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baduhai ,

It boggles my mind how people in the US still use SMS.

Fungah ,

I guess we cant all be enlightened enough to trust Facebook with everything.

Seasoned_Greetings ,

Based on experience dealing with people outside the US for my job, I’d say this person is implying whatsapp as the alternative.

I personally don’t see the point from within the states, given that whatsapp forces you to connect your number to it anyway.

lud ,

I use it because it is more convenient than chat apps.

It’s built-in and just works. It’s also platform independent. I only use it for family though. I use chat apps for friends because they don’t have my mobile number.

And SMS isn’t WhatsApp which is a great thing. Not that I know anyone except my mother that uses it.

Btw, I’m not in the USA.

askat ,
@askat@programming.dev avatar

Maybe they reserve that space for future AI suggestions?

Liz ,

Almost certainly the answer. Same reason they just hobbled their “ok Google” by not letting you access it with the screen off anymore. They’re going to switch engines and they want to reintroduce the same features all over again but make it feel like an upgrade.

skuzz ,

“We can’t remember what happened last quarter, so surely our users won’t remember how their phones used to be better! Genius! Moving on, time to go make and destroy a new app, how about a notepad app this time?” --Google

loudambiance ,

On the new pixels, as you start typing you get some AI tools that will rewrite your message, make suggestions, etc

MetricIsRight ,

Pixel 7 Pro here, haven’t seen this at all, it’s just dead space for me.

guyinachair ,

The 7 isn’t new anymore. That person meant the 8

hank_and_deans ,

Pixel 8 pro here. I haven’t seen it either.

guyinachair ,

A tragedy. I hate that little useless space. Those features should be on Gboard not messages

ramjambamalam ,

Apparently Textra itself doesn’t support desktop sync like Google’s app, but there are workarounds.

However, does Textra support RCS?

kilgore_trout ,

It doesn’t support RCS because Google’s implementation of it (with encryption) is not open.

skuzz ,

What a weird evil slow burn Google is doing. AOSP used to be an entire open phone operating system for the most part, (aside from binary driver blobs and some DRM stuff) but with each passing year, they close-source everything. It used to be a big proud point Android users celebrated, “oh well I can go read my source code, unlike iOS!” Annnnd…nope.

I want a new mobile OS to replace the shit sandwich of Gappleoogle.

kilgore_trout ,

LineageOS is mostly AOSP and little Google stuff, which anyway you can remove without breaking the OS.

You can use an Android phone without reliance on Google, but it’s quite some effort and possibly invalidates warranty.

corgi ,

This doesn’t seem correct. RCS is supposed to be supported by you mobile provider, if it isn’t only then your messaging app on Android will use Google’s service. The whole protocol was meant to be open to entice companies to adopt it.

I understand Google dropped don’t be evil, but they are not a villain in every story.

LotrOrc ,

I thought this was just me but I swear this is so fucking annoying

Completely unnecessary filler space

MellowSnow ,

Lol I’m glad other people are talking about it because same… I updated it and noticed immediately and thought it felt/looked a little odd. Here’s to hoping they listen to feedback if enough is provided! I’ve enjoyed the app, otherwise, for the RCS and what not.

Cringe2793 ,

While I agree this is bad, do people still use messages? In my country everyone uses WhatsApp or Telegram.

The only time I open the messages app is to get OTPs or something.

vala ,

Yeah SMS is used a lot in North America, especially in the US, and especially by older people.

CCF_100 ,

Yeah, that’s true. You don’t want to know how many times I’ve messaged someone on an arguably better platform only for them to say, “I prefer text”. It’s annoying…

jballs ,
@jballs@sh.itjust.works avatar

I believe it’s due to North America making text messages free early on, while many other places charged for them. As a result, the culture of texting stuck.

QuillanFae ,

I would prefer to use a standardised, client–agnostic messaging protocol than anything that requires a specific app.

I stopped using WhatsApp because using a Meta product makes me feel icky. I use Telegram and Matrix to contact drug dealers. My work requires a combination of Google Chat, Teams and Slack. Some of my friends like to stick to Discord.

