4 ms·
There is a carrier neutral WhatsApp, called SMS.
by inigyou 2mo ago
There is a carrier neutral WhatsApp, called SMS.
- nujabe 2mo agoNot even remotely close.
- prmoustache 2mo agoFor natural disaster emergency annoucememt it is more reliable than whatsapp.
- gsich 2mo agoCell Broadcast yes, SMS no.
- KellyCriterion 2mo agoIsnt the one just "mass usage" of the other? Like Cell Broadcast just duplicates the SMS on carrier level?
- inexcf 2mo agoNah, Cell Broadcast has a lot less overhead since it does not have to do any routing or delivery confirmation and such. The load does not scale based on recipients which makes it far more reliable during an emergency.
- KellyCriterion 2mo agoSorry, maybe I did "carrier replication" wrong - I used the word in a sense of "it is duplicated at the local cell by the towers", instead of getting "fed with 1mio receivers in region X by the telco servercentral HQ" Im wrong, I guess?
- inigyou 2mo agoCell broadcast, depending on the emergency level set by the sender, also makes your phone vibrate until you read the message, and may also cause it to play a loud siren noise. Which is the sort of thing you want in a real emergency.
- account42 2mo agoWhy, because it can't be monetized by Facebook?
- arijun 2mo agoBecause it doesn't do the job well. It's difficult to send any media, group chats are a pain, international messages often incur fees, it doesn't work on wifi-only, and so on.
- olmo23 2mo agoWhatsapp is used by a lot of "neighbourhood watch" groups, so you'd need an IRC-like channel to replace it.
- vincnetas 2mo agoYes, no, try to have group chat with SMS, and tell me how that went...
- KPGv2 2mo agoRTS is the SMS replacement and is quite old. And as evidence it works, I direct your attention to the ubiquitous iMessage, which only "couldn't" interop with Android because Apple was trying the vendor lock-in approach and actively enshittifying its own users' experience and blaming it on Android users.
- Grisu_FTP 2mo agoDo you mean RCS or are these 2 seperate things?
- inigyou 2mo agoWhich it also had to do because SMS doesn't have half its features, like encryption and sending images.
- saintfire 2mo agoAssuming you mean RCS, to which Google built a proprietary E2EE extension, remains the only client with no API to build off of and if I recall requires play attestation. Hardly a complete solution, it devolved into a Google power grab, in my opinion. For once I half agree with apple when they say its less secure, as apple-to-google comms are not E2EE like they are for google-to-google. While that is fixable with a hack its still a hack, not part of the protocol.
- pjc50 2mo agoWhatsapp etc. only took off because SMS is so limited, and the mobile companies are so profit-focused they can't make a decent competitor. (how is whatsapp paid for again?)
- inigyou 2mo agoIt's not all about profit as European SMS is now free. It is however about decentralisation stifling feature development - a trap we run into again and again, from email to IRC to SMS to Fediverse/ATProto. WhatsApp is one company so if they want to enable sending images they can just do it, and they don't have to coordinate with anyone else. MMS was a failure because you couldn't be sure if your recipient would actually get it, or if your carrier would actually let you send it.
- Parodper 2mo agoSMS made you pay by character. RCS is the current free alternative.
- Markoff 2mo agoso instead using Meta product you suggest using Google product, great alternative for Europe independence it's like when they wanna get rid of Visa/MC by switching to EU apps, which will require Google/Apple verification, what an improvement...
- Parodper 2mo agoRCS is an international standard. Google only adds their client (and running the service if your mobile provider doesn't). Don't know what EU apps are you talking about, but yes, mobile apps need Google services. Web interfaces don't.
- Markoff 2mo agoplease tell me ONE app for Android other than Google Messages I can use to send and receive RCS, it surely won't be problem since it's international standard same as SMS, so there must be plenty apps available... Pretty much all banking apps for Android won't work without Google Play Services, so once again if you are using Lineage or Graphene, you are still stuck with US company to use your European banking services on the phone.
- Parodper 2mo ago> please tell me ONE app for Android other than Google Messages I can use to send and receive RCS, it surely won't be problem since it's international standard same as SMS, so there must be plenty apps available... Nice red herring. The number of implementations is irrelevant here, although Wikipedia says Samsung had one too. Here's the standard, try Ctrl+F "Google": https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/technologies/networks/rcs/universal-profile/ https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/technologies/netwo...
- dghughes 2mo agoCell towers failed in my region after a hurricane. SMS is pointless in that situation.
- inigyou 2mo agoSo can internet.
- gonzalohm 2mo agoNot neutral if you are Apple. That's their battlefield