← Back to context

Comment by harkinian

2 years ago

It's not artificial. SMS is terrible on its own, and that's none of Apple's fault. It's not like Android users are getting together and happily having SMS/RCS group chats.

10 comments

harkinian

Reply
dimator  2 years ago

> It's not artificial. SMS is terrible on its own, and that's none of Apple's fault. It's not like Android users are getting together and happily having SMS/RCS group chats.

What? RCS is a real thing that works between Android users. It is Apple's choice to not support (or contribute to it or improve the standard) it because it locks people in and creates a very cozy, very real in-group sentiment.

  • harkinian  2 years ago

    RCS doesn't work well in practice. Android group chats happen on WhatsApp, not on RCS.

    • sircastor  2 years ago

      I think the problem is uniformity in social groups. Everyone who has an iPhone gets iMessage and it's a seamless experience because it's the messaging app you have on the phone. Google was so poorly organized over its messaging solution that it couldn't push anything by default. Even if your social group is made up of a bunch of Android users, they all have the messaging app they want to use: WhatsApp, Hangouts, Telegram, Signal, etc. Very few people are willing to change because they have their own network of people who have decided on their preference.

      RCS is a good idea (sort of), but it's too late. I suspect that Apple moving to Support RCS will make very little difference in terms of messaging solutions, when all is said and done.

      2 replies →

    • Drew_  2 years ago

      RCS works pretty well and no, my Android group chats don't happen on WhatsApp.