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Apple’s RCS announcement date wasn’t coincidence, and is good insurance (9to5mac.com)

submitted 11 months ago by purplemountain01@alien.top to c/apple@hardware.watch

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[–] getwhirleddotcom@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I mean this move really has no downside for Apple. Green text will stay green text. It'll never be as robust an experience as iMessage.

[–] southwestern_swamp@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

So why did Apple refuse for so long if there is no downside?

[–] getwhirleddotcom@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Why would they? They weren't under any pressure to but now it makes strategic sense to.

[–] esntlbnr@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Because there’s no real upside either. People aren’t going to run out and buy more iPhones because they suddenly support RCS.

[–] linknight@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

The upside is the user experience for iOS users using SMS was dogshit. Apple dragging their feet didn't just make the user experience worse for Android users who texted iOS users, it also did the same to it's own iOS users. Hell, it even made it terrible between iOS users when iMessage had to fallback to SMS when there was bad data signal and the video that was sent would arrive in some compressed video file that would have been right at home in 1998.

This whole time we could have had typing indicators, read receipts, higher quality photos and videos, well functioning group chats... etc, between android and iOS (and among iOS when there was not data) but instead we just had shitty SMS/MMS technology from over 20 years ago. Apple kept things intentionally worse for it's own users to create a sense of "lock in"

[–] MattinMaui@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Just as long as I don’t get the text version when a green bubble person “likes” my message, I’m happy.

[–] CoasterFreak2601@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Didn’t Apple fix that in iOS 16? Or was that only fixed in group texts?

[–] Un111KnoWn@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

hopefully no compression of videos and images

[–] flextrek_whipsnake@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If there are no downsides then why did the EU have to strongarm them into doing it?

[–] hishnash@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

It will be a lot of work to go correctly without leaking user info

[–] Obility@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I mean for sensible human beings who are able to look past the colour of a digital bubble, this change breaks a lot of barriers for people who have iphones due to complications of texting with SMS. Those complications will no longer exist and there would be less incentive to stick with Iphones unless they are buried in the ecosystem.

[–] LionTigerWings@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

No downside for Apple users. There’s some downside to Apple because it reduces lock in.

In a q and a a reporter even asked Apple a question about this directly

But the person who asked the question, Vox Media’s LiQuan Hunt, came back with a valid complaint, saying that his mother can’t see the videos he sends her. It all comes down to a lack of interoperability between iMessage and RCS, both messaging systems that could allow higher-quality images and videos — if they worked together. If you’ve tried to send a video from Android to iOS (or vice versa) using your regular text messaging app, then you know that your videos come out completely fuzzy on the other end. Cook’s suggestion to fix this annoying issue? “Buy your mom an iPhone.”

[–] Chemical_Knowledge64@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I mean having AirPlay/shareplay features in RCS texting isn’t what people are asking for. It’s functional cross-platform group texts, read receipts, full sized media sharing, and other basic features that RCS hopes to bring to all smartphones.