Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage

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Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage​

Apple’s iMessage system is a dozen years old, but it still only provides a feature-rich messaging experience between iMessage users. That makes sense for Apple—it’s a big selling point for i-devices—but change may be coming.

"...Green bubbles and blue bubbles want to be together. Help Apple #GetTheMessage,” Samsung declared in a video posted to YouTube yesterday, using Google’s preferred hashtag for the campaign. (In iMessage, blue bubbles are used for messages sent between iMessage users, while green bubbles are for messages sent to or from users outside the system, which denotes a fallback to those more archaic, less secure messaging protocols.)"
 
Shoganai said:
This has nothing to do with Apple opening up iMessage and everything to do with Google and Samsung trying to get Apple to adopt RCS.
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Agreed.

Opening up iMessage would be silly.

Apple should - however - be forced to use the RCS standard for messages if they want to sell smart phones though.

The only reason they don't is because they want to manipulate the market. They see themselves in a dominant position, and want to call anyone who doesn't use an Apple device "the poors" and shame people into buying Apple, which they deserve legitimate criticism (and maybe even lawsuits) for.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Agreed.

Opening up iMessage would be silly.

Apple should - however - be forced to use the RCS standard for messages if they want to sell smart phones though.

The only reason they don't is because they want to manipulate the market. They see themselves in a dominant position, and want to call anyone who doesn't use an Apple device "the poors" and shame people into buying Apple, which they deserve legitimate criticism (and maybe even lawsuits) for.
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I agree. It's very stupid. I'm not going to jump ship to Android if they adopt RCS. But it would be great to have a non-terrible default means to text people with Android. SMS is hot garbage. My android friends and family are on Telegram, so it's a non-issue, but it would nice for RCS to be there, especially for group texts.
 
Shoganai said:
I agree. It's very stupid. I'm not going to jump ship to Android if they adopt RCS. But it would be great to have a non-terrible default means to text people with Android. SMS is hot garbage. My android friends and family are on Telegram, so it's a non-issue, but it would nice for RCS to be there, especially for group texts.
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That's what I want it for. It's a disturbing experience for all when everyone has different phone operating systems.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Agreed.

Opening up iMessage would be silly.

Apple should - however - be forced to use the RCS standard for messages if they want to sell smart phones though.

The only reason they don't is because they want to manipulate the market. They see themselves in a dominant position, and want to call anyone who doesn't use an Apple device "the poors" and shame people into buying Apple, which they deserve legitimate criticism (and maybe even lawsuits) for.
Click to expand...
Which RCS?? There are over a dozen incompatible versions of it. Operating in different countries around the world. Even in the US they are only now starting to bring them together to one of the Google designed ones.

And just a note RCS was and still advertised as the future of text based marketing, and much of its back end is geared towards data tracking and add placement.

Icing on the cake for the RCS implementations that are becoming the norm uses Google servers as a relay hub for all traffic. I don’t trust it.

The version of RCS Google and Samsung are trying to get everybody to adopt also includes RBM, and for those not in the know on RBM.

While RCS is designed to win back Person-to-Person (P2P) traffic, RBM is intended to retain and grow this A2P traffic.[33][34] RCS offers "rich" features similar to those of messaging apps, but delivered (in theory) via the preloaded SMS messaging app - for example Google Messages or Samsung Messages. By making these features available in a B2C setting, RBM is expected to attract marketing and customer service spend from enterprises, thanks to improved customer engagement and interactive features that facilitate new use cases.[35][36] This was the primary reason for the development of RCS by the GSMA.

RBM includes features not available to ordinary users, including predefined quick-reply suggestions, rich cards, carousels, and branding. This last feature is intended to increase consumer confidence and reduce fraud through the implementation of a verified sender system.[37] These additional features are only available with the use of a messaging-as-a-platform (MaaP) server integrated with the operator's network. The MaaP controls the verified sender details, unlocking RBM features, while also segregating P2P and A2P RCS messages, aiding monetisation of the latter (SMS currently suffers from grey routes, where A2P messages are sent over P2P connections, which are cheaper or often free).[38]

So Google and Samsung want it to spread so they have a new advertising platform.

If Google strips out all the business and marketing tools they have laid into their RCS implementations they are attempting to standardize then I may consider advocating it.
 
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People should be forced to only buy phones with LineageOS on it - for their own good and the good of all 🫡

1697000841823.png
 
Lakados said:
Which RCS?? There are over a dozen incompatible versions of it. Operating in different countries around the world. Even in the US they are only now starting to bring them together to one of the Google designed ones.

