Yeah, it’s not as noisy and messy as Google’s, it let’s you folder messages by category and has a nice clean quiet interface designed for large displays. Google’s tries to push and sell you on features every time you use it.
Sorry, what? Not sure if you’re joking, but Americans use texts because they’re free and the ability to use them comes preloaded on the phone (no need to download something that takes up more space). I have Signal and WhatsApp on my phone for my international friends, but I use texts to communicate with US friends because RCS works with everyone and it’s integrated much better into my phone, watch, etc. than any app can be without an absurd amount of permissions given to the app.
Not sure if you’re joking, but Americans use texts because they’re free and the ability to use them comes preloaded on the phone (no need to download something that takes up more space).
The entire rest of the world doesn’t whine about such things and just uses a 3rd party messenger that works the same across all platforms.
You’re the only one whining. People use SMS in the US because it’s free and completely interoperable with every other phone. If you send someone an SMS you know with great certainty that it will be received. Bragging about everyone using Meta to communicate is not the dunk you think it is.
No, I’m actually very amused by Americans’ unwillingness to install a proper messenger and whine about green and blue bubbles.
No one is doing that. You must have this thread confused with another one.
The only messengers I mentioned by name were Signal and Telegram.
While I agree that Signal is an excellent choice, almost no one uses it, which is exactly why its an insufficient replacement for SMS. It’s been pointed out in several threads that WhatsApp is basically a societal expectation in Europe so I assume that’s what your referring to.
Telegram is the only option that’s even worse than Meta.
No one is doing that. You must have this thread confused with another one.
All those stubborn Americans do that, whether they spell it out all the time out not.
While I agree that Signal is an excellent choice, almost no one uses it
Not with the attitude to refuse to install 3rd party messengers in the first place.
It’s been pointed out in several threads that WhatsApp is basically a societal expectation in Europe so I assume that’s what your referring to.
In different regions around the world, different messengers are the norm (for example Line in Japan). Only Americans are zealous defenders of archaic SMS.
Telegram is the only option that’s even worse than Meta.
If you send someone an SMS you know with great certainty that it will be received.
Not to get too bogged down in this debate or anything, but this European is surprised you say that SMS is reliable. One of the great motivators to use web-based messaging apps is because SMS is so notoriously unreliable, with messages occasionally not receiving or sending. Has SMS reliablity been improved much in recent years? Or is web-based messaging less reliable in your experience?
Genuinely curious btw, I’m not in the same party as the troll elsewhere in this thread.
I personally occasionally experience delayed sending/receiving of messages, or messages suddenly coming in in bulk. Only very rarely do messages not come in at all thankfully, but mostly the occasional delays in sending/receiving I think led to the reputation of poor reliablity for SMS. But it makes sense that the US would try to keep those issues to a minimum if so many people still use it, whereas in Europe perhaps it’s less of a priority?
I cannot recollect EVER having problems sending SMS, which is not something I can say for any other text messaging platform. Maybe that’s just me. However that’s irrelevant, as the point that I was making is that EVERYONE has SMS. You don’t have to ask anyone “Hey do you have the SMS app?” You just ask for their number and fire off a message and Bob’s your Uncle. If you want to send them a WhatsApp message and they don’t have WhatsApp, it is a 100% guarantee they will not receive your message.
Ah, I see. Your point isn’t necessarily reliability but availability. It’s an interesting perspective to hear that the US appears to be so behind (at least from a European perspective of course) when it comes to messaging apps. As far as SMS reliablity goes, I have occasionally had messages not send, or have messages come in delayed considerably. Or stuff like 2-factor auth texts not coming in, requesting a new one and then suddenly receiving 3 at a time. Not deal-breaking or anything, just the occasional annoyance.
I don’t think WhatsApp allows you to send a message to someone who doesn’t have the app. So WhatsApp would just inform you. Although I don’t recall the last time someone did not have either WhatsApp or Signal installed. But again, that appears to be far more common in the US?
Do you ever miss the extra features that web messaging brings, like in-chat polls, voice messages, etc…? I’m not sure how much of that RCS supports (because almost nobody uses that here). To me it seems like the convenience of web messaging outweighs the “does person x have app y” question, but that’s probably because I never really have to ask myself that question.
I also just realised that you state that everyone has SMS messaging. There are phone plans available here that don’t offer SMS messaging anymore. You can still receive them, but sending them either doesn’t work or costs a high premium (obviously this disadvantage is offset by a lower price for the rest of the plan). I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if SMS eventually just gets phased out.
The fact that youre illiterate and you’re hallucinating stuff i never said, is sad.
