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I use iMessage when chatting with close family (as we all have iPhones) and some friends, but WhatsApp for everyone else, especially any time we want a group chat.

Many years ago, before I had an iPhone with a front camera, I used Viber for audio calls, and more recently a horrible app called Kakao to chat with a close Korean friend. Luckily, I've weaned them off this.

I also have Line for chatting with the inlaws in Asia. That app makes me feel dirty, as I get spammed in animated gifs and emojis from adults behaving like teenage girls. It's kind of addictive though.
 
Yes it is.
I don't know the figures personally. Widely used meaning what exactly?
In absolute numbers or relative to other messaging platforms?

Anecdotal for sure but from what I can tell every person that I message with has WhatsApp. The same cannot be same of iMessage.
 
You're delusional if you think you're 100% sure any of these platforms have any of "security, privacy, and trustworthiness".

If you want privacy, you need to download an open source (can't be closed source, or no one can check for back doors, or flaws) encryption such as PGP, swap public keys with whoever you want to swap messages with, and then encrypt all your messages with your private/public key pair before sending.

Any messaging app that isn't open source that claims to encrypt, well, you're trusting that they're not lying, and haven't messed it up.

Any messaging app that claims to be "secure, private, and trustworthy", well, good luck.
You’re delusional if you think our choice is either written notes on poster board or bank vault lockdown.

You’re delusional by creating false equivalencies between iMessage and anything put forward by Facebook.

You’re delusional if you think anyone is saying that any mainstream messaging platform is foolproof. But I’m going with the company that first implemented two-factor authentication, defied the Feds to hack phones, defied the Feds to build OS backdoor, and makes money on gadgets instead of your data; as opposed to the company that tracks you across the internet, was in bed with Cambridge Analytica, had massive personal data breaches, identifies your likeness on the internet without notification or compensation, retains your data even after account cancellation, whose CEO privately laughs at privacy, and who by and large makes you their product.

Finally, you’re delusional if you think you can point to any perceived weaknesses in Apple’s privacy track record that makes them remotely like Facebook. You’ll be alone on that island. False equivalencies and whataboutism are features of weak arguments.
 
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How is that an issue? Most of mine do. My bother and his wife are the only 2 people I text who don’t have an iPhone. Why is that so hard to believe?
You've, a) Answered a question not aimed at you and b) Effectively said, No.
 
It is. If you want to answer the question then answer it;
All of your contacts use an iPhone?

Every. Single. One?
Now that’s a trick question. I have contacts since I saved them, and some don’t even have a cell phone. Some contacts I just have a email for as well. Some are business and some are people who I haven’t talked to in years.

I answered this earlier:

I also live in that bubble and I don’t even have Facebook messenger on my phone. All I use is iMessage (about 90%) Telegram (8%) Signal (2 people, but one also has Telegram), and the rest is text.

maybe the other person you asked happens to message only people with iPhones, it can happen.
 
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Now that’s a trick question. I have contacts since I saved them, and some don’t even have a cell phone. Some contacts I just have a email for as well. Some are business and some are people who I haven’t talked to in years.

I answered this earlier:



maybe the other person you asked happens to message only people with iPhones, it can happen.
Not a trick question at all.
Does every contact you have, (that uses a phone), have an iPhone?
Also, you don’t know that the person on the other phone has an iPhone unless iMessage is switched on.
Im just getting around how facetious the answer appears to be.
Of course it can happen, it’s just very unlikely.
 
it just sends a text.
Exactly. However, this "feature" just shows how much out of touch iMessage fans are. The last time anyone wanted to receive a text message was 10 years ago. People under 30 don't even know that you can use text messages for anything than mTAN and sending happy birthday to grandma.
 
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Exactly. However, this "feature" just shows how much out of touch iMessage fans are. The last time anyone wanted to receive a text message was 10 years ago. People under 30 don't even know that you can use text messages for anything than mTAN and sending happy birthday to grandma.
I'm not sure if you're serious or not?
 
Exactly. However, this "feature" just shows how much out of touch iMessage fans are. The last time anyone wanted to receive a text message was 10 years ago. People under 30 don't even know that you can use text messages for anything than mTAN and sending happy birthday to grandma.

Maybe it shows how out of touch people under 30 really are.
 
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Not a trick question at all.
Does every contact you have, (that uses a phone), have an iPhone?
Also, you don’t know that the person on the other phone has an iPhone unless iMessage is switched on.
Im just getting around how facetious the answer appears to be.
Of course it can happen, it’s just very unlikely.
It is a trick question. People in your contacts vs. The people you actually text are 2 different things. You can easily say “so all the people you message have an iPhone?“ I bet there are a lot of people who can say yes too that.

