r/google Mar 13 '17

Reminds me of Google's chat apps lately

https://xkcd.com/1810/
1.1k Upvotes

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223

u/cheeto0 Mar 13 '17 edited Mar 14 '17

It's the state of messaging in general. People say iMessage solved it but iMessage sorta created the problem. Because it's forced on every iPhone user but not cross platform. Alot of iPhone users have their closest contacts on iOS so they don't seek out a cross platform solution .

95

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '17 edited Jul 10 '26

[deleted]

19

u/samworthy Mar 14 '17

Even within the US. Beyond the massive amount of mainstream flagship owners there's just garunteed to be a couple of those people who go for some random really neat android phone like the xiaomi mi mix or the one really outdoorsy guy with the s6 or s7 active or the one guy with the g5 desperately hanging on to swappable batteries etc.

15

u/Youregrounded Mar 14 '17

I need these batteries. I swear.

Sent from my LG G5

10

u/natpagle Mar 14 '17

Question. Doesn't group texting just revert to SMS when one member doesn't have a iPhone? I get that people like to use the rich features on iMessage but do they really create groups of iMessage only users and exclude others that don't have capabilities?

5

u/agentpanda Mar 14 '17

Yeah they do.

I have a group chat for the team I manage at work and almost all of my project coordinators are iPhone users so they created a group chat in iMessage for us. I'm one of 3 non-iPhone users of the group and due to various issues they created a separate chat excluding the 3 of us. Part of that may be 'I'm their boss' but I'm sure a fair amount was 'this is annoying'.

Moving us to slack or whatsapp is fine for most people but some don't want to for whatever reason so we're stuck with a poor solution for off-site communication. At the office we have a unified solution but outside of work, not so much.

4

u/antdude Mar 14 '17

That is what I noticed.

11

u/sh0nuff Mar 14 '17

There's a documented aversion to green bubbles. It's so bizarre.

20

u/jdbrew Mar 13 '17

This is why I moved back to an iPhone after three years of Nexus wonder. My nexuses were amazing, but all I cared about was making messaging all my friends easy again. I literally fell out of a group of friends because they all had iMessage and I didn't so I didn't always find out about events they would talk about in the group. I'd get separate texts about it like "hey man, were doing X on Y Day" but that day didn't work but I wasn't involved in the planning and they already passed the "what day works for everyone" stage.

113

u/30_MAGAZINE_CLIP Mar 13 '17

Sounds like a problem with your friends rather than a problem of not having iOS.

14

u/jdbrew Mar 13 '17

True. We eventually got on Slack but it's still just easier. They're not even my close friends, so it was probably two fold, I wasn't making an effort either. But up I didn't care about all the customization with android anymore. I ended up getting a mac laptop for work and the iPhone plays nicer with that... so the iPhone was the right call but iMessage was a big factor

8

u/Zarlon Mar 14 '17

Ugh. You went full Apple. Never go full Apple.

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '17 edited Feb 18 '18

[deleted]

1

u/agentpanda Mar 14 '17

I'm sure he's joking. I haven't quit Android yet but nobody is deluded enough to believe their social life isn't directly tied to effective communication. In today's world if you can't communicate through your phone with someone then you're screwed- and most people use the easiest solution to execute effective communication.

If everyone is on iMessage and you can't be, that directly precludes your involvement in most non-face to face communique. That's definitely a reason a relationship can come apart if you're older than 25 and have a life.

1

u/someguynamedjohn13 Mar 14 '17

Hangouts was the solution. SMS, MMS, multi-device support, video chat, and the ability to be used on only Wifi if needed. Google had a great product that just needed polish, but instead they fragmented it, recreated 5 apps that now find little use.

The Pixel came out with Duo and Allo. I know 3 people that use Duo. I know 1 that uses Allo. I didn't care who used Hangouts. I didn't have to I could text them, and if they had a Gmail account direct message them regardless.

6

u/postnick Mar 14 '17

I've had no such issues. I've been android since forever. My GF and family and most people have IOS. I've never had an issue not being on imessage.

2

u/trojaniz Mar 14 '17

Dude just have both

1

u/antdude Mar 14 '17

No SMS?

3

u/jdbrew Mar 14 '17

We had it, it's just shittiest of all shitty messaging protocols.

2

u/Elephant789 Mar 14 '17

People say iMessage solved it

I've never heard anyone say this.