I will address your concern however.
If you think that they are actually not encrypting the message content, then you’re a conspiracy theorist. They have thousands of other ways to track the user and give metadata to law enforcement. There is no need for them to lie about protecting the messages, as none of the regular users care about that. They had more than enough users of Messenger even before it was E2EE.
This is such a dumb take… “Lol Americans all using SMS! We prefer to install 4 different messaging apps to talk to people, and can’t do shit if we end up in an area with low reception”
SMS has one advantage over any other messaging service: Every cell phone that is currently in service is capable of sending and receiving SMS messages.
WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Meebo, AIM, ICQ, Discord, Skype, Teams, Ventrilo, Roger Wilco, Slack, Hangouts, etc. are all optional. You have to install them. And which one a random American has installed is completely unpredictable. There’s also a good chance that “I use an iPhone so my religion requires me to use iMessage.”
Small point here too: SMS used to be a paid plan option in the US. I never paid for an SMS plan because iMessage was free over data (I just wouldn’t receive texts from Android users). There was a good amount of time when iMessage was legitimately a great option.
Literally nobody is hung up on bubble colours other than you and iPhone users… Most people don’t give a shit, and the added benefits of RCS basically bring it up to spec with a typical messenger, and since it’s pre-installed it means that you don’t need to worry about messenger app segregation. You don’t even need to create an account.
I really miss support for iMessage style reactions. Now I just get messages like “Emphasized an image” or “Liked an image” with no idea which image was being reacted to half the time, like in a big group chat with 10 people.
QUIK very often says “Sending…” on a picture message forever (literally), even when it’s already been received and responded to. And often fails to send messages altogether when my signal is weak, and apparently doesn’t retry in the background. It forces you to try to resend it and then it’ll say “sending” forever half the time. I routinely have to ask my friends if they received messages if they don’t reply right away. So the core functionality of sending messages and ensuring they’re sent is broken.
Picture messages are limited in size to some number you have to choose in settings. If you get it wrong the messages are guaranteed to fail. A number like 600k or 800k, up to 2000k After experimenting, 800 often fails for me, and 600 seems to work all the time, but the pictures look like crap. They get shrunk a ton. Google’s Messages app must negotiate a size with your carrier because it never makes you choose what size to use and pictures look better, too.p
No RCS. iOS will have RCS built into iMessage and I think it’ll be on by default. You’ll finally get message confirmations and encryption, and typing indicators if you like that sort of thing. I’ve tested it with my friend who already has 18 because he works for Apple and it works great.
I’m about ready to give up and just go back to Messages. I dont like that they track who you text and even send themselves hashes of your messages, but my own personal boycott of the app isn’t going to help anyone who actually needs the privacy.
I use Mezo SMS, comes with a wildcard blocklist for both numbers and content.
And to be honest, I use it exclusively to block shit. Haven’t actually sent a text message in way over a decade. If it wasn’t for two websites I have to use sending me one time passwords, I’d have uninstalled the SMS app altogether.
Sadly, its all I have for communicating with iPhone users. A few people in my family have installed Signal, and that’s great, but my friends refuse to do so, and I don’t blame them.
Oh right, I heard that especially in the US, iPhone users refuse to do anything but. I’m stuck with whatsapp since that’s what almost everybody in Europe is using. Not much better considering it’s a Meta company, but at least they have to adhere to our data privacy laws.
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They had a messages app?
Yeah, it’s not as noisy and messy as Google’s, it let’s you folder messages by category and has a nice clean quiet interface designed for large displays. Google’s tries to push and sell you on features every time you use it.
A pity the good one is going away.
For SMS / texting
Samsung has their own dedicated redundant app for everything that comes pre-installed and is unremovable.
It’s why I haven’t even looked at a Samsung since the S6.
I do not know both of these. Amazing.
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Sorry, what? Not sure if you’re joking, but Americans use texts because they’re free and the ability to use them comes preloaded on the phone (no need to download something that takes up more space). I have Signal and WhatsApp on my phone for my international friends, but I use texts to communicate with US friends because RCS works with everyone and it’s integrated much better into my phone, watch, etc. than any app can be without an absurd amount of permissions given to the app.
The entire rest of the world doesn’t whine about such things and just uses a 3rd party messenger that works the same across all platforms.
You’re the only one whining. People use SMS in the US because it’s free and completely interoperable with every other phone. If you send someone an SMS you know with great certainty that it will be received. Bragging about everyone using Meta to communicate is not the dunk you think it is.
No, I’m actually very amused by Americans’ unwillingness to install a proper messenger and whine about green and blue bubbles.
