Whats so special about i-message that people only buy apple for it? Ive only ever had android.
Comment on Pressure grows on Apple to open up iMessage
danielfgom@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Unless the EU makes them use RCS they never will. In the US iMessage is literally THE REASON people buy the iPhone. It’s their main selling point. They don’t care how much pressure you place on them, they aren’t going to lose those sales willingly.
cedarmesa@lemmy.world 11 months ago
danielfgom@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Nothing. Google Messages app has all the same features. The only problem is that Apple refuses to also support RCS (which Google messages uses) and so if an android user sends a message to an iPhone user, the iPhone user gets it as an SMS. If the Android user sends a picture, the iPhone user receives it as an MMS.
In the rest of the world this is not an issue because most people use WhatsApp or Signal or Viber or any other local messaging app. Also most android phones have the Messages app as default which means if you message another Android user they will get it over WiFi/data in the messages app.
But in the US for some reason the iPhone users consider getting an SMS as somehow bad and that the Android user is poor or inferior because they sent an SMS.
It’s totally stupid and only a US issue, but it’s so strong that teenagers will be bullied if they don’t have an iPhone for iMessage. So they all get iPhones in order not to be bullied. And this way Apple makes mega sales.
realharo@lemm.ee 11 months ago
The fact that other people they know also use it.
The app itself is pretty much the same as any other modern messaging app, but network effects are everything when it comes to messaging services.
This is why you see entire countries where everyone has WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger or Telegram, depending on what other people in the country are using.
angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 11 months ago
Encryption, photos are higher quality through it (this is where “Android cameras are bad” came from,) typing indicators, sending messages over Wi-Fi, iMessage games, and message effects.
bouldering_barista@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Some of that isn’t i-message specific though, right? I have a Pixel and it has high quality pictures, typing indicators, reads receipts, sends over wifi… the other stuff I don’t think Android has but that’s a bit gimicky anyway. Not trying to be an android fan girl but I really don’t understand what makes i-message better.
insomniac@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
The problem is the walled garden, both ecosystems have those features but they don’t work together. If all your friends have iPhones, there’s a lot of pressure to also have an iPhone. And once you’re in, you’re not likely getting out unless all your social circle does at once. That kind of lock in is extremely valuable.
NuPNuA@lemm.ee 11 months ago
It isn’t better, but it’s an extreme example of Americas corporate fanaticism, everywhere else people say “well if Apple and Google don’t play nice together, we’ll use a third party app and skip it all”. In the US they say, “if you don’t have an iPhone that makes you worse than me somehow so this allows me to lord it over you”.
angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 11 months ago
I agree that all the stuff iMessage has that RCS doesn’t is gimmicky, I’m, an Android user myself…but if you have an Android and someone you want to talk to has an iPhone, we’re both using SMS.
Takumidesh@lemmy.world 11 months ago
All of this is available on just about every messaging service, so the real answer is tribalism and lack of consumer education.
angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 11 months ago
But still, if you have an Android and someone you want to text has an iPhone, you’re using SMS, not RCS.
I do believe RCS-compatibility for iMessage would make take a chunk out of iPhone sales honestly.
jmankman@lemmy.myserv.one 11 months ago
My understanding of “Android cameras bad” came from snapchat on Android literally taking shittier pictures and videos for some reason.
pirat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It took a screenshot of the viewfinder instead of an actual shot with shutter settings etc.
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
The EU has dragged Apple through the mud in order to make them change for the better, they will be able to do the same.
take6056@feddit.nl 11 months ago
If what the first commenter said is true. They will just implement RCS or an alternative in the EU and make up some reason why they can’t or won’t for the US market.
TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I’ll take it. Whatever makes them suffer at least a little bit. (Apple, that is.)
pastabatman@lemmy.world 11 months ago
True. So true in fact that I’d be willing to bet that even if the EU made them implement RCS they still wouldn’t do it in the US. USB-C only worked because it’s a hardware change and maintaining separate lightning and USB-C models and accessory ecosystems doesn’t make sense. RCS is a software change that costs them nothing to NOT use in the only market where it would hurt them.
danielfgom@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Agreed
olympicyes@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Group chats in RCS weren’t even end-to-end encrypted on Android until August of this year. Green texts are a security risk.
danielfgom@lemmy.world 11 months ago
😂, a security risk 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Are you Edward Snowden that you think it’s such a massive risk?
You are delusional. I use text messages all the time and there is zero risk.
tristar@lemmyfly.org 11 months ago
Is there zero risk or do you think there is zero risk? Text messages can absolutely be intercepted by your service provider
danielfgom@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Don’t you think you’re a bit paranoid? Does the service provider care to know that you sent a message to your friend saying “great party last”? Or to your wife, “pick up bread and milk please”?
I’m quite sure they are not wasting their time doing that.
If what you need to say is so secret, you should not be using iMessage, SMS or WhatsApp but something stronger like Signal, Matrix etc
ManOMorphos@lemmy.world 11 months ago
If you’re that concerned with security, shouldn’t you be using Signal and try to convince others to do so? iMessage is E2E encrypted but Signal is platform-agnostic and has better security/privacy.
olympicyes@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I don’t care but you have to convince Apple. People really pile on for the most trivial of comments.
ManOMorphos@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I can’t speak for the others, but I’m just curious as to why iMessage’s quirks are heavily put up with. With the options of messaging apps nowadays, the “green bubble” stuff seems like an arbitrary problem.
Sure, it’s stock software, but plenty are willing to switch off Edge/Safari for Chromium browsers. I understand that there’s strong social pressure to conform to using the same messaging service.
SpookySnek@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Okay so now that it has encryption, what is the security risk?
Pxtl@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
IamRoot@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
It is not literally the reason.
cryostars@lemmyf.uk 11 months ago
Yeah this thread is wild… like no imessage isn’t literally the reason people buy iPhones. And iMessage doesn’t have “higher quality photos.”
SpookySnek@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Everytime I discuss apple vs android with colleagues, it always boils down to “but come one, you can’t take someone with green bubbles seriously”. And we all work as developers for god’s sake. iPhone users are more shallow than you think.
TAG@lemmy.world 11 months ago
And yes iMessage has way higher image quality than sms, just like RCS has
MMS resolution seems fine for me and on Android, if I try to send a photo via SMS, my phone will alert me and suggest that I send that particular text (with a photo attachment) via MMS.
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 11 months ago
In most of Europe, nobody uses an apple phone, so the pressure to get them to use a different protocol is fairly low.
SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net 11 months ago
I have seen people literally say they like that iMessage is exclusive, and they like to keep Android users away/separate
It was reeking of classism in addition to being generally a terrible thing to read
Speculater@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’ve heard of people not responding to the wrong colored bubbles or being judgemental, like my $1,200 phone is better than your $1,200 phone?
AsimovsRobot@lemmy.world 11 months ago
What an American problem. 😂
Garbanzo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Bullet dodged. Thinking you’re hot shit because you use the ultimate basic bitch phone is just ridiculous.
Speculater@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I mean, guys have the same thing going on. Fickle knows no gender.
IamRoot@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
In so many ways.
rar@discuss.online 11 months ago
That's just sad. Not even sports teams or musicians, but over a walled-gardened messaging app?
BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I knew a 29 y/o woman that switched to iPhone so that others with iPhones would see her text messages bubble as blue instead of green. Imagine blowing over a thousand dollars so that someone else sees blue rather than green in text messages. Meanwhile, I can make the bubble colors whatever color I want on my Android.
SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net 11 months ago
I honestly blame Apple for abusing the societal penchant for forming tribes around random things.
NuPNuA@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Top whack android phones aret really cheaper than iPhones these days so it’s not classism as such. Yanks just seem to love to tribalise everything, see masks during Covid as another example. I think it’s a result of having a two party political system.
SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net 11 months ago
I know it’s not actually a thing, it was about how they were talking about it