Android Devices May Soon Show iMessage Reactions as Emoji

[rockridge98]

Many Android SMS apps already render iMessage reaction emoji's, so it can't be a very hard problem.
I'm using Next SMS and it does this correctly about 90% of the time with messages from iPhones.

 

[dba415]

Apple users still can have Android user friends you know.

According to Tim Cook and the apple cult, it’s less than ideal to be friends with “poor” Android users

 

[hot-gril]

This is hilarious. Wonder if they'll also interpret "sent with heart effect" or whatever and actually show the effect.

 

[hot-gril]

Google could’ve done this a long time ago but instead waited for the frustration to pent up between Android and iMessage users to implement a fix, further fueling the war rather than making things compatible. Just like they refused to adopt Apple UI design standards and went with their now-dead Material Design. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s their mode of operation.

Apple barely cares about Android but Google has some serious passive aggressive tendencies when dealing with Apple.

Google doesn't have an option to support iMessage, thanks to Apple's attempt at user lock-in, and I doubt Apple has an agreement with them about what reactions will look like when sent to green people. What Google is finally doing now is kind of a hack, so I don't blame them for holding off.

 

[hot-gril]

The solution is RCS, which apple has no monetary incentive to support. But they really need to, sms/mms needs to be killed off.

Do most Android phones out there even support RCS?

 

[hot-gril]

Great, now what will I do to annoy my green bubble friends?

Hahaha, some of my friends were just complaining about this. "Why do people like stuff if they know you use Android??"

Now you can add them to a group chat with all your other green friends. Then they can never leave.

 

[6787872]

just release imessage for android already. nobody is gonna switch phones over it with all the other apps out there. at this point, it's just a frustration. SMS needs to die already.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Man, I re-enabled my account just to like this message. You're absolutely right. Just recently went back to android to get a Pixel 6 and traded-in my iPhone 12. Great little device but iOS has stayed so stagnant for so long that it bores me to death. Please let me move my icons whenever I want Apple! I also turn off iMessage, must of my family and friends use Whatsapp anyway, so...

Thanks mate, appreciate the feedback!

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Text (SMS/MMS) is cleartext. Signal, et al., did not exist when iMessage was implemented. It was arguably the first true easy to use E2E encrypted messaging available to all, and not reliant on a user being proficient with *BSD, Slackware or Kali Linux.

It’s true it is closed source. But it just works, like most things Apple does. It removes the need to RTFM, or open a shell script, or read the man pages, or all the other esoteric bull**** that went into using GPGP or PGP before.

Most users still cannot grok PGP. Yes, Signal and others have also simplified E2E encryption, but Apple popularized and spread it to the masses first. And more importantly, gave it free of charge, and frictionlessly (unlike most prior encryption technology).

So your argument may hold merit, but equally so does the fact that Apple brought this technology to the masses.

No it doesn't just work. It's a proprietary extension, and therefore only works on Apple devices. As a communication service, it is utterly broken. And also, it most certainly does not "just work" even amongst Apple users. My family discovered that when we used iMessage to each other, some of our messages failed to deliver!!! It wasn't a rare occurrence either, we had a LOT of messages go missing. So we all turned it off. Typical of Apple's poor software quality control over the last few years.

And if you think you can truly trust a closed source, proprietary messaging service for cryptography, then you're a bigger fool than I thought. There is no such thing as 100% trustworthy, closed source cryptography.

I happen to prefer PGP for the very rare occasion that I have something truly secret to send, but if you want a much easier open source, encrypted messaging service, then you can simply use Signal.

Apple merely brought a broken mess to the masses. Slow golf clap.

 

[Shirasaki]

And Google will implement AI into their new silicon specifically designed to analyse and display those reactions better.
Seriously though, the society created by Apple who fragments people with chat bubble colour better die asap. Google maybe able to bridge the gap in this regard with reaction display on Android.

 

[MrTangent]

No it doesn't just work. It's a proprietary extension, and therefore only works on Apple devices. As a communication service, it is utterly broken. And also, it most certainly does not "just work" even amongst Apple users. My family discovered that when we used iMessage to each other, some of our messages failed to deliver!!! It wasn't a rare occurrence either, we had a LOT of messages go missing. So we all turned it off. Typical of Apple's poor software quality control over the last few years.

And if you think you can truly trust a closed source, proprietary messaging service for cryptography, then you're a bigger fool than I thought. There is no such thing as 100% trustworthy, closed source cryptography.

I happen to prefer PGP for the very rare occasion that I have something truly secret to send, but if you want a much easier open source, encrypted messaging service, then you can simply use Signal.