What would be really great is if we could all decide on one protocol for sending end–to–end encrypted text and media over HTTPS to a globally unique ID and have everyone use whatever client they like. Like SMTP but more streamlined and secure. Google, Apple, Samsung etc can ship devices with a default client, but allow users to install another one that they like more.

But OEMs don’t like things to be open. Apple has iMessage, Google has RCS, and Samsung probably does some bullshit I’m not aware of since committing to the Pixel life. So I will probably always have a folder with 15 different messaging apps.

FeatherConstrictor ,

Samsung is RCS as well, as far as I’m aware RCS is supposed to be a platform agnostic upgrade to MMS. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I thought RCS not being supported by iOS is simply because Apple won’t implement it.

lemmegogo ,

Does anyone else feel like the quality of the keyboard swipe auto-complete has completely tanked as well?

douglasg14b ,
@douglasg14b@lemmy.world avatar

Just like their search engine, every version of Android gets worse.

Pantherina ,

I will just drop this here:

Please dont let Google also scan your Messages?

iamnotdunningkruger ,

How do I turn this off? Google search results are of no help 🤔

Pantherina ,

Use a regular SMS app

bob_lemon ,

Like this one: github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages

Pantherina ,

I also like Deku SMS, its basically like “Silence” which implemented the Signal Protocol for SMS, but silence is unmaintained.

Both partners need to use the app to use encryption, but SMS are often accessible when cell data is used up or in areas with nearly no coveragem

trailblazer911 ,

Is there an alternative RCS App?

Pantherina ,

RCS is a very incomplete protocol, so the only good implementations are partly proprietary. Also it relies on centralized infrastructure afaik, and weird bureaucratical agreements with carriers.

No, and it seems pretty unlikely.

ilinamorato ,

I just want them to fix scheduled messages for crying out loud.

Anticorp ,

I hate this new layout. Why is the box smaller than the width of the screen? It was already too small. If anything they should have made it taller and kept it the same width it was before

RickyWars ,

Yup hate the new update. I have a weird problem with deleting words too with the backspace since the update. Will probably revert to Samsung messages soon.

Anticorp ,

That’s a setting. They probably reset your preferences. Check the analytics crap settings too, they often turn all the tracking back on with major updates.

Bibliotectress ,

YES. I’m also having backspace problems.

Dark_Arc ,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

I think it’s an improvement, particularly for folks like my grandfather that have the UI/font scale increased.

On his phone there was basically 1-2 words that would fit in that old text box …


<span style="color:#323232;">so his
</span><span style="color:#323232;">text
</span><span style="color:#323232;">message
</span><span style="color:#323232;">preview
</span><span style="color:#323232;">looked
</span><span style="color:#323232;">like this
</span>
deweydecibel ,

Then maybe they should make it an option instead of ruining it for the rest of us because wasting space is the new hip thing.

camr_on ,
@camr_on@lemmy.world avatar

I love textra. I wish I could just get everyone on signal though

lemmyingly ,

I think the only downside to Textra is that it doesn’t support RCS - or I don’t believe it does. They have a newer app called Chomp SMS that does. I’m still using Textra because the only communication I get on it is from companies.

nymwit ,

Do you have information on it supporting rcs? I don’t see anything on the play store mentioning it. The first Google results I see say it doesn’t. Seems like it would be a big deal because if they did and would be prominently displayed as I thought only Google messages and Samsung messages supported rcs.

chomp.uservoice.com/…/1895488-rcs-implementation

lemmyingly ,

I think I’m mistaken. I have no idea where I got it from but I must have seen something to give me the illusion. Ignore what I said.

camr_on ,
@camr_on@lemmy.world avatar

I had no idea they had another texting app. I’ll have to check it out and compare

thezeesystem ,

Fuckin annoying tbh. Can’t stand when giga corps do this and sense it’s required for rcs I can’t just go get a better foss alternative sense none of the people I text are tech savvy or able/willing to switch to something else and rcs is pretty essential for me knowing if someone read it or not.

