this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage::Samsung has joined Google’s campaign to force Apple to make iMessage RCS-compatible—but European regulators are more likely to get that job done.

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[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 year ago (21 children)

Unless the EU makes them use RCS they never will. In the US iMessage is literally THE REASON people buy the iPhone. It's their main selling point. They don't care how much pressure you place on them, they aren't going to lose those sales willingly.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I have seen people literally say they like that iMessage is exclusive, and they like to keep Android users away/separate

It was reeking of classism in addition to being generally a terrible thing to read

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I've heard of people not responding to the wrong colored bubbles or being judgemental, like my $1,200 phone is better than your $1,200 phone?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

What an American problem. 😂

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bullet dodged. Thinking you're hot shit because you use the ultimate basic bitch phone is just ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, guys have the same thing going on. Fickle knows no gender.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I think basic bitch is not a gender specific phrase, I personally use the meme bitch on myself even as a cis guy.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

That's just sad. Not even sports teams or musicians, but over a walled-gardened messaging app?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I knew a 29 y/o woman that switched to iPhone so that others with iPhones would see her text messages bubble as blue instead of green. Imagine blowing over a thousand dollars so that someone else sees blue rather than green in text messages. Meanwhile, I can make the bubble colors whatever color I want on my Android.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I honestly blame Apple for abusing the societal penchant for forming tribes around random things.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nothing. Google Messages app has all the same features. The only problem is that Apple refuses to also support RCS (which Google messages uses) and so if an android user sends a message to an iPhone user, the iPhone user gets it as an SMS. If the Android user sends a picture, the iPhone user receives it as an MMS.

In the rest of the world this is not an issue because most people use WhatsApp or Signal or Viber or any other local messaging app. Also most android phones have the Messages app as default which means if you message another Android user they will get it over WiFi/data in the messages app.

But in the US for some reason the iPhone users consider getting an SMS as somehow bad and that the Android user is poor or inferior because they sent an SMS.

It's totally stupid and only a US issue, but it's so strong that teenagers will be bullied if they don't have an iPhone for iMessage. So they all get iPhones in order not to be bullied. And this way Apple makes mega sales.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the reason I got my first IPhone. This is also the same reason why I left IPhone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I'm glad you left. Welcome to the good side 👍

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

The fact that other people they know also use it.

The app itself is pretty much the same as any other modern messaging app, but network effects are everything when it comes to messaging services.

This is why you see entire countries where everyone has WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger or Telegram, depending on what other people in the country are using.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Encryption, photos are higher quality through it (this is where "Android cameras are bad" came from,) typing indicators, sending messages over Wi-Fi, iMessage games, and message effects.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Some of that isn't i-message specific though, right? I have a Pixel and it has high quality pictures, typing indicators, reads receipts, sends over wifi... the other stuff I don't think Android has but that's a bit gimicky anyway. Not trying to be an android fan girl but I really don't understand what makes i-message better.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The problem is the walled garden, both ecosystems have those features but they don’t work together. If all your friends have iPhones, there’s a lot of pressure to also have an iPhone. And once you’re in, you’re not likely getting out unless all your social circle does at once. That kind of lock in is extremely valuable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I have an android and use Textra as my messaging app. I can see iPhone reactions and also react to messages agnostic of the other phone's OS

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I agree that all the stuff iMessage has that RCS doesn't is gimmicky, I'm, an Android user myself...but if you have an Android and someone you want to text has an iPhone, you're both using SMS.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All of this is available on just about every messaging service, so the real answer is tribalism and lack of consumer education.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But still, if you have an Android and someone you want to text has an iPhone, you're using SMS, not RCS.

I do believe RCS-compatibility for iMessage would make take a chunk out of iPhone sales honestly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Um, no, most of us just use WhatsApp

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

But most iPhone sales are in a region where WhatsApp is irrelevant.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My understanding of "Android cameras bad" came from snapchat on Android literally taking shittier pictures and videos for some reason.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It took a screenshot of the viewfinder instead of an actual shot with shutter settings etc.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The EU has dragged Apple through the mud in order to make them change for the better, they will be able to do the same.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If what the first commenter said is true. They will just implement RCS or an alternative in the EU and make up some reason why they can't or won't for the US market.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I'll take it. Whatever makes them suffer at least a little bit. (Apple, that is.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

USB C was a hardware change. Economically it was not viable to run separate production lines of lightning/ USB-C phones.

RCS is a software issue. Supporting RCS in certain regions but not others (the US for example) is much simpler.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

True. So true in fact that I'd be willing to bet that even if the EU made them implement RCS they still wouldn't do it in the US. USB-C only worked because it's a hardware change and maintaining separate lightning and USB-C models and accessory ecosystems doesn't make sense. RCS is a software change that costs them nothing to NOT use in the only market where it would hurt them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

In most of Europe, nobody uses an apple phone, so the pressure to get them to use a different protocol is fairly low.

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