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I don't like Meta nor Zuckerberg either but has there been a report from a legit security third party about various Messaging Apps that also keeps update with all the App updates. I know that I can find reports from beginning of the years but Apps and security features change constantly and therefore I was looking for a third party blogger/organization/YouTuber etc. who actually checks their claims with every single update. Did someone come across such blogger/organization/YouTuber etc?
 


WhatsApp is "far more private and secure" than Apple's iMessage platform, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has claimed in a new Instagram post.

tim-cook-mark-zuckerberg.jpg

In a post sharing a Meta billboard in New York City promoting WhatsApp over SMS or iMessage, Zuckerberg said WhatsApp is far better for privacy-concerned users thanks to its end-to-end encryption, ability to set messages to disappear after a set period of time, and its availability across multiple platforms.
Apple and Meta have had an ongoing rivalry for some time, with the tension between the two tech giants growing more recently. Meta has accused Apple of hurting small businesses and its ads business by introducing measures that allow iPhone users to opt out of tracking in apps and websites across other websites.

In a meeting with staff, Zuckerberg said Meta's competition with Apple is "very deep" and "philosophical," pointing to the increasingly competitive AR/VR space which Apple is expected to officially enter with a headset early next year.

Article Link: Mark Zuckerberg: WhatsApp Is 'Far More Private and Secure' Than iMessage
People here need to look at the facts and the technologies, rather than the personalities and brand loyalties.
 
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Nah, iMessage doesn’t need to use RCS because iMessage only sends messages to other folks with iPhones, where it works as expected. iMessage does not and likely will not send messages to anything other than other Apple devices.
You really don't get the whole blue-bubble, green-bubble thing do you?

If iMessage were completely end-to-end encrypted there would be no green bubbles, and iMessage would not send to devices that are not Apple, defaulting to SMS.

And for those who say that "only Google does RCS [and not the carriers]" that's ridiculous too, cause "only Apple" does iMessage E2EE.
 
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You really don't get the whole blue-bubble, green-bubble thing do you?
Messages sent via Apple’s Messages from one iPhone to another are blue. RCS would not be sent via Apple’s Messages, it would be sent via the carrier so, just like SMS/MMS, RCS would also be green. I may actually understand the bubble thing better than you. :)

And for those who say that "only Google does RCS [and not the carriers]" that's ridiculous too, cause "only Apple" does iMessage E2EE.
Only Apple does Messages. Apple’s fine with that and are not trying to get anyone to adopt Messages. Only Google in the US does Google RCS. Google desperately wants Apple to adopt Google RCS, but that’s not going to happen. As this marketing effort is a waste of money and Google’s shutting down projects left and right, my money’s on Google getting bored with this and giving up eventually.
 
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Only Google in the US does Google RCS. Google desperately wants Apple to adopt Google RCS, but that’s not going to happen.
RCS is essentially the successor of MMS, which is in the process of being shut down by some carriers because in most markets it was not very successful. And almost since the beginning of smartphones there was WhatsApp (started in 2009), which could do everything what MMS could be cheaper. iMessage launched two years later. And RCS was launched the first time in 2012/13 but it failed against WhatsApp and other services. Google bought one company behind RCS and pushed the standard. But it relies on the carriers to be supported or not. So it doesn't really depend on Google for RCS to work, supporting RCS is just like supporting MMS or SMS. The advantage is, that Google also started supporting end to end encryption with RCS. I think Apple should implement the support for RCS the same way I think that Apple should support Opus and OpenDocument (beyond TextEdit).
 
RCS is essentially the successor of MMS
“Google RCS” is NOT the successor of MMS. RCS absolutely was expected to be and, up until 2021, Verizon, AT&T and T-mobile were focused on their CCMI which would have made RCS a thing for the three big US carriers. In 2021, they decided, for whatever reason, to not complete that work.

But it relies on the carriers to be supported or not.
Precisely. And, unfortunately for those that would like to see RCS supported, the US carriers do NOT support it. And, it looks like they have no intent to support it. Even the RCS page at the official GSM website hasn’t been updated for years, so other than Google, there’s no expansion of RCS happening.
 