If I could I would ditch all google and giga corps products but I’m way to poor to do that. And it’s so ingrained into society it’s hard to find anything that works with these proprietary shit.

pewgar_seemsimandroid ,

Linux is free ig

MangoPenguin ,
@MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It’s free as in money, but certainly not in time spent.

pewgar_seemsimandroid ,

linux mint exists btw

MangoPenguin ,
@MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

My comment still applies, unless you just use some basic software and a browser, it takes more time investment to get things working and maintain it.

pewgar_seemsimandroid ,

the og comment is from a self clamed ‘tech savvy person’

skuzz ,

Linux on mobile is no good, and the devices it does run on do not support the proper bands and modes for usable coverage, if the carriers even allow the devices on their networks. (A more US problem all around.)

pewgar_seemsimandroid ,

dude, i was talking about desktop linux

Fuzzypyro ,

Pinephone pro had awesome cell coverage. Better than my pixel 4 xl even. Now battery life is a totally different story. I’d last I tried was pretty awful too as phosh wasn’t amazing and plasma mobile would kill itself often. It’s been at least a year since I last used any of it though since I left it 5 states away.

skuzz ,

Bear in mind, the signal “bars” are a relative measurement, the only way to be sure is to look at radio debug and see signal strength across all bands the phone is connected to at the time.

According to the FCC SAR report: …pine64.org/…/PinePhonePro SAR Evaluation Report-… it only supports LTE bands 2,4,5,12,13,41 in the US, which overall isn’t terrible.

However, that leaves out 14,25(superset of 2),26,29,30,46,48,66(superset of 4),71.

14 and 71 are necessary on AT&T or T-Mobile respectively for low band coverage in some markets where they don’t own band 12 spectrum, the others are more capacity bands on the various carriers, but with the shift to 5G, they’re more important on a phone that doesn’t support 5G like Pinephone Pro.

kilgore_trout ,

I don’t understand how is it essential to know if someone read your message. Shouldn’t they reply to you if they need to let you know?

Read confirmation is the first feature I disable on every instant messaging platform. Also delivery confirmation is implemented in standard SMS.

JDubbleu ,

It’s not just read receipts. It’s reactions, replies, and immensely better image quality.

kilgore_trout ,

The comment I replied to listed read confirmation as the only essential feature to them, that forbids them to drop Google Messages.

JDubbleu ,

My brain omitted that context for some reason, fair enough.

thezeesystem ,

Mainly because some of the people I know read it and don’t respond, for instance my partner coming home from work and me needing something at the store and she’s driving and can’t respond but pops up on her messages so she knows but can’t respond. It’s really helpful knowing they read it then me not sure wtf is going on.

Just a scenario riddled with probably lots of flaws but hopefully you get the point.

kilgore_trout ,

If she is driving she cannot click on the message or on “mark message as read” either.

Legally.

MrBusiness ,

Some car features allow you to connect your phone and you can have a message read aloud to you through voice command.

kilgore_trout ,

These cars would support Speech-To-Text too though, wouldn’t they

lemming741 ,

It’s so bad I uninstalled all updates and went back to the version that shipped with the phone. That got rid of it.

I tried to install other versions from apkmirror but the design has been in there a while and they turned it on server side. My P8 shipped with

messages.android _20230529_03_RCO1

and it’s gone for me.

Alexstarfire ,

Weird. My version is from 2 weeks ago and I don’t see it.

lemming741 ,

Verizon US Pixel 8 🤷🏻

LiveLM ,

It’s impressive how modern companies with thousands of professional designers manage to make increasingly goofy designs lol

deweydecibel , (edited )

“Modern” (i.e. Apple-chasing) design seems to be hellbent on wasting as much screen space as possible.

OscarRobin ,

Apples actually generally pretty good at not wasting much screen space.

hglman ,

To prove yourself as a executive you have to make the company do stuff, so people come up with reasons to do wasteful things. It’s all a circle of shit people being shitty to get ahead.

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