3 ms·

Idk all the people in my friend group who started on Android have ended up on iOS so they can participate in these Apple only features. It seems the ecosystem i

by jitl 2y ago

Idk all the people in my friend group who started on Android have ended up on iOS so they can participate in these Apple only features. It seems the ecosystem is already doing great and getting people to switch is not a problem at least here in the US.

tantalor 2y ago
Which features?
- jitl 2y ago
  Roughly in order of FOMO iMessage, AirDrop, Find My Friends, AirPlay, WiFi password sharing, iPhoto sharing
  - dismalaf 2y ago
    So things any smartphone can do but stuck behind proprietary apps and/or protocols?
    - orf 2y ago
      Samsung doesn’t have airdrop: it uploads everything to a bucket and you share a public link to download. Your private stuff. That you want to share to the person next to you. That’s the difference with all of those “any smartphone can do it” features and what’s available on iOS.
      - dqv 2y ago
        That is not correct. It uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct just like AirDrop does. I just shared a video from a Samsung phone to a Motorola phone. Both had Wi-Fi and mobile data turned off. Unless there is some conspiracy where both devices secretly connect to Samsung servers for the exchange, what you are saying is not correct.
        orf 2y ago
        It depends on how you do it: the QR code, link, long-distance or text-message process does indeed upload to Samsung servers. https://www.samsung.com/uk/apps/quick-share/?srsltid=AfmBOor6lwOefe4RUW_7UGlcloPalOnovUo7Rjq-fKBN5wDnSQCepfNJ https://www.samsung.com/uk/apps/quick-share/?srsltid=AfmBOor...
      - dismalaf 2y ago
        Android Quick Share can share with nearby devices, just like Airdrop, OR can share longer distances with your contacts. How it works depends on how you attempt to share the file and where the recipient is. Also both wifi direct file sharing and Bluetooth file sharing have been things forever. I had a ~15 year old mostly dumb camera that did it. Also the app "Bump" did this many years ago, was on both iOS and Android. Other apps probably did/do as well. I personally think it's useless but it's always been a thing.
  - tantalor 2y ago
    Android has all of these features? iMessage = Google Messages (with RCS), works on web too AirDrop = Nearby Share Find My Friends = Google Maps Location sharing AirPlay = Chromecast WiFi password sharing = WiFi "share network" -> QR code iPhoto sharing = Google photos sharing
    - jitl 2y ago
      I’m not saying these features only exist in iOS, but for the most part they’re not mutually compatible between OSs. So everyone needs to be using the same OS to enjoy the feature. For some reason the Android people switched to iOS to use those things with the existing iOS people, rather than the iOS people switching to Android.
      - tantalor 2y ago
        Hence the demand for interoperability
behnamoh 2y ago
> It seems the ecosystem is already doing great and getting people to switch ... They shouldn't have to switch, but Apple forces them to do so by imposing artificial limitations on other platforms. But the same Apple is more than happy with providing the Apple Music app on Android as a means to boost their music revenue...
- pridkett 2y ago
  > But the same Apple is more than happy with providing the Apple Music app on Android as a means to boost their music revenue... Exactly. On the other platforms they provide services because the services provide revenue. The big two things that people say Apple needs to open up are Messages and FaceTime - both of which cost Apple money to maintain and don’t have independent revenue streams. Airplay and CarPlay have similar development costs and I’d imagine that Apple would like to be able to continue to evolve their software without getting blamed for being anti-competitive because they broke some company’s flawed integration. I’d imagine if Apple said “sure, we’ll open up FaceTime, Messages, Airplay, and CarPlay to Android devices as part of our Apple One subscription” you’d have people up in arms because Apple was charging for it. Which lays bare the challenge - for many it’s about wanting these services for free on a platform where Apple receives no revenue.
  - WWLink 2y ago
    Dare I say it, if you convince 60% of the US to communicate on your platform exclusively, you deserve to be hit hard with an antitrust violation. IMHO iMessage should be broken off from Apple and they shouldn't be allowed to run a messaging platform like this.
    - matheusmoreira 2y ago
      Antitrust is good but it's treating the symptom, not the disease. The disease is the fact it's illegal to crack open their locks. We need their permission to interoperate. If we don't have it, we're criminals if we try. All we need to do is legalize reverse engineering and circumvention for the purposes of interoperability. In less than a year the iMessage nonsense will be solved because all competing platforms will add support for its protocols whether they want it or not. They'll try to make it hard to do it but it won't matter. Adversarial interoperability should be the norm. They shouldn't have a choice in whether they are interoperated with. It should just happen organically. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interopera...
margana 2y ago
The lack of awareness of this post is incredible. Apple is leveraging intentional incompatibility to make people use social pressure on each other to switch to Apple. That is not a good thing. This is a great example of why interoperability is necessary - "become an Apple customer or be ostracized" is not something people should be constantly threatened with.