The only messengers I mentioned by name were Signal and Telegram. You must me have confused with someone else.
The only people who whine about that are children and Europeans.
No one is doing that. You must have this thread confused with another one.
While I agree that Signal is an excellent choice, almost no one uses it, which is exactly why its an insufficient replacement for SMS. It’s been pointed out in several threads that WhatsApp is basically a societal expectation in Europe so I assume that’s what your referring to.
Telegram is the only option that’s even worse than Meta.
All those stubborn Americans do that, whether they spell it out all the time out not.
Not with the attitude to refuse to install 3rd party messengers in the first place.
In different regions around the world, different messengers are the norm (for example Line in Japan). Only Americans are zealous defenders of archaic SMS.
Lolno.
Not to get too bogged down in this debate or anything, but this European is surprised you say that SMS is reliable. One of the great motivators to use web-based messaging apps is because SMS is so notoriously unreliable, with messages occasionally not receiving or sending. Has SMS reliablity been improved much in recent years? Or is web-based messaging less reliable in your experience?
Genuinely curious btw, I’m not in the same party as the troll elsewhere in this thread.
In the US at least reliability hasn’t been an issue in 15 plus years at least…
I personally occasionally experience delayed sending/receiving of messages, or messages suddenly coming in in bulk. Only very rarely do messages not come in at all thankfully, but mostly the occasional delays in sending/receiving I think led to the reputation of poor reliablity for SMS. But it makes sense that the US would try to keep those issues to a minimum if so many people still use it, whereas in Europe perhaps it’s less of a priority?
I cannot recollect EVER having problems sending SMS, which is not something I can say for any other text messaging platform. Maybe that’s just me. However that’s irrelevant, as the point that I was making is that EVERYONE has SMS. You don’t have to ask anyone “Hey do you have the SMS app?” You just ask for their number and fire off a message and Bob’s your Uncle. If you want to send them a WhatsApp message and they don’t have WhatsApp, it is a 100% guarantee they will not receive your message.
Ah, I see. Your point isn’t necessarily reliability but availability. It’s an interesting perspective to hear that the US appears to be so behind (at least from a European perspective of course) when it comes to messaging apps. As far as SMS reliablity goes, I have occasionally had messages not send, or have messages come in delayed considerably. Or stuff like 2-factor auth texts not coming in, requesting a new one and then suddenly receiving 3 at a time. Not deal-breaking or anything, just the occasional annoyance.
I don’t think WhatsApp allows you to send a message to someone who doesn’t have the app. So WhatsApp would just inform you. Although I don’t recall the last time someone did not have either WhatsApp or Signal installed. But again, that appears to be far more common in the US?
Do you ever miss the extra features that web messaging brings, like in-chat polls, voice messages, etc…? I’m not sure how much of that RCS supports (because almost nobody uses that here). To me it seems like the convenience of web messaging outweighs the “does person x have app y” question, but that’s probably because I never really have to ask myself that question.
I also just realised that you state that everyone has SMS messaging. There are phone plans available here that don’t offer SMS messaging anymore. You can still receive them, but sending them either doesn’t work or costs a high premium (obviously this disadvantage is offset by a lower price for the rest of the plan). I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if SMS eventually just gets phased out.
I’d still rather use meta tho (which end to end encrypts the content) than unencrypted plaintext shit that goes straight to the government.
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The fact that youre illiterate and you’re hallucinating stuff i never said, is sad. I will address your concern however.
If you think that they are actually not encrypting the message content, then you’re a conspiracy theorist. They have thousands of other ways to track the user and give metadata to law enforcement. There is no need for them to lie about protecting the messages, as none of the regular users care about that. They had more than enough users of Messenger even before it was E2EE.
Yes that’s all well and good if the person you’re trying message uses WhatsApp…
This is such a dumb take… “Lol Americans all using SMS! We prefer to install 4 different messaging apps to talk to people, and can’t do shit if we end up in an area with low reception”
10/10
American problems
Which is why Americans use it? Sorry you struggle to put two and two together…
No, American iPhone users use iMessage. American Android users wished they had iMessage. It’s an ideological thing.
Australia checking in.
Everyone can send and receive SMS. It’s always the primary /default contact method.
Close friends can be contacted via whatever third party app but there’s no single platform everyone uses other than SMS.
What is the alternative? Or do you mean WhatsApp?
There are plenty of alternatives. Do you live under a rock or why aren’t you aware of Signal, Telegram, etc.?
SMS has one advantage over any other messaging service: Every cell phone that is currently in service is capable of sending and receiving SMS messages.
WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Meebo, AIM, ICQ, Discord, Skype, Teams, Ventrilo, Roger Wilco, Slack, Hangouts, etc. are all optional. You have to install them. And which one a random American has installed is completely unpredictable. There’s also a good chance that “I use an iPhone so my religion requires me to use iMessage.”
SMS WILL get through.
Small point here too: SMS used to be a paid plan option in the US. I never paid for an SMS plan because iMessage was free over data (I just wouldn’t receive texts from Android users). There was a good amount of time when iMessage was legitimately a great option.
So it’s not a cross-platform messenger.
Other messengers existed before iMessage. Other societies didn’t refuse to accept cross-platform messengers. Installing wasn’t even hard back then.
Yes, and people around the world do and aren’t hung up on green and blue bubbles.
SMS is the thing normal people use for two factor codes, not actual messaging and even for 2FA SMS is a bad idea because it’s so insecure.
Literally nobody is hung up on bubble colours other than you and iPhone users… Most people don’t give a shit, and the added benefits of RCS basically bring it up to spec with a typical messenger, and since it’s pre-installed it means that you don’t need to worry about messenger app segregation. You don’t even need to create an account.
Sure.
Absolutely untrue. Not only do the handful of American Android users cry about that all the time, even Google cried about iMessage: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/8/23951935/google-european-telcos-apple-imessage-digital-markets-act-core-platform-service-gatekeeper-lobbying
People make accounts all the time. With Google’s RCS, they have an account on Google’s servers.
There are plenty of alternatives to the native SMS Texting app, for Example Quik SMS - no trackers and it’s very smooth.
Also for secured messaging - there is Signal, and they are top Dog in that end.
Whatscrap is just a platform for Meta to scan your messages and make customized ads for you.
Nobody outside the USA cares about SMS, though.
I’m merely responding to his post. Maybe he’s in the US?
Wtf are you on about? We can install whatever we want. We use texting because everyone has it and can use it for free without any accounts.
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OK
https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages
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Bro, there’s a sign right there that says not to feed it, leave it alone
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Funny. I just uninstalled Google Messages a few days ago in favor of QUIK SMS. I miss nothing.
I did the same weeks ago and I miss lots.
Really? Like what? I’m not a heavy SMS user.
I really miss support for iMessage style reactions. Now I just get messages like “Emphasized an image” or “Liked an image” with no idea which image was being reacted to half the time, like in a big group chat with 10 people.
QUIK very often says “Sending…” on a picture message forever (literally), even when it’s already been received and responded to. And often fails to send messages altogether when my signal is weak, and apparently doesn’t retry in the background. It forces you to try to resend it and then it’ll say “sending” forever half the time. I routinely have to ask my friends if they received messages if they don’t reply right away. So the core functionality of sending messages and ensuring they’re sent is broken.
Picture messages are limited in size to some number you have to choose in settings. If you get it wrong the messages are guaranteed to fail. A number like 600k or 800k, up to 2000k After experimenting, 800 often fails for me, and 600 seems to work all the time, but the pictures look like crap. They get shrunk a ton. Google’s Messages app must negotiate a size with your carrier because it never makes you choose what size to use and pictures look better, too.p
No RCS. iOS will have RCS built into iMessage and I think it’ll be on by default. You’ll finally get message confirmations and encryption, and typing indicators if you like that sort of thing. I’ve tested it with my friend who already has 18 because he works for Apple and it works great.
I’m about ready to give up and just go back to Messages. I dont like that they track who you text and even send themselves hashes of your messages, but my own personal boycott of the app isn’t going to help anyone who actually needs the privacy.
I use Mezo SMS, comes with a wildcard blocklist for both numbers and content.
And to be honest, I use it exclusively to block shit. Haven’t actually sent a text message in way over a decade. If it wasn’t for two websites I have to use sending me one time passwords, I’d have uninstalled the SMS app altogether.
Sadly, its all I have for communicating with iPhone users. A few people in my family have installed Signal, and that’s great, but my friends refuse to do so, and I don’t blame them.
Oh right, I heard that especially in the US, iPhone users refuse to do anything but. I’m stuck with whatsapp since that’s what almost everybody in Europe is using. Not much better considering it’s a Meta company, but at least they have to adhere to our data privacy laws.
So that’s it ? RCS will only be available through Apple’s iMessage and Google’s Messages. What a shame
Google’s dream of hijacking an open standard (on Android at least) is achieved :/
Didn’t they do this starting with the galaxy s20?
And it won’t give you a vibrate on pick up or push notifications to attached devices like your car… Very cool :/