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It’s a setting on your phone not on their end.

If you’re not even doing security updates, you probably have bigger issues than worrying about Apple getting your messages. Perhaps a vulnerability was exploited to get information off your phone? Of course this isn’t done by Apple.

I don’t think Apple, or anyone would remotely access your phone, unless you were some sort of top level government official or a political dissenter.
Who said I don't do security updates?

My phone is always up to date...

I said that when it happened there were no updates or changes involved.

Hahaha... I bet that Apple can do a lot of things on your phone remotely.
 
Text Messages and iMessage are stored in encrypted backups in the cloud. If you are syncing to your desktop and you uncheck "encrypt backups" then anyone who has access to your backup could (in theory) grab the message history from the backup.

I never sync my devices to desktop anymore.

So as long as you are relying on iCloud backups then your messages are as secure as they are with WhatsApp, except that you won't have a sociopath like Zuckerberg with the keys to the vault. lol


The thing is that I am not relying on iCloud backups... the fact that Apple have sms messages and iMessages older than two years and I never enabled iCloud messages it's a big concern.
 
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The thing is that I am not relying on iCloud backups... the fact that Apple have sms messages and iMessages older than two years and I never enabled iCloud messages it's a big concern.
Check your Messages settings. I remember having to set it to store all my messages forever. Does it default to “Forever” now?

You can change go in and change it to 30 days now and everything older than 30 days should fall off.
Settings > Messages > scroll down to “Keep Messages” and change it to 30 days.
 
No need to wait. You could have done a simple Google search and found I was right immediately.

See here: "WhatsApp has no ability to see the content of messages or listen to calls that are end-to-end encrypted. That’s because the encryption and decryption of messages sent and received on WhatsApp occurs entirely on your device. Before a message ever leaves your device, it's secured with a cryptographic lock, and only the recipient has the keys. In addition, the keys change with every single message that's sent."

And here: "Since your device generates the private key, WhatsApp never has access to it."

And, you know, see their freaking white paper on how encryption on WA works.

Pure laziness aside, the thing that really bugs me about this is the rabid way in which Apple fans on this forum just hate what is said because someone they don't like says it.

WhatsApp IS more private than Apple Messages now.

I like Apple as much as the next guy, but if Apple fans think the company is the best at everything and has no room for improvement over its competitors, Apple WILL stop making privacy improvements we need. And yes, I despise Meta. But I also know Apple isn't perfect and there are some features other companies do better.

But honestly man, I bet you're not a kid so please never ask for "sources please" when you can take 10 seconds and search for them yourself.

Thank you for bringing some balanced and rational thinking to the table. The whole world needs more of this right now.

It's possible for people you disagree with to actual have some knowledge and be right every now and then... shocker.
 
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Messages sent via Apple’s Messages from one iPhone to another are blue. RCS would not be sent via Apple’s Messages, it would be sent via the carrier so, just like SMS/MMS, RCS would also be green. I may actually understand the bubble thing better than you. :)

You stated
"iMessage only sends messages to other folks with iPhones"
That is factually incorrect.
iMessage sends messages to Android. Using SMS. Unsecured.

Only Apple does Messages. Apple’s fine with that and are not trying to get anyone to adopt Messages. Only Google in the US does Google RCS. Google desperately wants Apple to adopt Google RCS, but that’s not going to happen. As this marketing effort is a waste of money and Google’s shutting down projects left and right, my money’s on Google getting bored with this and giving up eventually.

Google doesn't desperately want anything, any more than I desperately want you to adopt USB 4. It's a standard, and Apple should use it for greater security.
 
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You stated
"iMessage only sends messages to other folks with iPhones"
That is factually incorrect.
iMessage sends messages to Android. Using SMS. Unsecured.
No, you are incorrect. The “message” app sends messages utilizing iMessage or SMS. iMessage only activates when another Apple device is being utilized. Go try and text someone who uses an Android device. The text box will show “Text Message” instead of “iMessage.”
 
