So you use iMessage and WhatsApp to cover your entire contact list? I weep for you. You can always use Android and Google's seven different messenger apps in addition to WhatsApp for a truly superior messaging service.
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Apple Explains Why iMessage Hasn't Expanded to Android
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So you use iMessage and WhatsApp to cover your entire contact list? I weep for you. You can always use Android and Google's seven different messenger apps in addition to WhatsApp for a truly superior messaging service.
Exactly. Heck, their available profiles for iAds shows that they could personally associate everything from location to financial status to all our past history of iTunes usage.
Indeed, almost all my own teen daughter's friends have iPhones simply because of Facetime and iMessage.
It is very enlightening, however, to read all the comments about the most popular messaging apps in the rest of the world!
The problem with differential privacy is that the more it obscures individual inputs, the less useful to an individual it is. Unless Apple figures out a way to re-combine data stored on the device itself. That would be cool, although tied to a single device. (I prefer server side storage of my preferences, so they work for me on any device or browser, anywhere.)
Which is why this comment doesn't make sense:
"When I asked a senior Apple executive why iMessage wasn't being expanded to other platforms, he gave two answers. First, he said, Apple considers its own user base of 1 billion active devices to provide a large enough data set for any possible AI learning the company is working on." - Mossberg
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There is a reason Apple users pay more for their iPhones — because they don't have to deal with a stupid app like WhatsApp, from a company with no working business model, which was always going to be sold to Facebook, who was always going to share your private communication with its advertising partners. And then you have to jump through flaming hoops to get your data back.
The need to monetize on free software from third party vendors has ruined Windows and will ultimately ruin Android. I will always prefer Apple's stock apps, if I can somehow cope with their limitations. Don't be fooled by a huge and rising market share. Eat feces, millions of flies can't be wrong.
Flies need to wake up.
I don't have that I just looked...
I wonder if it's because I paid for my whatsapp all those years ago
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My point was about the potential halo effect accelerating the number of Android switchers. One of the biggest surprises of Apple offering iTunes for Windows was the number of switchers that resulted from it. Windows users could have decided to stay with Windows but many chose to buy Mac instead because of the positive experience of using iTunes /iPod.
Like I said, no one will know the outcome until Apple does it, but I don't think the argument is as simple as there's no advantage whatsoever to releasing iMessage for Android.
iMessage is proprietary lock in so it wouldn't make sense for Apple to make it easier to jump ship. Doesn't matter anyway since I and people I know use Hangouts on iOS for free unlimited 10-digit calling and SMS within North America over WIFI or LTE vs iMessage gimmicks.
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Obviously things are entirely different in the US and Europe. Neither I knew that nor you. MMS is simply not a thing in Europe. No one has ever used them here. They are very expensive to this day, very limited in size and badly implemented by most carriers. I didn't know that the situation is quite different in the US. Nevertheless MMS is much less capable than messenger apps (including iMessage) and not an equivalent replacement.
I was talking about why Whatsapp specifically became a success, not about alternatives to SMS in general. It's obvious they became big because they were free AND much more capable. iMessage, too, was quite popular in Europe before Whatsapp became big. Now, no one uses it anymore.
There is no such thing as SMS group chat, only MMS group chat exists, and that isn't even available on many European carriers. The option in the iPhone settings doesn't even exist then. iPhone group chats (no matter if MMS or iMessage) really suck in comparison to Whatsapp groups and even Facebook chats. And since group chats are so popular these days, that's a major selling point for competitors.
Sorry, it's just a bad business decision for Apple. Why not have imessages with all the crap for ios users, and a light version where you receive all the animation, but can only send normal messages back for other OS. Right now all that has happened is people ditch imessages or use it less.
If Apple was smart, they would have created a trojan horse so that people keep iMessages relevant! But this is Tim Cook's Apple so his only creative contribution is more emojis!
AND no, people don't have 7 different messager systems.... That is more Tim Cook denial that is making Apple stocks plunge. For two years I have been saying Apple is in a downward spiral.. and but judging by the amount of negative comments, and now stock value, people aren't happy with Tim and his decisions
I didn't even realise people actually used iMessage. What point is there to use another terrible first party Apple app when there is a multitude of superior third party apps such as Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Line, etc. The newest update of iMessage just seems like a weak attempt to emulate these superior messenger apps, but it will never be able to live up to them due to the slow pace of Apple updates and the fact it is limited to only one software ecosystem.
Oh, you know, so that you can jus too to one main built-in messaging app on your phone and message anyone without worrying wether or not they have an iPhone or anything like that, as it will do the job for you of using iMessage when possible or just using regular text messaging when not. That way you don't have to download another app and wonder if the other person you are messaging has that app or uses that app as well or anything like that.
They work well enough and really most people have whatsapp so just use whatsapp web and a third party app your bases are covered.
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Funny none of that stopped Apple from releasing a music app for Android. Oh wait that's because it makes money.
Using iMessage fails because it doesn't include everyone in group chats. All it takes is one person not to have iMessage then you start to look for another solution .....which is why Whatsapp is so popular. It's the number 1 free app in the app store at the minute because it unifies everyone and doesn't discriminate against other phone users. Yes, of course, i'd like all of my friends family and people i haven't exchanged numbers with to have iPhones, but it isn't going to happen. Not ONE manufacturer will dominate which is the core issue - there needs to be a common group messaging app. Whatsapp fills this space and iMessage doesn't. This really cements the future for me.
