Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Google's New 'iPager' Ad Shames Apple for Using Outdated Messaging Standard
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I was just adding some data to the conversation. Your question about living in the USA had actually been directed at someone else (duffman9000).
As far as iMessage "popularity" and usage percentage by country/region, it looks like the United States is first, followed closely by the UK.
iMessage Revenue and Growth Statistics (2024) - SignHouse
iMessage Key facts In 2022, iMessage users accounted for approximately 16.25% of the global population The number of iMessage users around the world was estimated to be 1.3 billion in 2022 Users of iMessage spend, on average, 1 hour and 36 minutes per day using the iMessage app iMessage has...
www.usesignhouse.com
I was just adding some data to the conversation. Your question about living in the USA had actually been directed at someone else (duffman9000).
As far as iMessage "popularity" and usage percentage by country/region, it looks like the United States is first, followed closely by the UK.
View attachment 2280708
iMessage Revenue and Growth Statistics (2024) - SignHouse
iMessage Key facts In 2022, iMessage users accounted for approximately 16.25% of the global population The number of iMessage users around the world was estimated to be 1.3 billion in 2022 Users of iMessage spend, on average, 1 hour and 36 minutes per day using the iMessage app iMessage has...
I don’t get your point?I was just adding some data to the conversation. Your question about living in the USA had actually been directed at someone else (duffman9000).
As far as iMessage "popularity" and usage percentage by country/region, it looks like the United States is first, followed closely by the UK.
View attachment 2280708
iMessage Revenue and Growth Statistics (2024) - SignHouse
iMessage Key facts In 2022, iMessage users accounted for approximately 16.25% of the global population The number of iMessage users around the world was estimated to be 1.3 billion in 2022 Users of iMessage spend, on average, 1 hour and 36 minutes per day using the iMessage app iMessage has...
WhatsApp market share in uk is 80%
WhatsApp market share in Germany is 81%
In most countries iMessage is treated as a standard messaging app.
But for sending pictures & group chats most people use WhatsApp regardless of operating system.
It seems to be the USA where blue bubbles are important.
That’s why the advertisement is always for the USA.
Point taken.
The same Edward Snowden who stores his mobile phone in the refrigerator when not in use to make wireless spying impossible.
But I and the contents of my devices are not as interesting as Edward Snowden’s.
And the point remains that iOS is FAR less “unsecure” than Google’s Android.
At one level, you are the product that Android’s maker Google monetizes, and on top of that, you are also the product facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp monetizes on Google’s Android platform. (TikTok for Android would present an entire third layer.)
It’s a matter of public record that facebook, facebook Messenger, Threads, Instagram, WhatsApp’s owner, Mark Zuckerberg, has expressed frustration that iPhone/iOS is designed to prevent the type of spying Meta is able to readily achieve on Google’s Android platform.
Meta couldn’t code clever “workarounds” to privacy protections in iOS and get its apps approved by Apple for The App Store.
That’s not to say these companies are completely unable to collect information from iPhone users, it‘s just harder and far less prevalent than it is on Google Android devices.
And if the FBI and CIA still hate Apple and Tim Cook, Apple is doing something right.
They've talked about putting ads in some of their products.
Another is the CSAM where they scan images on your phone prior to them being uploaded to iCloud.
While Apple refuses to implement RCS, I will continue to switch more conversations to Signal and other services, so my mixed Apple/Android family can share photos and video. There's really no other choice. I can't force them to switch, but to see their kids, we need a universal service that doesn't have thumbnail sized video.
Yeah no kidding. Google won’t shut up about it. Everyone else knows about other messaging apps.
Again, I was just adding some data to the conversation e.g., there are 98 million WhatsApp users in the U.S. (fourth largest), the iMessage usage share in the U.S. is similar to the UK, etc. It wasn't really about trying to make a point.
Exactly.
WhatsApp is more of a public Social Media platform.
iMessage is more of a private texting app between you and family and people you know.
Comparing the two is not comparing like with like.
And WhatsApp is readily downloadable from The App Store for anyone who chooses to use it, no matter where they live (excepting China).
Not very “elaborate.”
”They’ve talked about…”?!
You do realize that Apple once had a mobile advertising service similar to Google’s AdMob called “iAd,” but Apple shut iAd down in 2016 because they didn’t want to engage in the spying that is required by Google for its whole business model to succeed.
