iMessage came LOOOOONNNNG before RCS. Once Apple had a large base of iPhone users, they rolled out iMessage. And it only works on Apple hardware. But because it’s the default and the general public is relatively…err…dumb… nobody really understood the difference until recently.
I am suprised that it took this long to find someone that mentions how RCS will need to fight the network effect of pre existing IM apps thanks to no one using SMS in 2026 (for good reason, it is genuinely garbage and unsafe)
Isn’t that a possible reason why my my e/OS/ phone can’t send text messages, nor call, some numbers. (In France, where many people use meta shit like whatsapp and facebook messenger, and won’t be interested in another messenging app like signal, delta chat, etc)
Genuinely nobody I know has sent an SMS message for at least a decade, who are you still sending SMS to in this day and age when internet-based messengers exist?
Ever heard of older people or just less techy ones? Guess not. I always find it weird when people get on some high horse about sms or any other tech topic. By the way you talk, one would think you literally think hundreds of millions or more people don’t use a texting capability built-in to their phone. But you clearly don’t think that. You apparently just have a need to “other” people who do use it.
Ps. You live in a world where people still use fax machines, checks, floppy disks, and AOL over dialup. People use old tech. It’s not that crazy and much of it has to do with older people not liking change.
Look, I’m not trying to be a smartarse here, I’m genuinely interested in different ways people use technology. I am telling you that every person I know, regardless of age, defaults to using WhatsApp for communications; even my elderly relatives.
Ok, perhaps I misjudged you. For me, even younger people typically don’t use other messengers besides sms. I’ve only ever successfully gotten like 5 people to install signal. The other most popular messengers in the us, Facebook messenger and Whatsapp, are probably much worse for privacy than sms, due to meta ownership.
Yeah I’ve got about half of my friends and family using Signal, but when even a single one refuses then the whole group chat ends up staying in WhatsApp. WhatsApp does at least seem better than Facebook messenger though, as it allegedly implements the Signal protocol so should still be E2E encrypted. “Allegedly”, because it’s closed source and run by the trustworthy philanthropists as Facebook who I’m sure are data mining as much as they can from it, but I think people would have found out if it was a total lie. Still better than SMS though which may as well be public.
Where in the world are you? I speak for the UK when I talk about WhatsApp being the de-facto messenger. How do people do group chats or send files if they’re still using SMS?
Well, yeah, Whatsapp is e2e encrypted but also I’m pretty sure it’s known that the app can/does use chat data on the client side. If they aren’t doing that, they could always start someday because for the conversations to be readable they are decrypted on the device end for each user. And I would put nothing past Meta.
I’m in the US. Group chats infamously have this “green/blue bubble” issue where many iPhone users would have a group chat (automatically using iMessage) and then if an android user gets added, the chat gets downgraded to MMS I think and the android user shows as a green bubble. It’s a weird cultural thing where the iPhone users (as designed by apple) think the android user has a crappy phone because they designed their ecosystem like that. I am sure overall many people use non-sms apps but it’s pretty rare for someone to assume I use Whatsapp, they typically ask first. And people using signal is also rare ime. But I’m sure all this would be much different for younger people than me. I know Snapchat is still pretty popular and I’ve barely used it (hated it).
Wow, I’ve heard about “green bubbles” but I assumed that was something teenagers grew out of. Hearing that Snapchat is still around is crazy, I used it back when smartphones were still a cool toy and haven’t thought about it since!
In the UK we’ve all got unlimited calls and texts (i.e. SMS) but MMS never became free. Or maybe it did (though I’ve not seen an operator mention it for over a decade) but by then everyone was already using internet-based IMs. WhatsApp had already become the main one before Facebook bought it, and you already know how resistant people are to change.
I have and I’m not sure I get your point. I have an ability to understand how other people use technology. Which is aided by travel, not hindered by it.
You’re correct. EU users didn’t adopt, or at least continue to utilize, SMS based messaging like users in the US did. This is not a problem for anyone using web based messaging like the ones you mentioned.
I’m quite surprised by the reaction this comment has received, are Americans genuinely still using SMS? Don’t they need to have group chats, send pictures, transfer files, make audio and video calls, or make use of encryption?
Yes we mainly use SMS and then if both users are on compatible devices they’ll switch to RCS or some other protocol. But most of my texts including spam messages are just plain SMS.
I don’t know for sure but my guess is that a lot of US users thought you were wrong because they don’t know that SMS / MMS is essentially dead in the EU. It’s still the primary text based communication method in the US.
MMS supports all the things you mentioned (albeit in a shittier way) except encryption. RCS adds a new layer that is more like Signal in that it supports encryption and emojis and a few other things but it is controlled by Google and there are no open source alternatives currently.
Does MMS support all that? From my brief research it basically just sends an SMS with a link to the media to be downloaded by your WAP browser, so while a client could implement group chats etc I’m not aware that it’s actually built in. Not that I can check, my network doesn’t even seem to support MMS anymore!
I think it’s texts for people who don’t use Signal or WhatsApp, so… nobody I have ever met, I guess
It is literally a standardized communication protocol. That is what iMessage is
iMessage is anything but a standardized protocol with crossplatform support
what did you drink? are you ok?
Huh, I just assumed it was built on the protocol but I guess not lol
iMessage came LOOOOONNNNG before RCS. Once Apple had a large base of iPhone users, they rolled out iMessage. And it only works on Apple hardware. But because it’s the default and the general public is relatively…err…dumb… nobody really understood the difference until recently.