Apple merely brought a broken mess to the masses. Slow golf clap.

Funny, I use iMessage extensively and have since its inception. Thousands… hundreds of thousands of messages to various friends and family. And it is exceedingly rare that a message sends via text.

In fact, it generally only happens when I have nearly zero service. Ergo, no usable internet. And you can turn off SMS sending backup so this doesn’t happen.

Secondly, iMessage is more than adequate for my day to day needs. I am not trying to defeat a nation-state level adversary (if they want you, it’s inevitable anyway… barring constant changing of burner phones, etc.). I simply want my ISP or anyone in between not to be able to parse the data. iMessage facilitates this. And does so pretty elegantly, and easily.

I use Wire (axolotl/proteus), Signal or XMPP (OTR/OMEMO) or PGP if I deem it necessary. I’ve tried to get friends and family to use Signal (good luck with PGP)… but most people don’t want to bother. They prefer iMessage, because it just works.

This is why iMessage is so great for most people. Your outlier experience aside, it works for hundreds of millions of users every second of every day.

Lastly, notice in my reply I extended courtesy to you without any unnecessary or rude name-calling. Perhaps you can communicate and in fact disagree without childish epithets?

 

[Thebrochure]

That would be very nice. It's a nice and welcoming transition. My android friends can't see my reactions. It's so annoying.

Meh. Green-bubble friends are outcasts by their very nature. Nothing Apple does can and will change that haha.

 

[Thebrochure]

Now Tim Cook has accomplished something! He is been very innovative in bringing Emoji to the forefront of innovation while Tesla and other companies are innovative something else.

Steve Jobs invents Apple, brings the Mac, MacBook, iMac, Mac Pro, iPod, iPhone and iPad to market. Cook brings the Apple Watch. At this point, nothing Cook could possibly do will even the score.

 

[willchris]

I try not to text green people ??‍♂️

Imagine being that shallow...

 

[hagar]

Absolutely! Apple should just become like everyone else, a follower not a leader. Stop with the M1 b.s. and humbly return to Intel like the rest of the world. Make macOS look and feel like Windows. In fact, get rid of macOS and just install Windows as the default. Switch iOS to Android. It would make life much easier for everyone.

I know you’re ironic, but to be fair the 6 proprietary iMessage reactions including HAHA and !! are quite lame. Wouldn’t hurt if they got replaced be regular emoji’s.

 

[hagar]

Meh. Green-bubble friends are outcasts by their very nature. Nothing Apple does can and will change that haha.

Apple is likely choosing harsh, ugly green bubbles on purpose. As a petty way to put down Android users. So they theoretically could fix this, but they won’t.

But in most parts of the world, this isn’t an issue as people switched to platform neutral apps. Unfortunately, they chose WhatsApp and FB Messenger.

 

[vinay427]

Meh. Green-bubble friends are outcasts by their very nature. Nothing Apple does can and will change that haha.

This seems to just feed the trope that Apple users are sheep that aren’t willing to act differently. No thank you, I have no interest in calling non-Apple users outcasts.

There’s a huge variance among non-Apple devices anyways, from the more polished and constrained Samsung experience (which is relatively Apple-like) to plenty of small startups that provide lots of flexibility including on which OS you use.

 

[TwoBytes]

Isn’t a better idea apple make iMessage cross compatible?

 

[hans1972]

In case you haven't notice there are these things called public standards,

AFAIK there only exist one standard for emojis, which is part of Unicode.

Does all the other messaging client use this standard or another one I'm not aware of?

 

[Skewlovevism]

I try not to text green people ??‍♂️

You are mistaking people with aliens, I think.

 

[DaPizzaMan]

I try not to text green people ??‍♂️

That's really childish

 

[scotty321]

Or those Android users could switch to iPhone... just sayin'.... ?‍♂️

 

[KeniLF]

Apple should ditch their unbelievably limited proprietary reactions and just use regular emojis anyways.

Thank you!! It's really irritating.

 

[dba415]

Or those Android users could switch to iPhone... just sayin'.... ?‍♂️

So as an iPhone user, I depend on others to make my messaging experience not suck?

 

[wigby]

Google could’ve done this a long time ago but instead waited for the frustration to pent up between Android and iMessage users to implement a fix, further fueling the war rather than making things compatible. Just like they refused to adopt Apple UI design standards and went with their now-dead Material Design. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s their mode of operation.

Apple barely cares about Android but Google has some serious passive aggressive tendencies when dealing with Apple.

I believe Apple has the superior platform and design standards but why should any company with greater marketshare be expected to kowtow to the company with less marketshare?