And CSAM wasn’t about money, it was an idea aimed at catching child predators who possessed CP.
Apple abandoned the whole idea after public outcry by law-abiding citizens who didn’t want their personal photos rummaged through — even by a bot.
It was “Big Brotherish” and might possibly have caused legal entanglements for parents with photos of their own newborn baby on a blanket with his or her bare bottom showing, or photos or videos of their own baby being given a bath.
This outcry wasn’t from predators who wanted to keep and trade CP, it was an outcry by law abiding citizens who felt it was far too intrusive to have their digital photo albums rummaged through — for any reason.
So Apple responded to the outcry and ditched CSAM.
You’re going to need to elaborate more than nebulous notions that Apple has allegedly “talked about…”
Apple dumped iAd specifically because they didn’t want to gather their customers’ personal information for the purposes of targeted advertising — which Google or Meta/facebook could not exist as a company without doing.
Google and Meta have no choice; Apple does.
Apple does (or they used to) collect ANONYMOUS, depersonalized Siri requests in an effort to improve Siri’s functionality — not to snoop and gather personal information for advertising purposes.
I think even this faux controversy caused Apple to stop doing it.
Must be.
We enjoy a little thing called Freedom here in America.
We can choose whatever messaging app we want.
Right, just adding to that that while US carriers may have had unlimited texting on some plans, it was not on ALL post paid plans until AFTER the iPhone made it a feature people were willing to switch carriers for.
What is this to do with freedom of
Choice?
It must be American thing this blue bubble thing as nobody actually cares enough about it anywhere else.
It’s just not got the same appeal here as in the USA & that’s why the advert is always American based.
It’s to do with market share that’s all
Miore care than you may think. It's not uncommon for consumers to cross-shop iPhones with Android phones and switch from one to the other. That is why both have "switch from" pages on their websites. One of Google's purposes for this ad is to try to get (or keep) people on Android devices by making iPhone seem inferior because it uses outdated, less capable messaging tech.
For a company that is so big on user privacy and security Apple not supporting RCS is pretty hypocritic of them and sad.
End of the day RCS is a massice security improvement in sms. It even can go outside just messaging android phones. For example in the 2 factor text messages could use that encryption. Even apple own systems when the text sms 2 factor send it out as a normal text message no encryption.
So no apple should add this support and security. It does not mean changing the text bubble color to blue it can still he green but gains extra security.
End of the day RCS is a massice security improvement in sms. It even can go outside just messaging android phones. For example in the 2 factor text messages could use that encryption. Even apple own systems when the text sms 2 factor send it out as a normal text message no encryption.
So no apple should add this support and security. It does not mean changing the text bubble color to blue it can still he green but gains extra security.
And they were price gouging back then as sms cost the carriers effictly nothing. Reason by is it operates on the stand by communication protocols. Those little messages to the cell system your phone sends to the carrier where it is at and still there. Things it had to send and receive any how.
The extra requirement of routing message again next to nothing as it operated on overhead they already had to have just to support network any how if their was no sms.
SMS fees have always been near 100% pure profit. They spent more billing the sms fees than it cost to do it. Go to free unlimited messaging for everyone was cheaper than billing for it.
Below is an article from July 2008 about the rising costs of texting at the time.
www.cnet.com
The rising cost of texting
Text message prices have risen as quickly as gas prices at the pump over the past two years. What gives?
www.cnet.com
As this is “Google RCS” not a carrier supported RCS, every message sent over RCS would be over Google’s servers. So, being big on privacy and security is actually a HUGE reason to not use “Google RCS”.
omg CSAM conspiracy again?
You do realize Microsoft, Google and Amazon have been running CSAM on their servers and devices for almost a decade and did NOT publicly mention it to consumers - not more than the fine print of an OS or service release or upgrade.
Please do your research on CSAM and do it thoroughly across multiple reputable IT sources across the globe not just focus on the USA and political financial strategic hate against Apple.
You’re pretty far behind here since Apple chose NOT to proceed here.
Correction you make the experience terrible for yourself by not using any other messenger than sms
You are forcing yourself to have a bad experience by not using anything other than sms theirs plenty of messengers out their
Note that this attitude seems to only related to Americans the rest of the world moved on