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Senator Warren calls out Apple for shutting down Beeper's 'iMessage to Android' solution (techcrunch.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Senator Warren calls out Apple for shutting down Beeper's 'iMessage to Android' solution::U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is throwing her weight behind Beeper, the app that allowed Android users to message iPhone users via iMessage,

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[–] 18 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Honestly it's hard to see how messages don't fall under the protection of net neutrality.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I mean they do, but that doesn't mean a message platform can't platform lock itself.

    The ISP isn't discriminating.. that's net neutrality.

    I think you might be a bit confused.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It just feels like users being restricted to not having any incoming or outgoing communication across operating systems is discriminating. The reason Beeper's previous and current solutions stopped working is because they started blocking it. If Apple had successfully built a protocol that couldn't be accessed by Android devices then that would be one thing, but they failed to do that and now they're discriminating against otherwise valid connections.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It's a competitive advantage. Nothing wrong with that from a business perspective.

    Why should Apple build something to work with Android? That would allow people in Apple's hand to swap. No business reason to do it. Why waste server time servicing a competing platform's user's messages?

    Then again, there isn't really a reason why iMessage is a big benefit with RCS, Whatsapp, Messenger, SMS, Signal, etc. exist.

    According to the given logic, logic if I reverse engineer Facebook Messenger, I should be able to have my app that talks to FB Messenger users. I would have it until, they block me out. They have a terms of service that likely disallows this usage. They have a right to enforce that.

    At the end of the day I could care less about iMessage but can defend Apple's right to be a walled garden if they want, even if I disagree, etc.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Because controlling what people send between each other on devices they purchased and own is not something that the regular human beings at apple have any authority to do, least not for profit. Something very few people seem to understand these days is that in a functioning democracy it pays to have good Business Ethics, or else your company is doomed to eventually buckle and fall apart.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You can send regular texts. But your messages will be a different color like the non-apple out group loser you are.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Ah, cool then, I just assumed iMessage was iphone messaging tech. Who gives a fuck about colored bubbles?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    iMessage is Apple's proprietary messaging protocol. Apple Messages is the default (and unchangeable) default SMS app on an iPhone. It uses iMessage rather than SMS when chatting with another Apple Messages user. If you use the app to message someone that isn't using the same app, it falls back to SMS. It's seamless from the iPhone user's side except for the bubble color.

    Who cares about the bubble color? People who want to send and receive higher quality pictures and video than SMS/MMS allows and can't or won't convince iphone users to use something other than their default messaging application. The color signifies the capabilities of the chat. Non SMS based or SMS fallback apps (Whatsapp, signal, etc) aren't nearly as big in the US as in other countries. The US also has a much higher percentage of iPhone users than other places. Yes, clique-y children care about the color for clique-y reasons but the capabilities the bubble color indicates are the origin of it. "Oh this guy's on Android, he can only send shitty pictures", "he's on Android - don't put him in the group chat because it breaks it", implying it's Android's fault rather than Apple's exclusionary setup. Again, because it's seamless to them, they don't think they should lift a finger to use anything other than the default messaging app.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    A shocking number of people. It's an annoying marketing tactic by apple to make their users feel special, and also make sure they can see who amount their contacts is using android or something else. Just another little nugget of Apple elitism. Android is for the poors.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Of course companies have that authority - it’s something that can even protect us which we often support. When we mark messages as spam they eventually tag senders as spammers who can get blocked from delivering messages at the provider, device and vendor level. What about emergency warnings - should we be able to opt out of those too?

    I agree that we need capitalism with oversight to encourage ethical behaviour but you’re missing a key point to illustrate a pretty biased perspective.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    .. you can still send MMS. It works fine. They're not controlling what you can send. Soon they'll support RCS too to have parity with Android. That's a goodwill gesture in my eyes.

    Capitalism doesn't pay for ethics, it pays for profits and press. It's paying for RCS support.

    iMessage will have no benefit after that: the color of a bubble shouldn't mean anything.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago

    Yeah another user filled me in that iMessage didn't mean what I thought it did.

    But going a bit off topic, if you want to run an unethical business in the USA then what you should do is cut back the staff until it's barely viable, then sell everything and close the locations, and finally file bankruptcy after giving yourself a bonus. Why? Because an Unethical Business of any nature has no future. There is no long term. Countless large banks and nationwide businesses have collapsed before, there is no "too big to fail."

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago*

    Getting around iPhone's restrictions is referred to a "jailbreaking" because the "walled garden" denies the freedom of the users. It would be better if Apple users are taught to value their software freedoms and break out themselves. Government intervention is a risk that I hope Apple doesn't force them to take by failing to ethically moderate themselves.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago*

    It just feels like users being restricted to not having any incoming or outgoing communication across operating systems is discriminating.

    That's not remotely what's happening though? I have only ever had android devices, but message people on apple devices all the time. I don't know or care what colour my sms messages show up on their devices, but they do show up. And maybe they have a bunch of iOS-only secret chat orgies they don't tell me about, but who cares? I can still talk to them across discord, line, WhatsApp, Instagram, fb messenger, slack, Skype, signal, telegram, irc and God knows how many other different chat apps my friends and I have used at various times. The fact that iMessage is Apple exclusive doesn't make a difference to anything, they all have a different subset of apps anyway even just the android users so i have to have all those apps installed too, and my iPhone friends have the same.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Net neutrality effectively ending under Trump might clear it up

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Ah, you're right, the reimplementation of some of the old rules was voted to pass in October 2023 so it's probably still in the works. Damn.

    Wow, think about that for a moment. ISPs could be controlling everything we see and don't see right at this moment. Kind of fucked.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    They're still regulated under Title 1, just not as much. Theres much less of an obligation to set a fair price, for example. More so pointing out we can't necessarily rely on net neutrality as something that generally protects anyone from anything anymore. It only prevents business from doing specific things that are seen as bad business, the consumer isn't really in mind

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