And just a note RCS was and still advertised as the future of text based marketing, and much of its back end is geared towards data tracking and add placement.

Icing on the cake for the RCS implementations that are becoming the norm uses Google servers as a relay hub for all traffic. I don’t trust it.

The version of RCS Google and Samsung are trying to get everybody to adopt also includes RBM, and for those not in the know on RBM.

While RCS is designed to win back Person-to-Person (P2P) traffic, RBM is intended to retain and grow this A2P traffic.[33][34] RCS offers "rich" features similar to those of messaging apps, but delivered (in theory) via the preloaded SMS messaging app - for example Google Messages or Samsung Messages. By making these features available in a B2C setting, RBM is expected to attract marketing and customer service spend from enterprises, thanks to improved customer engagement and interactive features that facilitate new use cases.[35][36] This was the primary reason for the development of RCS by the GSMA.

RBM includes features not available to ordinary users, including predefined quick-reply suggestions, rich cards, carousels, and branding. This last feature is intended to increase consumer confidence and reduce fraud through the implementation of a verified sender system.[37] These additional features are only available with the use of a messaging-as-a-platform (MaaP) server integrated with the operator's network. The MaaP controls the verified sender details, unlocking RBM features, while also segregating P2P and A2P RCS messages, aiding monetisation of the latter (SMS currently suffers from grey routes, where A2P messages are sent over P2P connections, which are cheaper or often free).[38]

So Google and Samsung want it to spread so they have a new advertising platform.

If Google strips out all the business and marketing tools they have laid into their RCS implementations they are attempting to standardize then I may consider advocating it.
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That's good info I was unaware of.

I've only ever heard it referred to as essentially an implementation of MMS but with more modern rich/media features.

It would be better if everyone just used Signal :p
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
That's good info I was unaware of.

I've only ever heard it referred to as essentially an implementation of MMS but with more modern rich/media features.

It would be better if everyone just used Signal :p
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Yeah because the it’s everything you love but better approach is benign and sounds great. But yeah it does all this cool shit and lets us use our marketing tools to spam blast you with verified advertisements from sponsored companies, is much less so.
 
Lakados said:
Which RCS?? There are over a dozen incompatible versions of it. Operating in different countries around the world. Even in the US they are only now starting to bring them together to one of the Google designed ones.

And just a note RCS was and still advertised as the future of text based marketing, and much of its back end is geared towards data tracking and add placement.

Icing on the cake for the RCS implementations that are becoming the norm uses Google servers as a relay hub for all traffic. I don’t trust it.

The version of RCS Google and Samsung are trying to get everybody to adopt also includes RBM, and for those not in the know on RBM.

While RCS is designed to win back Person-to-Person (P2P) traffic, RBM is intended to retain and grow this A2P traffic.[33][34] RCS offers "rich" features similar to those of messaging apps, but delivered (in theory) via the preloaded SMS messaging app - for example Google Messages or Samsung Messages. By making these features available in a B2C setting, RBM is expected to attract marketing and customer service spend from enterprises, thanks to improved customer engagement and interactive features that facilitate new use cases.[35][36] This was the primary reason for the development of RCS by the GSMA.

RBM includes features not available to ordinary users, including predefined quick-reply suggestions, rich cards, carousels, and branding. This last feature is intended to increase consumer confidence and reduce fraud through the implementation of a verified sender system.[37] These additional features are only available with the use of a messaging-as-a-platform (MaaP) server integrated with the operator's network. The MaaP controls the verified sender details, unlocking RBM features, while also segregating P2P and A2P RCS messages, aiding monetisation of the latter (SMS currently suffers from grey routes, where A2P messages are sent over P2P connections, which are cheaper or often free).[38]

So Google and Samsung want it to spread so they have a new advertising platform.

If Google strips out all the business and marketing tools they have laid into their RCS implementations they are attempting to standardize then I may consider advocating it.
Click to expand...
Yeah ... no thanks. Now I'm reading that RCS ads were shut down in India because of the excessive advertising spam. What a pile of steaming garbage. I'll stick with messaging my Android pals with Telegram.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/04/g...n-india-following-rampant-spam-by-businesses/
 
Shoganai said:
Yeah ... no thanks. Now I'm reading that RCS ads were shut down in India because of the excessive advertising spam. What a pile of steaming garbage. I'll stick with messaging my Android pals with Telegram.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/04/g...n-india-following-rampant-spam-by-businesses/
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And notice it was Google who had the power to shut down those adds, not the telecoms, not a government agency, and not the users. Just Google.

