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> who calls or uses non-iMessage these days Quite a few people actually. The former is rarer, but there is an increasingly large portion of the populace that
by fireflash38 14y ago
> who calls or uses non-iMessage these days
Quite a few people actually. The former is rarer, but there is an increasingly large portion of the populace that doesn't use iMessage (considering it's proprietary to Apple). Sure, you can work around using Google Voice to SMS/Call over data, but that isn't for everyone.
- w1ntermute 14y agoOr use Google Talk, for fuck's sake. The protocol is open, and the service is very reliable. I got all my friends running iOS to get Vtok, and now they can chat with me too. And you don't have to be on a Mac to use it from a computer - just log into Gmail or use any Jabber/XMPP client you want. I haven't used any other messaging service in over 5 years. The only thing I use Google Voice for is the one or two friends still using dumbphones.
- mitjak 14y agoPresumably, you do call now and then? Or all your conversations are conducted through the use of a keyboard?
- w1ntermute 14y agoGoogle Talk supports both voice and video calling. I use it quite regularly to make international calls for free.
- mitjak 14y agoDo you mean the browser plug-in? How does it work if you're on the go with only a mobile OS available?
- w1ntermute 14y agoNo, I mean the Google Talk mobile app allows you to make voice and video calls. I'm not talking about calling phones, I mean you can call other Google Talk users. You can of course use Google Voice on Android to make international phone calls if you want, as well.
- shmerl 14y agoYou should be able to call any XMPP (Jabber) users if their server is federated (and they have a client with XMPP/Jingle support of course). I.e. not only to the users of Google's XMPP server.
- mitjak 14y ago> You can of course use Google Voice on Android to make international phone calls if you want, as well. If you're in U.S.…
- w1ntermute 14y agoI don't see what your point is. This conversation was never about phone calls in the first place. It was about VOIP to VOIP calls, which are of course completely free and unlimited to anywhere in the world if you use Google Talk.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- shmerl 14y agoAny XMPP/Jingle complaint client should work, but there can be rough edges in general.
- jrajav 14y agoGoogle Talk is also the protocol for chatting on Google+ (That is, it's the same chat as on Gmail). I've used it for a while to talk with friends around the globe; it's a great place to centralize quick chats/messages and video hangouts. I get Google Talk messages on my phone, and I can leave messages for them to see next time they log on to Google+ or Gmail. It's pretty sweet.
- shmerl 14y agoEven better - it's a federated XMPP server, allowing you to communicate with users of other federated XMPP services like jabber.org.
- notlion 14y agoI had no idea people actually use iMessage o_O
- gecko 14y agoIf you accept the default prompts, it's enabled automatically on iOS 5, and, because it's keyed based on your phone number, also automatically used when messaging other iPhone users. Combined, not only do people use iMessage; it's resulted in a MARKED decrease in texting volume in at least the US.
- shmerl 14y agoAnd it's the same sick idea as Whatsapp - another walled and non interoperable IM network.
- amartya916 14y agoUmmmm..... Whatsapp has had its issues with security and has been on Hacker News fairly recently, but I am not sure what you mean by interoperable IM network. Do you mean that it should be a webapp and that having an app on Android, iPhone etc. is not interoperable enough? Or was that just supposed to be a jab at Whatsapp for no apparent reason (and a bit out of context)?
- shmerl 14y agoInteroperable solutions should use a standard protocol and be able to communicate with other servers. Like e-mail for example. For instant messaging such standard is XMPP (Jabber), and when server has federation enabled - it allows communication with users of other XMPP servers. "Having an app" for various OSes is not called interoperable. Going back to e-mail analogy, one can expect to use any e-mail client, and to send messages to users of any e-mail server. Without any need to use one kind of client and being restricted to communicate with users of one e-mail server only. The same thing should be in the field of instant messaging, and such thing is already possible with XMPP. Those who proliferate non interoperable networks (Whatsapp, iMessage or whatever) - are plain wrong and should be ashamed doing it in this day and age. Looking at history - e-mail had to overcome the same problem. At some point, major public e-mail services were walled, like AOL and Compuserve not being interoperable. Luckily today for e-mail such thing is unimaginable. But with IMs - it just persists. And in big part, those who create new walled networks can be blamed.