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Hangouts is yet another app. imesssge just works and gracefully degrades when a non iOS person is included.

That's exactly how hangouts works on Nexus and Pixel devices.

It's a closed system too, though.

Yes. But if iMessage is presented as the success and as an example of what Google could have had part of if they only hadn't switched to hangouts, I'm not sure how it works as evidence since google switched to be more like iMessage.

I'm not arguing that I think a system should or should not be open, just that I don't understand how the argument that was presented is supposed to work.

All communication systems are in the process of flipping back to closed systems.

The major open ones (mail and POTS) are either going away as telcos divest and people stop answering the phone or consolidating into a small number of big players as what we see with email.

The 2030s will probably bring back the future equivalent of Telex

But not the majority (last I heard) who has never downloaded a single app from the App Store.