Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage::Samsung has joined Google’s campaign to force Apple to make iMessage RCS-compatible—but European regulators are more likely to get that job done.

  • msbeta1421@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I would love if they would just roll out an iMessage app to android. Ideally free.

    I could realistically see them roll out an apple subscription pack to android eventually. Give users a way to access Apple Music, Fitness, etc. May even allow android users make use of Apple Watch.

    I’m not an Apple fan boy, but this seems like a decent compromise from a business perspective. This meets a need and I don’t think there’s a decent enough argument that it would cannibalize iPhone sales (flagship models anyway)

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’ll just carry on using whatapps and people on iPhones can either download it or put up with my different coloured bubbles if they don’t want too. Luckily people in the UK are all mostly on WhatsApp anyway, this who text message colours is a very yank centric problem.

      • boonhet@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Signal or at least Telegram or Viber. Fuck WhatsApp, I’d like at least my messenger app to not belong to Facebook of all companies.

      • machinin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I tried to use it a few months ago. It would not let me use it unless I gave it access to all my contacts’ information. I denied the permission request and it wouldn’t work.

        How in the hell are you okay with that?

        • AzureFrost@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          I’m pretty sure the stock SMS app that comes with your phone also needs access to the contacts permissions, but is enabled by default, so the app doesn’t even ask for it.

          • machinin@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            So in addition to that, why give the information to Facebook too?

            Remember, Zuckerberg thinks people are dumbfucks for giving information to him.

            Why do they go out of their way to disable the app if I deny access to contacts? Surely it would be less work to just add a couple of warnings telling me it may not work properly. But to disable the whole app? That is absolutely ridiculous.

        • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Because that’s how phones work, it links your account to your phone number and uses your contacts to tell you who’s on the app too using their numbers.

          • machinin@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Because that’s how -phones- Whatsapp works,

            Yeah, that is also how computer viruses work. I was very thankful for permission control. That app is cancer.

            • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Meh, I think some people are just paranoid on Lemmy when it comes to stuff like this. There’s plenty of laws in the UK around storage and use of information that protect users of apps like this.

                • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  How else do you think a messaging app that replaces your phones messaging functionality is supposed to work if not on phone numbers?

                  • machinin@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    So you’re saying that the only way a messaging app can work is to access all the information from all your contacts? If it doesn’t have all that information, it can’t work? If Whatsapp can’t have all that information, it would be impossible to function?

              • timetraveller@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                And all thieves pay close attention to laws, and make sure their apps have “nothing” hidden in the folds.

          • machinin@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Give me the option to add contacts individually?

            That app is cancer, better just to nope out of the installation.

    • smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      That would make the problem worse, it would be just another centralized chat app you need to install. We would get from “what about people not using iOS” to “what about people not using iOS or Google Android”.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        You can’t use an Apple watch on Android because it requires the Apple watch app to sync with the phone and that won’t work on Android.

        • nikscha@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Yes because iPhones have ✨magic chips✨ inside which only Apple has… I’m pretty sure the apple watch communicates with Bluetooth. Apple just deliberately shuts Android out.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            Apple originally looked into it but decided not to because they wanted to maintain their ecosystem. Same story as usual.

            I have no idea why the above guy seems to think that Apple watches work on androids

            • nikscha@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              It doesn’t work on Android, I know that. But I’ll bet you 1000€ that Apple could enabled cross-platform compatibility with an OTA update.

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          That’s pretty stupid. I doubt many Android users would switch to Iphone you for a smartwatch, but a few would absolutely buy apple watches if they could.

          I guess the point is that they don’t want iphone users to switch to android since that would make their watch practically useless.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think that works, since why would people want yet another chat app to deal with. I tried several but usually gave them up because iMessage does what I need it to and I don’t want to check many

      Having everyone support RCS, as an update from SMS, gives that interoperability, along with improving the SMS experience

      I was a huge fan of what Pigeon tried to do, but I’m Apple-centric these days and have no idea what the state of that is

    • MrMcGasion@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      FaceTime would be nice to have on Android as well, I know it technically works via a browser, if you get an invite from an iPhone user, but it’s such a bad experience for everyone. And I’m sure they do that because it’s easy peer pressure “advertising” from Apple users who want to video call with Android users, but can’t be bothered to put any work into using a compatible app, and instead blame Android users for the incompatibility.

    • bob_wiley@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      One of the big selling points for Apple stuff is how it all works together. That’s lost when releasing generically on Android. There is an old quote from Alan Kay that goes, “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” Apple lives by this idea.

      An iPod was my first Apple product, pre-iTunes for Windows. The software I had to use sucked, so I took an irresponsible amount of money at the time, and bought iMac so I could use iTunes. OS X at the time had an app called iSync to sync your contacts to a cell phone, it worked with the Moto Razr. When I went to go buy one from Verizon and asked if iSync worked they proudly (for some reason) said no, because Verizon put their own software on all the phones they sold to help with support… so I went to Cingular (now AT&T), so I could sync my phone with my computer. The iPhone came out, so of course that would be the phone to get, because it would sync my music, contacts, calendar, etc to my phone as seamlessly as the iPod worked with iTunes. That sync has only improved over time and includes so much more. Then smart watches start to become a thing, Apple has already shown me they know how to make things work well together, so of course the Apple Watch is the smart watch to get. I can fire up Apple Fitness on my Apple TV, iPhone, or iPad, and my Apple Watch will automatically see it and start a workout, and show my heart rate on the screen with 0 setup.

      The halo effect and the ecosystem are very real and it’s a reason to buy Apple stuff. In many cases there are new hardware features that enable the software to do what it’s doing. Apple has dabbled in software for other operating systems. iTunes for Windows, Safari for Windows, Quicktime for Windows, Apple Music for Android, Apple TV for all sorts of TVs. A lot of people get upset by the the seemingly needless extras it comes with, or just think they sucks. A lot of this is because many of Apple’s apps heavily leverage system services within macOS and iOS, so to run them another OS requires reimplementing all that stuff, so it feels very non-native, and overall weird, with more bugs, and a lack of some of the nice to haves around the ecosystem when things are all coming from Apple hardware as well as software.