(unpaywalled version on archive.today: https://archive.ph/03cwZ)
Interesting figure that comes out of the article: 87% of US teens prefer iPhones. Also the explanations given aren’t quite surprising, I guess it’s mostly because of iMessage. Teens will feel like outcasts if they get an Android phone while their friends still use iMessage because of the green bubbles.
It’s actually hilarious how we allowed consumerism to take us this far and that we have now peer pressure over smartphones.
“You’re telling me in 2023, you still have a ’Droid? […] You gotta be at least 50 years old.”
ouch 😔
It’s 2023. Why use SMS in the first place? The world except the US has moved on years ago.
Because open standards that don’t require specialized software have many advantages… Why would you prefer proprietary software in the first place?
Because it provides a better experience, weather it’s WhatsApp telegram, Signal threema or even discord or teams, they all provide a significant feature advantage over SMS. This starts with properly handling multimedia, not giving your number up to everyone else, proper groups, your messages living in the cloud for proper multi device functionality, your messages living unencrypted only on your device… There is plenty of real advantages with their associated side effects.
SMS as a standard is simply too old for modern expectations, this doesn’t make modern expectations stupid just because the standard is not being kept up to date. I have not written a single SMS since 2013 or so, and my life is better for it. Also there is definitely open third party chat apps that provide an open standard that can just be installed as one of a few apps, the problem here is that potentially no one is using them.
The main advantage of a computer in your pocket against earlier phones is that you can fundamentally install any software you want, not just what the device manufacturer deems acceptable, so why would anyone not take advantage of this for messaging is beyond me.
You just listed mostly things that already exist with sms or should exist as a standard and some of them, Google has tried with RCS but companies like apple actively refuses adoption. Yeah, you can install apps but ideally you’d not be required to, it would be a choice. Sending a text message ought to be a standard process. This is a lot of hate for the idea of standards dude.
The thing is it’s a specific standard that just hasn’t kept up, you shouldn’t be married to any software, and you should be able to decide yourself what you use, I can’t change what big tech does with their software, but I can call people stupid for not using the ability of their computers to run custom software.
I despise the trend of people not realizing what they legitimately can do with their hardware, because they were just too scared to install software. I so often stumble upon people who can’t accomplish simple tasks because they are terrified of installing software, and this messaging thing is definitely one of these issues.
Essentially if you are given a library of software, and you have a problem that is solved by installing software, why would you not install software, it’s mostly free, and requires only the briefest thought about what you want and where you can find it.
You’re entirely missing the point. Communication systems ought to be standardized and mostly has been. You’re acting like you can magically install apps on your relatives and friends phones if you want to.
I have zero fear of installing incredibly custom software and honestly do so most days…
Not sure how someone this intelligent can so easily get lost on the idea that communication happens on a network, not on one device, and therefore standards help interoperability… It’s sort of bizarre
Yes I can’t do shit about communication systems not being standardized to the degree I’d like and with the features I’d want.
So what I try to do is try to bully people until they use an app that everyone can be relatively happy with, SMS is essentially the only one I don’t accept because it’s 20 years old and doesn’t behave sensibly for the modern area.
I can understand that standards help interoperability but realize that for SMS, obviously that has failed because apple has rejected RCS for now and developed a default experience that is better. I don’t control any of that shit. I can just tell people to install chat apps if they want to talk to me. And I can bully them if they don’t.
The network is a network of communicating software so the standard can be installed by default or after the fact, it doesn’t make a difference if everyone would just install software. Being angry at apple or WhatsApp or whatever for not writing a messenger you like is sorta stupid, they are companies they’ll never do what you want, being a angry at users that refuse to use options freely available to them can at least improve the situation for me because they can install what I, or they want to use.
At least you know you’re a bully but otherwise I can’t agree with a word of this. I’m not bullying my mom into using an app because her photos are shitty res. It’s rude and pointless. It won’t work. Also if it did I’d still be an asshole but an asshole providing tech support for a new thing. Being a bully is a bad thing fyi
Well if someone is stupid and my bullying gets them a bit out of their stupidity I don’t think it’s too bad. Also this is largely not a problem where I live, my mom asked if we could use signal because she disliked WhatsApp because of privacy, and I just installed signal, my dad still uses WhatsApp, my friends and I use telegram and discord. I’ve actually never had to do any real bullying because in the real world everyone understands the issue enough for us to get somewhere sensible.
It’s neither rude nor pointless to explain software to users who are less adept with software, sometimes it won’t work but, it also sometimes does just work, especially with chat apps, it’s literally just replacing an icon, because on the UI side they are very similar. And I hate to tell you this but not providing tech support if you are good at it also just doesn’t help, it just makes us collectively stupider. Sure don’t burn yourself out on users who can get nothing right, but like teach your parents colleagues and friends some fundamentals that you seem to understand, if only because it makes your life easier.
SMS > Facebook
And there are many more options better than both
Yeah but typically when people come into these threads going “huhuhu stupid Americans with their SMS” it turns out they’re on WhatsApp, like much of the rest of the world. Which is just hilariously stupid.
Don’t be ignorant. There are a lot more options, safer, open and with more features than sms/iMessage.
I’m in the US and my thought is that it’s easier to use sms because not everyone uses Signal, not everyone uses Telegram, and those types. If they did… One person would prefer Snapchat, the other would prefer Signal… Too many choices. With SMS, it’s just your phone number, and everyone has a phone number.
Otherwise you gotta get usernames for different people for different apps… It’s too complicated.
It’s not username based, it’s based on your phone number. I really don’t get what’s holding people in the US back to move on. Because these arguments don’t apply at all.
I think Snapchat is more a social media app than a messenger by the way.
I only text like 5 people. I’m not downloading an app to talk to 5 people.