Re: Children, Please!
Apple and Google, please agree on something so your users have a seamless experience with something as simple as text...
Agreed ... but that's the problem, isn't it? We're talking about "something as simple as text" but they're talking about "features like end-to-end encryption, high quality media sharing, read receipts, typing indicators and more."
I like SMS. Like most other mobile phone users in the UK I get unlimited SMS text messages FREE, but have to pay -- albeit not very much -- for mobile internet usage. For the things for which I use SMS I don't care about sophistications like encryption and media-sharing; I just want to send a simple short text message.
SMS uses a standard protocol that is set by the standards used by the carriers. All phones have to support those standards, at some level, as they have to conform to those standards. Deciding not to expose the protocol at app level is just perverse, stupid, and limiting.
I'm in two minds as to whether using a single app to manage SMS messaging and IP-based messaging is helpful or confusing ... but there should at the very least be a way to send a message specifically by SMS rather than any other protocol, and there should be a way to receive SMS messages.
MMS is a completely different bucket of hake. MMS is not free, and in fact is stupidly expensive. It costs hugely more to send media by MMS than by IP-based protocols, and I can't see any redeeming benefits, except that MMS may be accessible on some non-smart phones. There's a clear win for the IP-based protocols, here, but it's really nothing to do with texting.