The Guardian:
Google has unveiled a new messaging system, Chat, an attempt to replace SMS, unify Android’s various messaging services and beat Apple’s iMessage and Facebook’s WhatsApp with the help of mobile phone operators.
Unlike traditional texting, or SMS, most modern messaging services – such as Signal, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Apple’s iMessage – are so-called over-the-top (OTT) services, which circumvent the mobile phone operator by sending messages over the internet.
Chat is a successor to SMS:
Instead of using OTT, it is based on rich communication services (RCS), a successor to SMS (short message standard), which has been used by people all over the world since 1992 and is still the fallback for most.
And:
With Chat, Google is unifying all the disparate versions of RCS under one interoperable standard that will work across networks, smartphones and operating systems. In doing so it hopes to take the surefire nature of SMS – anyone can send anyone else with a phone a message without them requiring a specific account or app – and bring it up-to-date with all the features modern chat demands.
On the potential for Chat killing iMessage, I defer to this excellent comment from The Overspill:
if Google even looks as though it is positioning this as a way to “kill iMessage”, Apple will never support it, and if Apple doesn’t support it then operators are going to wonder why they’re letting Google screw up their golden goose, and they won’t support it after all. Google can preload it on Android phones, but that’s not “killing iMessage”; it’s “providing an alternative to iMessage”, which WhatsApp and latterly Facebook Messenger have done for years without “killing” iMessage.
And John Gruber’s take on the same topic, different article:
It is unconscionable for Google to back a new protocol that isn’t end-to-end encrypted. End-to-end encryption is table stakes for any new communication platform today. Apple should ignore this — if it’s not secure it should be a non-starter.
I agree with all of the above. I don’t see any danger to iMessage. But I do see this meshing with Google/Android’s place in the market. Chat’s penetration will likely be at the base of the pyramid, the larger, lower priced, smaller margin part of the market. Apple’s sweet spot has always been about halfway up the pyramid: smaller, but higher priced, with larger margins.
Note also that here’s another place where Amazon has no seat at the table. With no mobile phone of their own, Alexa can send a text via the Internet, but has to ride on iOS or Android infrastructure when out and about.
That Overkill called Apple “Messages” — “iMessage”, discredits my opinion of them. The name iMessage ended 6 years ago.
Way to be superficial. Also, pretty sure the Apple blue bubble is still imessage protocol but in the messages app.
Until Google pulls the plug on Chat and tries something else.
I still don’t understand why google doesn’t just make an iMessage clone. It must be easy if you just include the basic feature of text without all the frills. They already sort of did it once in Hangouts but it had a horrible name and wasn’t the default messaging client which is why it was never mass market.
They have… with Allo. The problem is, messaging on Android is just as fragmented as Android itself. It’s not like messages on iOS where it’s the standard for the platform.
I have mixed thoughts on this. On one hand, I think everyone would benefit from raising the bar for the lowest common denominator which is SMS. The problem is, CHAT is going to be meaningless until all devices everywhere are capable of using RCS based communications.
To that end, even if this RCS standard ever gets traction (years from now), it will still be inferior to the messages app of the day. I don’t think Apple has any real concern here, nor do they have a burning need to provide support for it any time soon.
Any new chat platform is the voyage of the damned. The reason iMessage has the traction that it does is because most iPhone users don’t even realize they are using it. Blue or green really makes no difference. And then one day it showed up their Macs and iPads. The response from most people was ‘Isn’t that nice, I’m getting text messages of my Mac.’
The user goal is ‘Get message to someone’. Android or iPhone. Blue or Green. Mac or iPhone. It just works.
No they didn’t, Allo is basically another chat app. It does not integrate with SMS like messages does and it is not the default chat app. Two blunders that relegated it to obscurity.
That’s not entirely true. Allo allows you to send SMS through a relay number. It’s a half baked attempt, but it’s an attempt to do what Messages does.
https://www.androidpolice.com/2016/09/20/allo-weird-sms-explained-other-answers/
So tired of everything being (insert apple product)-killer. Messages is nowhere near the most common messaging platform. Why not Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp or WeChat- killer?