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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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 text has an iPhone, you’re both using SMS.
All of this is available on just about every messaging service, so the real answer is tribalism and lack of consumer education.
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.
I message people on iOS from my android all the time, we use WhatsApp and the problem is solved.
My understanding of “Android cameras bad” came from snapchat on Android literally taking shittier pictures and videos for some reason.
It took a screenshot of the viewfinder instead of an actual shot with shutter settings etc.