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Delta this week announced plans to offer free access to mobile messaging services on its flights starting in October.

Delta will allow customers to use iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger to communicate with family and friends while in flight. Though Delta will let customers send text-based messages that include words and emoji, photo and video files are not supported.

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Free messaging will be available on all Delta flights that feature Gogo Wi-Fi capabilities, which includes all aircraft with two or more cabins. Delta customers will be able to access the messaging services through the Delta Wi-Fi portal page.Delta plans to start offering the free messaging services on Sunday, October 1.

Article Link: Delta to Offer Free In-Flight Access to iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger
[doublepost=1506581660][/doublepost]I prefer to put away my smartphone on the plane at least
 
So T-Mobile allows free streaming, Delta allows free messaging put wants money for streaming...
Isn't this starting to be precisely the type of thing net neutrality was supposed to stop?
 
This deserves a little more attention than it has gotten. With the end-to-end encryption Apple touts iMessage offering, how do they do that? Can they decipher, when one message starts and when it ends and just throw everything over a certain size out? I think, you could have a pretty clear size-based discriminator between text iMessages and iMessages containing files, photos or video.
Encryption can happen at different levels.

Your assumption appears to be that you set up a tunnel connection and everything within the tunnel is encrypted, however, this is not the full story, because if this was the only type of encryption, then apple would be able to read your message, because every message passes through Apple's servers and the tunnel would terminate there.

What happens is that the payload is encrypted, the metadata around the data is not encrypted, because it is needed to route the message to the recipient, to define the object type being carried, if the content is large, it contains how many parts need to be assembled at the recipients end and what the sequence number is, the metadata also identifies which key should be used to decrypt it.

When you first use a messaging application two keys are created, the first key is your private key, the second is your public key, a message encrypted with a public key can only be encrypted with the corresponding private key, likewise a message encrypted with a private key can only be decrypted by the corresponding public key, you cannot decrypt a message encrypted using a public key with the public key, or decrypt a message encrypted with the private key with the private key, this is called asymmetric encryption.

You give your public key out to everyone that you message, only you have the private key, if someone encrypts a message with your public key, only you can read it, you can respond to them with a message encrypted with their public key, which they can decrypt with their private key.

When you have a group message is when it gets trickier, because the safest way, is to send a copy of each message to each member of the group, using each members individual public key, however, another way is to exchange the public and the private key over a secure channel and then store them in an encrypted vault accessible only with the members private key.
 
Is it really the norm in the US, that people use WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for their work related communication?
The point was we shouldn't have to leave our phone down. But no, that isn't typical. iMessage is heavily used by my company, though.

And even if it was for personal use, there should be nothing wrong with someone communicating for personal reasons on a plane to be told to put it away. It's very non-intrusive.
 
Encryption can happen at different levels.

Your assumption appears to be that you set up a tunnel connection and everything within the tunnel is encrypted, however, this is not the full story, because if this was the only type of encryption, then apple would be able to read your message, because every message passes through Apple's servers and the tunnel would terminate there.

What happens is that the payload is encrypted, the metadata around the data is not encrypted, because it is needed to route the message to the recipient, to define the object type being carried, if the content is large, it contains how many parts need to be assembled at the recipients end and what the sequence number is, the metadata also identifies which key should be used to decrypt it.

When you first use a messaging application two keys are created, the first key is your private key, the second is your public key, a message encrypted with a public key can only be encrypted with the corresponding private key, likewise a message encrypted with a private key can only be decrypted by the corresponding public key, you cannot decrypt a message encrypted using a public key with the public key, or decrypt a message encrypted with the private key with the private key, this is called asymmetric encryption.

You give your public key out to everyone that you message, only you have the private key, if someone encrypts a message with your public key, only you can read it, you can respond to them with a message encrypted with their public key, which they can decrypt with their private key.

When you have a group message is when it gets trickier, because the safest way, is to send a copy of each message to each member of the group, using each members individual public key, however, another way is to exchange the public and the private key over a secure channel and then store them in an encrypted vault accessible only with the members private key.
Thank you. This is the depth of explanation that was required.
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I've been flying all over for work and GoGo inflight isn't too bad, you can pay something like $3.99 for Messages Only (no images) and it works fairly well, though there are a lot of times where you're just waiting for reception again. This is United and American Airlines.

It's amazing how many people do the free inflight wifi video streaming. That has to be some serious data transferring happening.

I'd love the ability to talk to family while flying - would definitely help pass the time. Too bad my work is AA/United only. :(

I believe that Delta Studio is local streaming and not piggy backing on Gogo. Does anyone know for certain?
 
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I had an AA flight once that let me do Telegram messages without paying - two years ago. But they've fixed it since then (GoGo Inflight).

Is it really the norm in the US, that people use WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for their work related communication?

Yes. My work uses Telegram. Before that we used Hangouts. I do a few side jobs and they use Hangouts / KaoKao talk (one boss is Korean). But I haven't had any use Whatsapp yet thankfully. :p
 
This is a good idea. It gives people the option of remaining at least minimally connected to the outside world while on a plane. I never pay for in-flight Wi-Fi, but if something bad, like a car accident, were to happen to someone in my family I would appreciate the ability to get word of it before my four-hour flight was over.

As long as they never, never, ever allow voice calls on a plane. That would lead to many arguments as obnoxious passengers talked loudly and bothered those who were exhausted and needed a nap on the flight.
 
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So I can tell everyone that my legs are numb, and my knees have merged with the seat in-front of me.

delta legs room was really, really bad on last flight - New York to Venice,
 
Every now and then I can send messages through iMessage on United flights without paying for WiFi. It's kind of random though, doesn't work every time.
 
This is probably good for those that are flying for work and want to keep in touch with co-workers while in the air, but I'm not a huge fan of this. But at least it's not permitting voice calls (which I hope that never happens) in flight.

For me, a flight is supposed to be relaxing. While I use my iPhone/iPad to watch movies/TV shows and listen to music I download locally to my devices. I can get through several hours of being without internet access.
 
This is probably good for those that are flying for work and want to keep in touch with co-workers while in the air, but I'm not a huge fan of this. But at least it's not permitting voice calls (which I hope that never happens) in flight.

For me, a flight is supposed to be relaxing. While I use my iPhone/iPad to watch movies/TV shows and listen to music I download locally to my devices. I can get through several hours of being without internet access.

Um. Why are you not a huge fan of this? There’s been WiFi on flights for years and years. Delta has nearly global coverage via Gogo, not just on domestic US flights. And I t’s not like it has any impact should choose not to use it. It’s just messaging. Even the full-fledged WiFi blocks voip.

Being able to work on long haul flights makes them immeasurably less boring and a slightly more productive use of time.
 
Um. Why are you not a huge fan of this? There’s been WiFi on flights for years and years. Delta has nearly global coverage via Gogo, not just on domestic US flights. And I t’s not like it has any impact should choose not to use it. It’s just messaging. Even the full-fledged WiFi blocks voip.

Being able to work on long haul flights makes them immeasurably less boring and a slightly more productive use of time.

If I'm traveling for work and need to stay in touch with co-workers back at the office, I think it's great. But when I'm traveling for pleasure, I don't mind being disconnected for a couple hours in the air. I have T-Mobile so I get one free hour of free Gogo wi-fi, but I usually let my wife take advantage of it since like I mentioned, I usually have movies/TV shows/music downloaded locally to my devices. I can usually wait until we land to text friends/family unless there is, god forbid, an emergency in the air.
 
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