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by ryandvm 949 days ago
It's absurd. Imagine if it extended to voice calls. You could only talk to Apple users if you own an iPhone. Apple, and I guess you, would love it.

This is why we have regulated interoperability on many mass-market technologies. Imagine requiring a Ford to use certain gas stations or a Sony TV to view certain channels. There is no upside for the consumer when mass-market products leverage their popularity to create walled gardens.
1 comments
FalconSensei 949 days ago
You can send a SMS to iPhone users, and they'll see that in iMessage.

If you want a group chat with friends, there are a bunch of apps for that. If your friends wants those cool features but refuse to use any one of existing apps besides iMessage to talk to you, then they are not your friends.

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pcchristie 949 days ago
I guess the coutnerpoint is that SMS was invented in, what, the mid 90s? And MMS invented in the mid 00s (?) when things like group chats or sending a video (!) over a phone (at least > 500KB) were inconceivable. We are long overdue for a new, modern, open standard. Apple has in a way invented a pseudo-standard and a) refusing to let others in and b) refusing to also support any other open standard. I think it's reasonable to expect we have a modern standard that supports now-simple things like half decent video transfer, files, groups, locations, etc.
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FalconSensei 946 days ago
the counterpoint is also that, internet is evolving way faster than those standards are able to keep up to speed.

Considering the issues folks are mentioning here about moving on to RCS and then possibly being unable to receive messages, etc... Americans can just do what the rest of the world does and use any app available on the app/play stores to chat. Whatsapp, kakaotalk, line, telegram, etc...

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