Hacker News Reader

Comment by freedomben | Hacker News Reader

I'm guessing you just need to install one of the five app stores onto your Pixel, and then you can install iMessage from there

View on HN

Although it is on app stores, iMessage updates happens with the iOS updates itself. It is just there because you can actually remove the Messages app and then re-install it later if you want.

It just happens to be bundled with the OS. Updates come from the app store.

Otherwise you'd need to update the entire OS, just for a minor security fix to imesssgae.

I mean it's apple, that's not a stretch

Yes, that's right. You need to update the entire OS for a minor security fix to iMessage.

But.. you're serious?! Honestly, I've never used anything in that ecosystem, but.. I'm baffled.

OS updates on iPhones frequently list new emoji in the release notes. It would be interesting to see what the most mundane reason for an iOS update is.

Emoji are not just iMessage characters.

This is deliberate. It's the carrot.

The expectation is users will download for the new emojis and in the process get all their security updates.

Before, people would delay updating forever as they would see no noticible benefits and even sometimes decreased performance.

Kinda the same reasoning auto updates are on by default and we have the concept of evergreen browsers etc.

In that way, is it similar to Google bundling various Google 1P apps with AOSP images (not to mention partnership deals with various Android OEMs)?

> Google bundling various Google 1P apps with AOSP images

Huh? The only AOSP images Google produces that I'm aware of are GSIs, which build directly from AOSP and therefore can't have proprietary apps. https://source.android.com/docs/core/tests/vts/gsi#building-...

I don't remember seeing it popping as an update through the App Store ever.

That sounds almost like "IE on Windows" though the fact it can be removed is surprising

(Also reminds me of Android messaging nagging me to push RCS messaging - ain't nobody has time for that Mr. Google)

RCS isn't by Google, it's a standard that Apple refuses to support.

Last I heard, Apple announced (directly to 9to5Mac for some reason) that it will support RCS this year, probably to head off litigation. Google, on the other hand, still doesn't support RCS in Google Voice and has announced no plans to do so.

Why the hell should Google Voice support it? It's an SMS successor that gets provided by the carriers and is bound to the phone.

Because Google Voice is a service that provides SMS. If Google thinks RCS truly is the successor to SMS, why does Google Voice only support SMS?

Ah, I mixed it up with one of Google's old messengers, sorry.

Google has extended RCS with proprietary extensions [1] including E2EE.

So there is plain RCS and Google RCS.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/30/23981350/google-messages...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com