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Comment by crop_rotation | Hacker News Reader

The comments here seem extremely emotional against Apple. If you want a free device then the android ecosystem has many great examples. The S23/S24 ultra are phones which are as good as the iPhone. I have always been an Android user because of the freedoms. But forcing iOS to become like android makes no sense. Android already exists and you can already use it. The onboarding app will even move all your data. iMessage is even going to support the useless RCS standard. I am not sure what people in this thread have against Apple. Doing the things they require will simply make all the advantages of iPhone evaporate and it will be simply left in the dust. If you want android, buy android.

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> iMessage is even going to support the useless RCS standard

What's useless about it? As I understand it, it will provide a massive upgrade over SMS/MMS. Exchanging videos via MMS (currently the only native OS option for Android <-> iOS communication) is an exercise in futility.

It is extremely useless compared to Whatsapp/Signal. It is not even natively supported in android like SMS. Even in android the only app that supports it is Google Messages (unlike several for SMS). Nobody supports the protocol and everyone uses Google's implementation. Google's client, Google's servers, optional encryption. What is good about it. The only reason for it's existence is to make Google get a leg in the messaging clients after failures with their previous attempts (Gtalk, hangouts, allo). That is why nobody outside the USA would ever bother using it.

It doesn't do anything that Whatsapp/Signal don't. And there is nothing native about it in Android, other than Google Messages is force installed on all devices, and the rich vibrant ecosystem of android SMS clients was killed off to make way for it.

If RCS is so bad, then maybe Apple can work with Google to design a better protocol.

Why? People are free to download hundreds of apps to talk to each other. The Signal protocol is so widely adopted. Matrix is a well designed protocol. Why should Apple and Google be the ones dictating messaging protocols.

People aren't going to download some random app just to talk to you, nor will you be able to convince your whole family (who all use FaceTime/iMessage) to use something else just to include you.

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