And as a fun asside RCS is by default not end-to-end encrypted, it is defaulted to off. To actually encrypt it you need to enable the RCS Chat option. Calling the encryption Chat isn’t exactly obvious. And if the other user does not have it enabled it disables it for both.
 
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If you want iMessage and don’t want to be used as advertising revenue I heard there is this company that makes something called the iPhone.

I hope apple fights this hard. I really don’t give a shit that people that use android are a green bubble. That’s the beauty of iMessage - it seamlessly handles iMessage and normal sms in the same app.
 
Mchart said:
If you want iMessage and don’t want to be used as advertising revenue I heard there is this company that makes something called the iPhone.

I hope apple fights this hard. I really don’t give a shit that people that use android are a green bubble. That’s the beauty of iMessage - it seamlessly handles iMessage and normal sms in the same app.
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Instead of making a messaging app good enough to get people to switch on their own (that is that thing called 'competition' everyone claims they love) - they tried like what 3 times now and failed so moved on to "Change your app how we say to suit us"

Yes, we advocate for competition and don't like anti-consumer practices here, always :)

Before anyone "bHuT mUh PiCtUrEs GeT rEsIzEd" that's not anti consumer, print it out and snail mail it for all I care or one of a dozen other alternatives - that's a 'you' problem not a 'consumer' problem - it's not a 'consumer' problem whenever and any time someone else somewhere in the world has something better than you do

If people judge people for green texts, that's a 'you and them problem' again still not a 'consumer' problem
 
Mchart said:
If you want iMessage and don’t want to be used as advertising revenue I heard there is this company that makes something called the iPhone.

I hope apple fights this hard. I really don’t give a shit that people that use android are a green bubble. That’s the beauty of iMessage - it seamlessly handles iMessage and normal sms in the same app.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure "seamlessly" is the right terminology. It can do it relatively seamlessly if you know which options to turn on that aren't on by default.
 
Ididar said:
I'm not sure "seamlessly" is the right terminology. It can do it relatively seamlessly if you know which options to turn on that aren't on by default.
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iMessage is on by default, and uses SMS as a backup by default. Not sure what you're saying. It's literally the easiest thing to use on the platform which is why everyone uses it.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Agreed.

Opening up iMessage would be silly.

Apple should - however - be forced to use the RCS standard for messages if they want to sell smart phones though.

The only reason they don't is because they want to manipulate the market. They see themselves in a dominant position, and want to call anyone who doesn't use an Apple device "the poors" and shame people into buying Apple, which they deserve legitimate criticism (and maybe even lawsuits) for.
Click to expand...
Apple only holds a third of the mobile phone OS market in the world. Google is the one in the dominant position with Android.
 
I'm a fan of iMessage, but it would be good to have a unified way to communicate by default. Especially FT. For now WhatsApp will do. Love it.
 
It would be good to have an RCS option, but at the same time... I'm reminded more than a little of the pressure on Apple to use mobile Flash. Apple was supposedly a horrible monster, but it was really resisting messy technology. RCS has cleaned up a bit since Google took some responsibility for it, but it's the definition of messy. I remember talking to a company when RCS was brand new, and they had a really difficult time explaining why it was necessary; it wasn't until a few years ago that it even solidified as a platform-independent upgrade to SMS.

I won't be surprised if regulators make Apple adopt RCS, but I'd prefer that RCS' proponents get the tech sorted out first (encryption on by default, reduced reliance on vendors and carriers).
 
Aurelius said:
It would be good to have an RCS option, but at the same time... I'm reminded more than a little of the pressure on Apple to use mobile Flash. Apple was supposedly a horrible monster, but it was really resisting messy technology. RCS has cleaned up a bit since Google took some responsibility for it, but it's the definition of messy. I remember talking to a company when RCS was brand new, and they had a really difficult time explaining why it was necessary; it wasn't until a few years ago that it even solidified as a platform-independent upgrade to SMS.

