It'd be great if they brought iMessage to iCloud.com and allow access via the web for those of us that can't install apps on work computers.
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Apple's Rationale for Not Bringing iMessage to Android Revealed in Legal Documents
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So the nut job CEO of Epic now thinks Apple should be forced to develop certain software for a competing platform due to lock-in? Find any company who develops products and solutions to give to their competitors while risking loss of customers. That’s a great business plan if you are trying to go out of business.
Why would they need a second messaging app when one everyone can use is built into the phone already. Would one mandate be enough or it will take 2 or 3 mandated messaging apps.
Sucking does not apply when something you need affects you and virtually no one else. You’d have search high and low to find any volume of sim swappers. International travelers who swap sims is a minuscule group of people. You are looking 10+ zeros to the left of the decimal.
Email is a universal standard. Every phone comes with a preinstalled client and yet the App Store and Play Store are full of alternative clients.
Anyway, on some level that is what RCS is supposed to be, particularly because SMS is supposed to be turned off at some point.
Carriers have been dragging their heels and Apple will probably not support it until they absolutely have to. Until then it will be up to Google to push it forward and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
In the US, I wouldn't call SMS government-mandated. The ATIS (the US part of 3GPP) is a private organization. Though the cell carriers have a relationship with the government, being FCC-regulated and maybe subsidized.
It really only matters in two cases:
1. Group chats, where SMS is a disaster.
2. Using it from a computer, which you can do with SMS if you have an iPhone but otherwise not very easily.
Looking at my friends with Android phones, I can't see them wanting to use Apple anything, iMessage included.
I'm even an Apple user but don't like iMessage very much. It's flaky. Open iMessage on my Mac, and the messages take like a minute to sync and sometimes come in out of order. It's instant and 100% reliable on FB Messenger! How hard can it be?
I have several friends using Android and we have group chats all the time between iPhones and their Android devices. Not exactly sure where this is coming from. It works just fine and none of them complain or even know what iMessage is.
I think that’s because Apple doesn’t store your messages on their servers, except for undelivered messages. It has to sync between your devices to get the messages. There will be lag between sync events.
If I’m not wrong, FB Messenger stores your messages in their servers and you basically download your messages once you log on, very much like loading a web page. This model will appear to be instant.
Yes it is arbitrary and what’s not helpful is your attempt to ignore things which show your arguments are inaccurate and flawed. So what if WeChat offers additional features? So do other chat apps. Line can be used for sending digital gift cards and for payments. Viber supports payments too, as well as having a news feed. Excluding Apps simply because they offer more than chat is pointless and illogical. Try again.
Of all the things, iMessage would be one of the last reason for me, to stay in the Apple Ecosystem. Everyone and their dogs are using WhatsApp here in Asia and the same applies to Germany, where I am from.
I think I'm able to sync the messages even if my other device is offline, so it's not that. But I can test. Either way, Apple could store them on their servers. Doesn't violate E2EE.
I'm aware that FB Messenger is a much simpler setup in that FB's servers control everything, and the clients aren't doing much. But Signal got E2EE messaging working fine. And also, I don't care, I just want my messages to work.
Well, I suppose it is Apple's architecture decision to engineer iMessage that way. I think it could also be complicated by the fact that iMessage also handles SMS messages, and SMS are not sent to Apple's servers.
I just like the fact that I can access my SMS and iMessage chats from my iPhones, iPads and Macs seamlessly and securely. The lag in the sync does not bother me. I don't think storing messages in Apple's server violates their E2EE. They likely have all their devices public keys stored in their server to be sent to edge devices when an iMessage for the edge device is sent to their server. They probably just don't see the need to store their user's chat in their servers perpetually.
Isn't SMS totally separate from iMessage? I don't see how it'd affect them. There is SMS forwarding for Mac/iPad, which I love cause I don't want to type on a little phone, but I think that's separate too.
Apologies. I was referring to the Messages app instead of the iMessage technology, if that make any sense. But yeah, I meant to say that the Messages apps handles both SMS and iMessage for iPhone, iPad and Macs, and from my experience, it only works together when all my devices are only the same WiFi network.
I love iMessage, especially with friends that use Read receipts. Incredibly useful feature, even though so simple, in day-to-day life. I don’t need a response that our reservation has changed, I just need to know that you got it. Also love that it works in free messaging programs, like flying on Delta. You can message all you want, with no cost, to people on iMessage, without paying for data. Can’t do it with Whatsapp, snap, etc.
We are talking iMessage here. Hardly a 'major competitive advantage'.
As already mentioned in this thread: iMessage is popular mainly in the US and mostly irrelevant in the rest of the world.
How come? Isn't iMessage on by default? Atleast here in Finland it is. Most of users don't even understand that they are using "iMessage". It's still text message for most of users. You don't "use" iMessage, it is just an alternative and automatic message protocol to SMS?