[pmarreck]

I can deal with the green text, what's annoying is when my S.O.'s father, who absolutely insists on using Android when the rest of us all have iPhones, insists on taking a video of my son and texting it to us, and it comes through as (I shit you not) some crazy potato resolution like 192x105 and is 300k despite being a minute long; this absolutely NEVER happens from another iPhone, the downsampling of both photos and video

[simonh]

> who absolutely insists on using Android

I’m in an all iPhone household, but come on. It’s his phone. No need to get tetchy about it.

[Double_a_92]

Yeah I also wouldn't like to be pressured into buying a >1000$ phone when a 200$ one works just as well... Unless some people insist on using weird, non-crossplatform messengers.

[GeekyBear]

The $399 iPhone SE is currently on it's sixth year of OS and security updates.

Even the brand new >1000$ Android phones will only get half as many years of support.

[hackmiester]

Or a $400 one like the iPhone SE?

[throwawayboise]

Still 2x what I have ever spent on a phone. And grand for a phone... that's just stupid.

[hedgehog]

My iPhone is my primary camera, good screen, durable, and in-hand for a bunch of key life events where a bigger camera wouldn't have worked. Well worth it. Purchasing choices are not universal.

[throwawayboise]

That's true. I stopped taking pictures of everything once I realized I never look at them later, and nobody else gives a crap about my pictures (remember the old jokes about watching the neighbors slide show of their vacation? It's still the same). I use my phone camera maybe once a month, and it's to take a picture of a receipt or something I need to remember but I don't have a pen and paper handy.

[prawn]

Agree - it's a key way I record memories of my children and family. It's how I photograph, read, research, communicate and occasionally work, so worth spending on for me. I've shot paid content for Tourism Australia on my phone as well.

[hackmiester]

Well, seems we agree, it’s a good thing you don’t have to spend a grand to get an iPhone (or a high-end Galaxy…). If you want to try an iPhone, try a refurb, to get you closer to the $200-300 price point.

[BenjiWiebe]

And I run a $80 Android with a user replaceable battery. At least in my social circle the majority are Android owners.

[ThunderSizzle]

My wife uses iPhone, and whenever she sends stuff, it comes over as crap.

So it goes both ways. Maybe you should get an android instead? Or you can continue being snobby about Apple and Google being companies that want closed gardens.

[hedgehog]

The real villain here is the carriers who did not provide the infrastructure for large MMS attachments. If there was a widely supported standard Apple would probably implement it, instead the standard limit is 1MB or something so videos will just generally suck.

[kcb]

RCS is the infrastructure to allow larger attachments. Apple is the only one at fault here for not implementing it.

[hedgehog]

RCS is pretty meh technically and not widely supported, why would Apple take on the extra complexity? They can barely make their own apps work as it is.

[PickledHotdog]

Ah, widely supported standards like the various USB charging standards that Apple so famously adopted

[cpuguy83]

Blame Apple for this, not Google. Android supports RCS, iMessage does not. Apple is the last holdout.

There's no good reason to have it this way other than lock-in.

[jacob019]

100%, maybe Apple should be compelled to support standards when they choose not to for anticompetitive reasons.

[pmarreck]

> Android supports RCS, iMessage does not.

iMessage has existed in more or less its current form for over 10 years now. RCS took too long and basically gave this space to Apple. And Apple keeps adding features, such as bundling photos sent at once, showing where photos you have came from, and other things, not to mention things that STILL aren't on Android (nor whatsapp) like livephotos.

[cpuguy83]

There is a standard that is significantly better than SMS and Apple has so far chosen to stay with SMS as the only fallback.

Blame Apple that talking to anyone not on iMessage sucks.

Also, the features you mention are all extremely new to iOS, I'm not sure what you mean by "still".

- Sent from my iPhone

[pmarreck]

Livephotos are NOT new... 2015.

But sure, Apple could (maybe should) use RCS as a fallback instead of SMS.

[km3r]

No one is saying apple needs to get rid of iMessage, just update the fallback from sms to rcs

[frosted-flakes]

Potato-quality happens the other way too, for what it's worth. I tend to believe it's the fault of iPhones, because sending media Android->Android over MMS works fine.

[intothemild]

Yep. It's because android supports rich messages, a kind of SMS 2.0, where as iPhones do not support it because it competes with iMessage.

[frosted-flakes]

No, even without RCS the quality seems to be decent. Even on my old BlackBerry receiving a video from a Windows Phone over MMS had decent quality.

[pverghese]

There is no reason to be so entitled thinking other people have to buy a > $1000 phone just because Apple gimps on their messaging app. If you want him to text you a better quality video, buy him a phone, or better yet don't because that's their choice.

[hackmiester]

A totally workable iPhone can cost $400 new. Refurbs from Apple cost less. Carrier deals are available.

[greenyoda]

OK, but I got my totally workable Android phone (Samsung Galaxy A20) for just over $200. Some people may not have that extra money, or may prefer to spend it on something besides an expensive phone.

[hackmiester]

I think these people should go for the refurb options I mentioned, if they’d like an iPhone.

[int_19h]

They don't want an iPhone, though - they're pressured into getting one.

[kcb]

Just use Whatsapp. That's what my family has done to work around the issues with weird iPhone users.

[pmarreck]

No Livephotos.

[barbs]

I created a WhatsApp group chat for my family years ago and there's never been any functional problems. Obviously there's that whole Facebook privacy issue but I don't see my family switching to something like Signal anytime soon.

[asadlionpk]

ask them to email it to you?