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Apple Invites

(www.apple.com)
651 points openchampagne | 2 comments | 04 Feb 25 16:21 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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lordofgibbons ◴[04 Feb 25 22:24 UTC] No.42939855[source]▶
I really hope this fails.

Apple will use it's dominant position to create lock in like how they did with iMessage instead of cooperating with other platforms on a common standard.

Oder friends and family are surprised when they want to video call over Facetime and find it hard to believe other people's phones don't have Apple apps.

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basisword ◴[05 Feb 25 00:36 UTC] No.42941630[source]▶
Just a tip but sometimes it’s good to read the article before commenting.

The app allows iPhone users to create an event. Anybody on any device or browser can RSVP. The event can be shared as a link. Making an event invite app that only works for users on one platform would be pointless.

Also - non-Apple users have been able to join FaceTime calls via. A link for several years.

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yapyap ◴[05 Feb 25 02:56 UTC] No.42943116[source]▶
Tbf imessage also allows people to message non iOS users but apparently the ‘color of the bubble’ has been a big thing in the U.S. among youth.
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saintfire ◴[05 Feb 25 03:08 UTC] No.42943209[source]▶
I think calling it just "color of the bubble" downplays the intentional degredation of chat quality for everyone in the chat in order to encourage exclusion, presumably to create FOMO. Incidentally FOMO is a very powerful among youth, but it's still a thing for any group in some capacity.

Not that I personally cared, as i see it as an Apple flaw, but in joining a work iMessage group I had people whining about image quality and whatever other features were disabled between iMessage users while I was present.

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JohnBooty ◴[05 Feb 25 05:04 UTC] No.42944033[source]▶
Poor technical understanding. It's not "degradation."

They will use the iMessage protocol if supported by all clients. If not, they fall back to the next best thing supported by all clients whether RCS or SMS/MMS. In your case (possibly before iPhones supported RCS) the "next best thing" was apparently SMS/MMS.

This is the correct behavior.

I think you're also falling into the common trap of automatically thinking whatever Android supports is like, the correct and open standard.

In reality, RCS's history was an absolute mess of incompatible implementations, pushed and owned by some of by Apple's direct competitors. It's really not any more the "correct" standard than iMessage is and it does not support E2EE outside of Google's proprietary implementation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services#De...

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Rohansi ◴[05 Feb 25 05:23 UTC] No.42944186{3}[source]▶
At least RCS is an attempt at being a cross platform standard, even if it still sucks. iMessage is locked down to Apple devices only. Even if you reverse engineered the protocol you wouldn't be able to get it on Android because Apple will shut you down.

Best option is to just use a different app that just works on all platforms. No RCS, no iMessage.

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1. JohnBooty ◴[05 Feb 25 18:20 UTC] No.42952847{4}[source]▶

    At least RCS is an attempt at being a cross platform 
    standard, even if it still sucks.
The E2EE part, which does not exist in the RCS standard itself, is a proprietary Google thing with keys managed by Google. It is not open, and opening it is not trivial because somebody has to be an authoritative key source etc.

If not for that part I'd agree with you.

    Best option is to just use a different app that just works 
    on all platforms. No RCS, no iMessage.
Well, I think there's obviously a huge place for these apps and there always has been. There is certainly nothing stopping you and your buddies from all standardizing on Signal, Telegram, or uh.... buying the rights to ICQ and resurrecting that or whatever.

The value of iMessage/RCS/SMS is that it is effectively universal. I just need somebody's mobile number and I can call or text them. They are (more or less) guaranteed to be able to receive that call or text. I can buy the most advanced iPhone or Pixel and I can send a text message to some dude on a 2001 flip phone in a jungle somewhere. That is a huge huge huge value.

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2. Rohansi ◴[05 Feb 25 23:47 UTC] No.42957055[source]▶
The value you are talking about is all because of SMS. It's the lowest common denominator and IMO shouldn't be combined into a single app.

And there's definitely no reason why either iMessage or RCS E2EE need to be locked to a specific platform. Signal, WhatsApp, etc just work everywhere with no quirks when messaging people on different platforms.