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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

I don’t understand the point this article is trying to make.

Yes, Apple execs thought that iMessage exclusivity would help them. Perhaps it did a little but the app still connects seamlessly to android users via sms. I never think when contacting someone, “oh wait, do they have an iPhone?”

As for imessage-specific features (iMessage App Store, cash, imessage for businesses etc): they have pretty limited use. And in fact Apple’s choice inhibits some of them (like iChat to your business) which seems like an own goal.

More importantly, Whatsapp has crushed most of the messaging apps, imessage included. Apple doesn’t seem to care or try to block it.

So what offense, exactly has been committed?

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> Whatsapp has crushed most of the messaging apps, imessage included.

Not in US. And specially not within teens in US. ( And you can exclude Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and possibly Australia as well. Edit: And of course China. )

To this day I still dont understand how anyone use iMessages on a day to day basis. It is possibly the worst form of instant messaging I have had for years. Even worst than ICQ.

I think Apple software is popular not because it's own value and features, but because:

1. It's free

2. It's preinstalled

3. It's well integrated

I don't think I'd use Mail, iMessage, Safari or Preview if it was not installed by default and set up so it is a default app. Feature-wise I'd say Apple software it good enough not to bother installing anything else and that's it.

What’s not to like about iMessage?

Message Sending and Receiving not reliable and long delay.

Group Message often not delivered.

Group members often get drop out of Group messages for no reason. They thought no one was talking when that is not the case.

Their message to group will then appear to each individual member.

To solve this problem we have to restart a new group.

iMessage for years dont have searching. ( It is a bit like App Store where they just didn't bother to improve its searching )

And this isn't old. As recent as 2018 that was still the case. 7 years after its first introduction. We tried it as group every year and every year we felt disappointed.

WhatsApp on the other hand has been near perfect. ( Apart from being part of Facebook )

Your group all has iPhones and this happens ?

Yes. After all Group messages wouldn't even work in SMS / non-iMessages scenario at all.

> Perhaps it did a little but the app still connects seamlessly to android users via sms.

And meanwhile, when I'm (with an Android device) texting my friend (with an iPhone), I end up getting spammed with 'Laughed at "$MESSAGE"' and 'Loved "$MESSAGE"' because apparently reactions to texts come across as texts themselves.

(I don't know if this is an iMessage thing specifically, though, or even something that a sufficiently-smart Android SMS app couldn't overcome; maybe there are Android SMS apps that can parse these and show them as reactions to the relevant messages. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

There are similar limits on photos/video. MMS photos are resolution capped at ~1MP, and videos have are compressed to be barely legible.

iMessage transfers photos/video at their native resolution.

Which means that if three iPhone users send photos in a group chat, everything's great. Add one Android user and all four are degraded to MMS quality levels.

I think my next phone will be by Apple, specifically so I can enjoy the seamless image/video sharing the rest of my family has. Probably a few generations back - I don't need the fancy cameras and screens.

iMessage intentionally attaches social inclusion to ability to buy premium hardware. I think that's wrong.

Yep. My friends all talk about “green people”. That is friends who are so poor they can’t afford iPhones so their texts show up as green instead of blue.

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