Americans Can’t Quit SMS | Hacker News Reader

Americans Can’t Quit SMS

nytimes.com

18 pointstysone5 comments

  "it makes me feel uneasy to suggest that everyone should use 
   WhatsApp and make one Big Tech company the gateway to all of 
   our digital communications"

Bingo. The author seems to be circling around something that is very important to me; open protocols. If there was a modern drop-in replacement for SMS that addressed the known security concerns while also being open and cross platform, I'd be all over it. Messaging used to have the hope of XMPP, but walled-garden interests and consumer desire for the new-shiny-thing effectively killed that.

The way I put it to friends to drive home the importance of open protocols: Imagine you want to send a package... you put your friend's address on it, right? You can use UPS, FedEx, DHL, or the USPO. And if it goes to another country, it transfers to that countries Post Office ~ because only an address is needed. Imagine how ridiculous it would be if you could only send FedEx packages to recipients with "FedEx Addresses"? Same with UPS, etc... Obviously sounds lame, right? We've done the same thing with messaging.

If there was a modern drop-in replacement for SMS that addressed the known security concerns while also being open and cross platform, I'd be all over it.

There is! RCS (wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services)

Android supports it, but unfortunately it seems Apple would prefer everyone stick to imessage. Marques Brownlee talks about this in his "Blue Bubbles vs Green Bubbles" video.

Hasn’t it only recently started to be supported by phone carriers? How widespread is that support?

Apple is now cancer dressed up as sustainability, security, privacy, and good design.

Well, the emperor has no fucking clothes on, Tim — we can all see!

Does a FedEx package transfer to the other country's Post Office? My experience is that a package sent by FedEx arrives with FedEx. Standard Post would be the equivalent to SMS in that it's everywhere, and private companies would be the other apps, right?

Then the equivalent to your identifiable address would be your phone number. Except if you want something more anonymous, which is then more complicated. Just the same with the Post example...

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