I won't be surprised if regulators make Apple adopt RCS, but I'd prefer that RCS' proponents get the tech sorted out first (encryption on by default, reduced reliance on vendors and carriers).
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Yeah but Google’s implementation of RCS includes a non optional advertising platform of which Google has unilateral control. It also relays all RCS messages through Google servers of which we need to trust they aren’t man in the middling for content.
Regulators could make Apple adopt it, but I bet they would implement their own called AppleRCS which would strip out the advertising features.
 
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Tim Apple doesn’t care. “Buy an iPhone “

Personally, I would like to see google play dirty, just to show they can affect iPhone users experience. Server side detect iOS on YouTube and down rez everything to mpeg1 quality. And hashtag #getthemessage over it.

Need a good old tech bitch fight.
 
I never know why so many get in the corner with google, as if they are some benevolent company just trying so hard to protect your rights and privacy.

And honestly i don't normally message android users because they are poor and uninteresting.
 
Darunion said:
I never know why so many get in the corner with google, as if they are some benevolent company just trying so hard to protect your rights and privacy.

And honestly i don't normally message android users because they are poor and uninteresting.
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They get blinded by the big titties 'open source'
 
sc5mu93 said:
Tim Apple doesn’t care. “Buy an iPhone “

Personally, I would like to see google play dirty, just to show they can affect iPhone users experience. Server side detect iOS on YouTube and down rez everything to mpeg1 quality. And hashtag #getthemessage over it.

Need a good old tech bitch fight.
Click to expand...
Too late, Google already dicks with non-chrome browsers.
 
Sir Beregond said:
I'm on an Android, I literally have no idea what this green/blue bubble thing is and frankly I don't care.
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Right - so why should Samsung and google care? If their customers don’t care why do they neee an apple product on their android phone?

Also - I’ll point out that Microsoft worked with apple to integrate iMessage onto windows and the windows messaging app. It’s not as if Samsung/google couldn’t do the same.
 
Mchart said:
Right - so why should Samsung and google care? If their customers don’t care why do they neee an apple product on their android phone?

Also - I’ll point out that Microsoft worked with apple to integrate iMessage onto windows and the windows messaging app. It’s not as if Samsung/google couldn’t do the same.
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Apple had nothing to do with iMessage being added to phone link in Windows. Also, I've tried it on Windows, and it's completely atrocious.
 
Sir Beregond said:
I'm on an Android, I literally have no idea what this green/blue bubble thing is and frankly I don't care.
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Seems like users in the millennial and younger category have some fear of being judged by iPhone wielding peers that their messages show up as green instead of blue due to being bog standard SMS vs iMessage.

As a technical matter, iMessage is end-to-end encrypted, has delivery and read status updates, and a few other features that are pretty much cosmetic more than functional. Green means none of that works.
 
They've tried to guilt trip Apple with cyberbullying over all this too lmao

Gotta say, you know you're just a little surprised that one didn't work (even Apple cares more about money than your pregnant man emoji feelings in the end - at least we found the line in the sand)
 
Shoganai said:
This has nothing to do with Apple opening up iMessage and everything to do with Google and Samsung trying to get Apple to adopt RCS.
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This doesn't make sense. If Apple doesn't open up iMessage and won't adopt RCS then what should the world do about Apple devices? This is entirely on Apple.
 
DukenukemX said:
This doesn't make sense. If Apple doesn't open up iMessage and won't adopt RCS then what should the world do about Apple devices? This is entirely on Apple.
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Right - So why does Samsung care about apple opening up iMessage?
 
Mchart said:
Right - So why does Samsung care about apple opening up iMessage?
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Because it's the only app that has it's own standard that matches nothing of anyone else. Just like when API's are closed source it causes all sorts of issues. People should be able to message anyone freely without issue. To have one manufacturer not get the memo would be quite annoying.
 
DukenukemX said:
This doesn't make sense. If Apple doesn't open up iMessage and won't adopt RCS then what should the world do about Apple devices?
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It makes perfect sense, since all I was commenting on was the inaccuracy of the headline of this article. o_O
 
Apple has a product. Apple choses what features to put in that product.

The consumer is not forced to buy Apple products.

The consumer can choose not to buy Apple products if Apple does not include features the consumer wants.

Like, how hard is this to understand?
 
Yeah if you're being cyberbullied because you have Android Messages just open a different app
 
KazeoHin said:
Apple has a product. Apple choses what features to put in that product.

The consumer is not forced to buy Apple products.

The consumer can choose not to buy Apple products if Apple does not include features the consumer wants.

Like, how hard is this to understand?
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From some of the comments in here, very hard, apparently.
 
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