[gecko]

If you accept the default prompts, it's enabled automatically on iOS 5, and, because it's keyed based on your phone number, also automatically used when messaging other iPhone users. Combined, not only do people use iMessage; it's resulted in a MARKED decrease in texting volume in at least the US.

[shmerl]

And it's the same sick idea as Whatsapp - another walled and non interoperable IM network.

[amartya916]

Ummmm..... Whatsapp has had its issues with security and has been on Hacker News fairly recently, but I am not sure what you mean by interoperable IM network. Do you mean that it should be a webapp and that having an app on Android, iPhone etc. is not interoperable enough?

Or was that just supposed to be a jab at Whatsapp for no apparent reason (and a bit out of context)?

[shmerl]

Interoperable solutions should use a standard protocol and be able to communicate with other servers. Like e-mail for example. For instant messaging such standard is XMPP (Jabber), and when server has federation enabled - it allows communication with users of other XMPP servers.

"Having an app" for various OSes is not called interoperable. Going back to e-mail analogy, one can expect to use any e-mail client, and to send messages to users of any e-mail server. Without any need to use one kind of client and being restricted to communicate with users of one e-mail server only. The same thing should be in the field of instant messaging, and such thing is already possible with XMPP.

Those who proliferate non interoperable networks (Whatsapp, iMessage or whatever) - are plain wrong and should be ashamed doing it in this day and age.

Looking at history - e-mail had to overcome the same problem. At some point, major public e-mail services were walled, like AOL and Compuserve not being interoperable. Luckily today for e-mail such thing is unimaginable. But with IMs - it just persists. And in big part, those who create new walled networks can be blamed.