I say again, This only means something if you, your friends and everybody you WILL meet and talk in group chats with
It's not a case of who has best messaging app.
It's a case of who has the most popular app that can communicate with everyone.
If you can't communicate with everyone, then what's the point of a glorified but crippled messaging app?
I say again, This only means something if you, your friends and everybody you WILL meet and talk in group chats with
It's not a case of who has best messaging app.
It's a case of who has the most popular app that can communicate with everyone.
If you can't communicate with everyone, then what's the point of a glorified but crippled messaging app?
Whatsapp is by far the biggest most popular messaging app in Malaysia due to cross platform features. Telegram tried to challenger whatsapp but failed. iMessage, though, is are failure here.
I even use whatsapp group chat for work. And you're sometimes required to have whatsapp for work. That's how big this app is over here.
I even use whatsapp group chat for work. And you're sometimes required to have whatsapp for work. That's how big this app is over here.
Just following your example, I made the logical connection
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Think what the person who does not have iMessage sees......
But you'd also have to give up on all the other advantages that the iPhone has over Android devices. It's not just imessage and facetime that people buy iPhones for, there things like iTunes synchronisation, icloud backup, easy to use and reliable interface and access to features, Apple pay, reversible charging connectors, powerful 4" devices, morally and ethically Apple being a company of a higher standard, Apple stores, Apple's legendary customer care. You have to give all of those things up when you move out of the iOS ecosystem.
because you have iMessage threads with each other, you feel locked in? That's the weirdest thing I have ever heard. You reference back to older messages? Must be a generational thing: I just do "New message" on any platform and send them a text. End of story. There's no lock in whatsoever.
The entire point of iMessage is that it doesn't require you to do anything to use it. You don't have to worry about who is on what platform, installing an app, creating or logging in to an account. If you and those you are communicating are both on iMessage, great. If not, it uses SMS automatically.
I use mixed iMessage/SMS group chats all the time??
I can't believe people are still arguing about this. Unless/until Apple can make money off iMessage it isn't coming to any other platform. And every competing cross-platform messaging app is in the App Store so iOS users with lots of friends on Android aren't forced to use iMessage. I suppose Apple could charge Android users a monthly/yearly fee to use iMessage but how many people would pay for it when the iOS version (and other services) is free? My guess is not enough to make it worth while. Same with payments. Even if Apple added micro payments (that they received a cut of) to iMessage I doubt the volume would be enough to make it financially worthwhile or to offset people who would leave iOS or not switch from Android to iOS. And I certainly don't want to be nickel and dimed by developers (or spammed with advertising) just to make iMessage profitable for Apple to port to Android.
read this article: https://next.ft.com/content/fac63040-bddd-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2
''Jan Koum, co-founder and chief executive of the messaging app acquired by Facebook for $22bn in 2014, told the DLD technology conference in Munich that WhatsApp is scrapping the 99-cent annual fee it charges consumers after a year. He said the company would instead focus on making businesses pay to connect with its 900m users.
“It really doesn’t work that well,” he said of the subscription fee.
He provided few details on what this alternative business model would involve, admitting that WhatsApp engineers had not yet “written a single line of code” in developing new services.
But in a blogpost, the company said it will test tools to allow users to communicate with organisations on the platform. “That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight,” it said, adding that it wanted to find a way of doing this in a way that did not rely on advertising.''
“It really doesn’t work that well,” he said of the subscription fee.
He provided few details on what this alternative business model would involve, admitting that WhatsApp engineers had not yet “written a single line of code” in developing new services.
But in a blogpost, the company said it will test tools to allow users to communicate with organisations on the platform. “That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight,” it said, adding that it wanted to find a way of doing this in a way that did not rely on advertising.''
We don't know what application of "AI learning" he was referring to. Could be something that doesn't require looking at actual message content without the users' explicit consent, or perhaps it runs locally on the device (similar to the current version of Quicktype), or uploads information about your replies from the device separately from sending the messages (which may presumably be what the "Siri enabled" Quicktype in iOS 10 will do). In the latter case you'll probably be able to opt out.
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As I said before, you have no idea what you are talking about. Of course you can do group chats using SMS. Smartphones have been capable of threading conversations involving multiple parties over SMS for years.
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Seven different messenger apps? Maybe, if people choose to use them, but they're not forced to do so by lack of support for their native system on as friend's device. If the iMessage protocol (and FaceTime) was opened up then Google could build it into their default apps and I wouldn't have to install any additional apps (but people who wanted to still could).
I think many of the comments (like the one from Malaysia) refer to when you use iMessage/texts that include people who are not in the US or traveling internationally.
Yeah, if you are just texting your domestic buddies on a mixed platform, no big deal - the the only difference is the color of the bubble.
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That's interesting. My 18 year old would give me a lot of reasons why she likes her phone -but not sure iMessage or FaceTime would make the cut. They all use Snapchat, Whatapp and 3 other messaging platforms in addition to iMessage/Text. I don't think she'd blink if she suddenly couldn't iMessage, as that generation is very adept at multiple text apps.
It would probably be a bigger curve ball to my 75 year old grandmother than my 18 year old daughter.