Exactly. However, this "feature" just shows how much out of touch iMessage fans are. The last time anyone wanted to receive a text message was 10 years ago. People under 30 don't even know that you can use text messages for anything than mTAN and sending happy birthday to grandma.
Because it does automatically in the message app (iMessage or text). My kid is well under 30 and they even send text messages still to friends who are the same age. So yes, they know what a text message is.
 
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It is a trick question. People in your contacts vs. The people you actually text are 2 different things. You can easily say “so all the people you message have an iPhone?“ I bet there are a lot of people who can say yes too that.


Because it does automatically in the message app (iMessage or text). My kid is well under 30 and they even send text messages still to friends who are the same age. So yes, they know what a text message is.
Again, you ONLY know if the person on the other end has an iPhone IF iMessage is switched on. It's not a trick question, you CANNOT iMessage someone that doesn't have an iPhone.
 
Again, you ONLY know if the person on the other end has an iPhone IF iMessage is switched on. It's not a trick question, you CANNOT iMessage someone that doesn't have an iPhone.
Right. Again, a business wouldn’t have an iPhone... and I don’t text them either... and I have them as a contact. You’re missing the point. I have over 200 contacts in my phone, probably message only a few. I’m just saying I highly doubt you text every person in your contacts as well.
Also, if you do a search, you can actually can get iMessage on an Android.
 
Right. Again, a business wouldn’t have an iPhone... and I don’t text them either... and I have them as a contact. You’re missing the point. I have over 200 contacts in my phone, probably message only a few. I’m just saying I highly doubt you text every person in your contacts as well.
Also, if you do a search, you can actually can get iMessage on an Android.
lol. Honestly. That’s what you’re going with?
I found this;
I can get MacOS running on lots of Windows boxes and using lots of tricks you can make iMesssge work over WeMessage.
Man you’re reaching.
In that case let me be just as ridiculous.
Let’s say business ‘A’ has purchased a cell line and SIM, (my business has BTW), that you can call or text into.
Now because you don’t know who is going to reply when you call or text in, my business has iMessage.
I don’t send text messages to every entity in my contacts but without being silly about it I can realistically only iMessage those with iPhones/iPads.
 
i believe that the latter request is impossible to implement concomitantly with end-to-end encryption. what ive heard is that if you can view something on the web, that the server that’s displaying the content must have the decryption key as well, meaning that there is a middle man that holds a plain text representation of the chat transcript and that therefore the conversation cant be end-to-end encrypted
It's not. Most modern sites are web apps that run locally on your PC. The backend itself can wire over encrypted content that's then decrypted by your local web app. Only thing you'd have to figure out is how you securely store private keys (there are a couple of ways to do it). You can also go the lazy route and do what WhatsApp did for their desktop/web apps.

I thought WhatsApp was end-to-end encrypted, so how can the web work?


I like Telegram a lot, but it’s not end-to-end encrypted by default and when you turn it on, it only works on one device. I can use Signal on my computers, iPhone, and iPad and i’s end-to-end encrypted.
Are you sure that is correct? Doesn't Whatsapp and some of these other messaging platforms have end-to-end encryption yet also provide a web interface? What about secure and encrypted web-based email platforms for business -- Citrix and the like. I would think the decryption key would be tied to the user's authentication.
WhatsApp has no true web / desktop apps. They link to your mobile app, which then keeps a connection alive to your web / desktop app (and sends content over or takes input from the web / desktop app).
That's actual hard evidence that they don't have your encryption keys (they use the Signal protocol and have been independently audited, so their encryption is legit and there's no backdoor). There are rumors that they work on a "modern" multi-client authentication method that'd enable you to natively use WhatsApp on more than one device (e.g. the in development iPad app, without requiring your phone to be connected). The reason it's taking so long is cause they don't want to weaken their E2EE (and they are probably also gearing up work on that unified messaging backend for Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp).


rumor; windows will do a iMessage thingy soon
******** or legit rumor somewhere?

_______________________________

I'm all for Apple releasing iMessage on non-Apple ecosystems, but I don't see it happening. I think RCS is the devils pact we'll get in a few years... it's certainly better than fully unencrypted, archaic SMS fallbacks in Messages.
 
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i read it early this week, forget were, so rumor
dont shoot the messenger (me).
 
2 things that would bring iOS up to date:

1. Merge iMessage and Facetime. All other big communication apps have it. Whatsapp, viber, skype, facebook messenger etc AND also make it sync better with the cross platforms. Whatssapp backs up and syncs everything much better than iMessage.

2. In the phone app, the dialing screen, to show contacts as you dial a number, which is actually a search engine in the contacts, ordering the contacts in the alphabetic order by the letters on the keys. Android does it very well. I hope I explained myself clear enough with this one. :) This is the only thing I miss from android.
 
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