I am suprised that it took this long to find someone that mentions how RCS will need to fight the network effect of pre existing IM apps thanks to no one using SMS in 2026 (for good reason, it is genuinely garbage and unsafe)
Many people still use SMS in the US because it is (almost) universally free as opposed to mobile data which is not.
carriers on brazil have unlimited mobile data for certain services, including whatsapp, for only 2 USD a momth
it’s trying to extend the sms/mms system
Replace, not extend.
extend only, it will fallback to SMS, and guess what? who the fuck even uses SMS and MMS nowadays?
Isn’t that a possible reason why my my
e/OS/phone can’t send text messages, nor call, some numbers. (In France, where many people use meta shit like whatsapp and facebook messenger, and won’t be interested in another messenging app like signal, delta chat, etc)it is as convenient for the users as sms/mms, unlike signal/telegram/whatsapp
Sounds like you haven’t met anyone. Or more likely, it’s everyone not-you who is weird.
Genuinely nobody I know has sent an SMS message for at least a decade, who are you still sending SMS to in this day and age when internet-based messengers exist?
Ever heard of older people or just less techy ones? Guess not. I always find it weird when people get on some high horse about sms or any other tech topic. By the way you talk, one would think you literally think hundreds of millions or more people don’t use a texting capability built-in to their phone. But you clearly don’t think that. You apparently just have a need to “other” people who do use it.
Ps. You live in a world where people still use fax machines, checks, floppy disks, and AOL over dialup. People use old tech. It’s not that crazy and much of it has to do with older people not liking change.
Look, I’m not trying to be a smartarse here, I’m genuinely interested in different ways people use technology. I am telling you that every person I know, regardless of age, defaults to using WhatsApp for communications; even my elderly relatives.
Ok, perhaps I misjudged you. For me, even younger people typically don’t use other messengers besides sms. I’ve only ever successfully gotten like 5 people to install signal. The other most popular messengers in the us, Facebook messenger and Whatsapp, are probably much worse for privacy than sms, due to meta ownership.
Yeah I’ve got about half of my friends and family using Signal, but when even a single one refuses then the whole group chat ends up staying in WhatsApp. WhatsApp does at least seem better than Facebook messenger though, as it allegedly implements the Signal protocol so should still be E2E encrypted. “Allegedly”, because it’s closed source and run by the trustworthy philanthropists as Facebook who I’m sure are data mining as much as they can from it, but I think people would have found out if it was a total lie. Still better than SMS though which may as well be public.
Where in the world are you? I speak for the UK when I talk about WhatsApp being the de-facto messenger. How do people do group chats or send files if they’re still using SMS?
Well, yeah, Whatsapp is e2e encrypted but also I’m pretty sure it’s known that the app can/does use chat data on the client side. If they aren’t doing that, they could always start someday because for the conversations to be readable they are decrypted on the device end for each user. And I would put nothing past Meta.
I’m in the US. Group chats infamously have this “green/blue bubble” issue where many iPhone users would have a group chat (automatically using iMessage) and then if an android user gets added, the chat gets downgraded to MMS I think and the android user shows as a green bubble. It’s a weird cultural thing where the iPhone users (as designed by apple) think the android user has a crappy phone because they designed their ecosystem like that. I am sure overall many people use non-sms apps but it’s pretty rare for someone to assume I use Whatsapp, they typically ask first. And people using signal is also rare ime. But I’m sure all this would be much different for younger people than me. I know Snapchat is still pretty popular and I’ve barely used it (hated it).
Wow, I’ve heard about “green bubbles” but I assumed that was something teenagers grew out of. Hearing that Snapchat is still around is crazy, I used it back when smartphones were still a cool toy and haven’t thought about it since!
In the UK we’ve all got unlimited calls and texts (i.e. SMS) but MMS never became free. Or maybe it did (though I’ve not seen an operator mention it for over a decade) but by then everyone was already using internet-based IMs. WhatsApp had already become the main one before Facebook bought it, and you already know how resistant people are to change.
Sounds like you never have been to Europe…
I have and I’m not sure I get your point. I have an ability to understand how other people use technology. Which is aided by travel, not hindered by it.
sounds like you live in the land of the free, I mean the land of forced to use SMS becausd apple NPCs can’t be bothered to use a proper IM service
You’re correct. EU users didn’t adopt, or at least continue to utilize, SMS based messaging like users in the US did. This is not a problem for anyone using web based messaging like the ones you mentioned.
I’m quite surprised by the reaction this comment has received, are Americans genuinely still using SMS? Don’t they need to have group chats, send pictures, transfer files, make audio and video calls, or make use of encryption?
Yes we mainly use SMS and then if both users are on compatible devices they’ll switch to RCS or some other protocol. But most of my texts including spam messages are just plain SMS.
For phone calls i make a phone call.
I don’t know for sure but my guess is that a lot of US users thought you were wrong because they don’t know that SMS / MMS is essentially dead in the EU. It’s still the primary text based communication method in the US.
MMS supports all the things you mentioned (albeit in a shittier way) except encryption. RCS adds a new layer that is more like Signal in that it supports encryption and emojis and a few other things but it is controlled by Google and there are no open source alternatives currently.
Does MMS support all that? From my brief research it basically just sends an SMS with a link to the media to be downloaded by your WAP browser, so while a client could implement group chats etc I’m not aware that it’s actually built in. Not that I can check, my network doesn’t even seem to support MMS anymore!