by jitl 2y ago

tantalor 2y ago

Which features?

jitl 2y ago
Roughly in order of FOMO iMessage, AirDrop, Find My Friends, AirPlay, WiFi password sharing, iPhoto sharing
- dismalaf 2y ago
  So things any smartphone can do but stuck behind proprietary apps and/or protocols?
  - orf 2y ago
    Samsung doesn’t have airdrop: it uploads everything to a bucket and you share a public link to download. Your private stuff. That you want to share to the person next to you. That’s the difference with all of those “any smartphone can do it” features and what’s available on iOS.
    - dqv 2y ago
      That is not correct. It uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct just like AirDrop does. I just shared a video from a Samsung phone to a Motorola phone. Both had Wi-Fi and mobile data turned off. Unless there is some conspiracy where both devices secretly connect to Samsung servers for the exchange, what you are saying is not correct.
      - orf 2y ago
        It depends on how you do it: the QR code, link, long-distance or text-message process does indeed upload to Samsung servers. https://www.samsung.com/uk/apps/quick-share/?srsltid=AfmBOor6lwOefe4RUW_7UGlcloPalOnovUo7Rjq-fKBN5wDnSQCepfNJ https://www.samsung.com/uk/apps/quick-share/?srsltid=AfmBOor...
    - dismalaf 2y ago
      Android Quick Share can share with nearby devices, just like Airdrop, OR can share longer distances with your contacts. How it works depends on how you attempt to share the file and where the recipient is. Also both wifi direct file sharing and Bluetooth file sharing have been things forever. I had a ~15 year old mostly dumb camera that did it. Also the app "Bump" did this many years ago, was on both iOS and Android. Other apps probably did/do as well. I personally think it's useless but it's always been a thing.
- tantalor 2y ago
  Android has all of these features? iMessage = Google Messages (with RCS), works on web too AirDrop = Nearby Share Find My Friends = Google Maps Location sharing AirPlay = Chromecast WiFi password sharing = WiFi "share network" -> QR code iPhoto sharing = Google photos sharing
  - jitl 2y ago
    I’m not saying these features only exist in iOS, but for the most part they’re not mutually compatible between OSs. So everyone needs to be using the same OS to enjoy the feature. For some reason the Android people switched to iOS to use those things with the existing iOS people, rather than the iOS people switching to Android.
    - tantalor 2y ago
      Hence the demand for interoperability

behnamoh 2y ago

> It seems the ecosystem is already doing great and getting people to switch ... They shouldn't have to switch, but Apple forces them to do so by imposing artificial limitations on other platforms. But the same Apple is more than happy with providing the Apple Music app on Android as a means to boost their music revenue...

pridkett 2y ago
> But the same Apple is more than happy with providing the Apple Music app on Android as a means to boost their music revenue... Exactly. On the other platforms they provide services because the services provide revenue. The big two things that people say Apple needs to open up are Messages and FaceTime - both of which cost Apple money to maintain and don’t have independent revenue streams. Airplay and CarPlay have similar development costs and I’d imagine that Apple would like to be able to continue to evolve their software without getting blamed for being anti-competitive because they broke some company’s flawed integration. I’d imagine if Apple said “sure, we’ll open up FaceTime, Messages, Airplay, and CarPlay to Android devices as part of our Apple One subscription” you’d have people up in arms because Apple was charging for it. Which lays bare the challenge - for many it’s about wanting these services for free on a platform where Apple receives no revenue.
- WWLink 2y ago
  Dare I say it, if you convince 60% of the US to communicate on your platform exclusively, you deserve to be hit hard with an antitrust violation. IMHO iMessage should be broken off from Apple and they shouldn't be allowed to run a messaging platform like this.
  - matheusmoreira 2y ago
    Antitrust is good but it's treating the symptom, not the disease. The disease is the fact it's illegal to crack open their locks. We need their permission to interoperate. If we don't have it, we're criminals if we try. All we need to do is legalize reverse engineering and circumvention for the purposes of interoperability. In less than a year the iMessage nonsense will be solved because all competing platforms will add support for its protocols whether they want it or not. They'll try to make it hard to do it but it won't matter. Adversarial interoperability should be the norm. They shouldn't have a choice in whether they are interoperated with. It should just happen organically. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interopera...

margana 2y ago

The lack of awareness of this post is incredible. Apple is leveraging intentional incompatibility to make people use social pressure on each other to switch to Apple. That is not a good thing. This is a great example of why interoperability is necessary - "become an Apple customer or be ostracized" is not something people should be constantly threatened with.