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You stated
"iMessage only sends messages to other folks with iPhones"
That is factually incorrect.
iMessage sends messages to Android. Using SMS. Unsecured.
No, the carrier supports sending messages to Android. Apple’s iMessage network only delivers to other iPhones. There is no way for an Android phone to receive an iMessage (there’s even a setting specific to disabling iMessage). What you’re referring to is likely Apple’s Messages app which is separate from Apple’s iMessage network in that you can turn off iMessage and still send and receive SMS messages.

iMessage The Messages app sends messages to Android. Using SMS. Unsecured. THAT is absolutely true.

Google doesn't desperately want anything, any more than I desperately want you to adopt USB 4. It's a standard, and Apple should use it for greater security.
No, Google really desparately wants and needs Apple to validate their “Google RCS” (not RCS, but a modification of the standard) decision, and ONLY in the US. :) Every opportunity they get, they’re talking about Apple supporting it when they should simply update their iOS app to use ”Google RCS”! The only thing they’re likely to accomplish is confusing a number of people in the US (again, because they’re not advertising this worldwide) into thinking that “RCS“ is the same as ”Google RCS”. But, that confusion doesn‘t change the fact that RCS, as a standard used in the US, died over a year ago When the US carriers decided to drop it.
 
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I think you are underestimating modern marketing algorithms. We are not as unique as we think we are. They don’t need to mine the actual chat data. They know you communicated with a person. If this person liked or searched for a topic, they will now make a statistical bet that you are also interested.

To me, this concept is even scarier than simply mining our communication for keywords, because even if you don’t have a Facebook profile, Facebook knows who you are, who your friends are, and what interests you have. You can’t opt out.
More reasons not use WhatsApp, ****ter etc. Signal all the way for me.
 
Check your Messages settings. I remember having to set it to store all my messages forever. Does it default to “Forever” now?

You can change go in and change it to 30 days now and everything older than 30 days should fall off.
Settings > Messages > scroll down to “Keep Messages” and change it to 30 days.
This refers to what is kept on my device.


Deleted messages older than 2 years were kept in iCloud without my consent.
I never enabled iCloud messages, and suddenly iCloud messages is enabled and sms messages and iMessages older than two years started syncing on my devices.

This corporations can't be trusted.
 
While I 100% agree with you and am continually disappointed with iMessage and its not playing nice with other SMS platforms and having a host of issues, I'd still — overall — trust sending something in iMessage for not having prying eyes or nefarious shenanigans going on in the background than WhatApp or ANYTHING on or from the Meta platform. Only a fool would think to trust Meta/Zuck at this point @0089294.

I long for the day when it's just Google, Microsoft, Apple, and some smaller platforms and people will in the future bring up Meta and have a good chuckle with a shake of their heads like, "damn, do not miss that blight on the digital landscape at all."
iMessage does not rely on sms when it's to another iMessage user. It falls back to it for non-apple people (that's the green vs blue)
Ah that famous Silicon Valley Bro culture at it's best.
 
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This refers to what is kept on my device.


Deleted messages older than 2 years were kept in iCloud without my consent.
I never enabled iCloud messages, and suddenly iCloud messages is enabled and sms messages and iMessages older than two years started syncing on my devices.

This corporations can't be trusted.
And you trust facebook?
 
No, you are incorrect. The “message” app sends messages utilizing iMessage or SMS. iMessage only activates when another Apple device is being utilized. Go try and text someone who uses an Android device. The text box will show “Text Message” instead of “iMessage.”
Exactly - in green instead of blue, and you can disable the SMS fallback in settings.
 
This refers to what is kept on my device.
Yes, but if there’s only 30 days of messages on your device, there shouldn’t be MORE than 30 days of messages on your device synched anywhere. If you don’t have that set for 30 days, then there could be any number of messages still in iCloud from any device that you have connected to that iCloud account.

For now, though, if you don’t want messages older than 2 years kept, you need to change that setting on your phone.
 
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