of Apple users use iMessage and aren't likely to switch. Doesn’t this mean that most people simply don’t care?
- shrimpx 3y ago
  On the iOS side people don't care, but apparently on the Android side they do?
jmye 3y ago
How many people really care about encrypted text messages? Most of the time, I’m sending my girlfriend pictures of our dogs. If I cared about encryption, we’d download something else (or use gchat or whatever). This just doesn’t seem like it should be that big a deal.
- shrimpx 3y ago
  Yeah it seems like it's more about "blue bubble" status than it is about encryption.

freedomben 3y ago

This has been discussed ad nauseam. In the US, not being a "blue bubble" can have a very high social cost and get you excluded from groups and communication opportunities. People just want to be able to communicate without ridiculous walled garden vendors throwing stupid road blocks in their way and making things artificially harder to get you to "buy your mom an iphone."

grok25 3y ago
The fact that some people are snobs doesn’t justify the government dictating software specifications to Apple.
- freedomben 3y ago
  It's not just snobbery. There are real and serious usability issues. When doing group communication between an iPhone and a group member who is in Android user. The entire group chat gets downgraded to SMS, which means a lot of messages don't get through the way they were intended, and images and videos are so downgraded as to be unusable. The people that I know personally who are affected by this, it has nothing to do with snobbery and everything to do with pragmatism. People on iPhone will only use iMessage in the United States. It's stupid, it's absurd, it's self-inflicted, but ultimately it is what it is and all the advocacy of moving to something else is not moving the needle.
shiroiuma 3y ago
If Americans are this dumb, I don't see why they need any laws to protect them. Why would I want to be part of any groups that won't have me because I don't use an iPhone? Thankfully, here outside America, this isn't an issue: absolutely no one uses SMS or cares about this stuff.
- Jtsummers 3y ago
  > If Americans are this dumb, I don't see why they need any laws to protect them. They aren't. The bubble color thing is an exaggerated claim and a lot of whining from a bunch of clowns. No one actually cares in the US except for a bunch of children (who are always prone to following trends for the sake of following the trend) and a handful of immature adults. The rest of the country doesn't know or care