They really didn’t have to redesign a text box. Please stop reinventing the wheel. I don’t need another pop up in my life.
Okay, so I’m not crazy. I started seeing this today, and I had to stop and think “Wait, was this always here?”
Lmao same.
bloody annoying and ugly
It’s impressive how modern companies with thousands of professional designers manage to make increasingly goofy designs lol
“Modern” (i.e. Apple-chasing) design seems to be hellbent on wasting as much screen space as possible.
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.
Just out of curiosity, how much people still use SMS? I can’t remember last time I sent SMS.
Here in Finland we use mainly Whatsapp, FB Messenger, Telegram or Signal for messaging. Almost no one I know has sent SMS in the last 10 years.
I’m in France and I still use sms. Unlimited sms became the norm well before data plans and messaging apps, and it’s much easier I can just text someone without having to look on which plateform they have an account. It’s like voice calls, for sure you can call someone on messenger or Whatsapp but why bother when I can just make a regular phone call?
For voice calls, most use regular phone calls here, it just works better (and VoLTE/VoWiFi is great addition to sound quality). Apps are only used when you are making video calls.
As for messages, it’s much easier to send images/videos via whatsapp/signal than it’s via SMS. + replies/reactions. Probably main reason why people use apps instead SMS (even while many/most of our plans include unlimited data/sms/calls). RCS added those features IIRC, but why switch to another solution while apps works just fine and most of people already are used to Whatsapp 🤷♂️
And most of the people here has Whatsapp installed, so usually you don’t have to guess what app to use :P
Video calls, sending files though.
The US seems to primarily still use sms. I’ve heard it’s tied to having unlimited messaging phone plans being the norm, so people weren’t as drawn to other platforms.
And US still has very expensive data plans compared to Finland (I pay 21e/month for unlimited 200mbps data, calls, sms). That could also be one factor why SMS is still used there so much 🤔
Also, you don’t even need a platform at all. Just a phone and a phone number.
It’s not a choice, here, so much as it is the result of our smartphone culture.
In the US, using the default messaging app on your phone is the norm for most people. Third party messaging apps like WhatsApp simply never caught on over here, so we’ve let Apple, Google, Samsung, etc determine how we talk to each other. Vendor lock-in tactics run rampant, with barely any regulation.
The default messaging apps on iPhone is iMessage. It’s locked down and can not communicate with any other messaging app except via SMS. Therefore the other apps have to use it to communicate with iPhone users.
Conversely, Google has a messaging protocol they’re trying to get Apple to adopt called RCS, but Google also refuses to let RCS be used by third party apps. So SMS becomes the fallback for communication between them.
It’s partially corporate bickering, partially consumers being tech illiterate and staunchly opposed to using anything third party. Particularly in the case of iPhone users, there’s a strong culture of entrenchment in the Apple ecosystem, and for some people, not being in it is actually seen as worthy of derision. There’s actual cases of bullying in schools if a kid doesn’t use iPhone, and that’s having an increasingly detrimental effect on the market.
You have to appreciate, in Europe, you’re mostly using Android, a (somewhat) open ecosystem, and that mentality is stronger over there.
But here in the states, iPhones are extremely prominent, and with them comes the mentality that Apple has spent decades programming into its consumers: don’t use anything non-Apple, and if that creates problems for other people, too bad, they should just buy Apple too.
Wouldn’t be an SMS discussion without someone patting themselves on the back because they use use some corpo app.
in Estonia i occasionally send sms
You use 4 different apps to send messages while we mostly use one. Not sure that’s the win you think it is.
Just to be clear, never said that I used all of those. Just made quick list of most popular apps to use here :P If I had to guess, over 95% of people here just use WhatsApp.
They all have pretty much same functionality what traditional sms is missing.
I use the default Google messaging app, and am in the US. When sending to other Android users it uses RCS. The only time it sends as SMS/MMS is when messaging iPhones because Apple won’t support RCS
If I’m not mistaken then Apple can’t support RCS until Google opens it up. It’s a closed protocol tied to the Google Messaging app. Go look for another Android app that supports RCS. There are none. Okay, there’s one from an unknown company, with a bunch of bad reviews.
In fact, Apple is implementing RCS in their messaging app: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/16/23964171/apple-iphone-rcs-support
Their implementation will not feature E2E encryption.
The only RCS implementation that has E2EE is Google Messages (well, pretty much the only one available, but anyways), RCS as a protocol doesn’t have it by default, right?
You are right.
i thought rcs was developed by openwhisper for signal
I don’t know how to edit the main post on mobile so I’ll just add this comment. The message I typed in the screenshot populates in a “pop up bar”. The message no longer gets entered where you think it should go and it looks like shit and takes up extra screen space for no reason. I really dislike this change.
They fixed it. It’s back to normal now.
FOSS SMS > Google RCS
Or use signal like a civilized person.
The text lines up with the recipient’s text bubbles. It’s on the left, and it’s left justified, so it’s under the other person’s messages, rather than mine.
I could have sworn the old UI had the text entry closer to the right.
I like it. Previously it would hide a bunch of icons to give the bar more space, now it doesn’t need to
From what I noticed they only added an emoji button though. This already is on my keyboard area. Maybe I’m missing something but at least you enjoy it.
And the emoji button in the message area has less features than the one found in the Google keyboard (no emoji kitchen?!), so I’ll never want to use it anyways.
I paid for Textra over a decade ago, and it’s easily the best money I’ve ever spent. It’s the best texting app I’ve ever used and I highly recommend everyone check it out. They still churn out updates regularly and the features are above and beyond most messaging apps.
Can Textra handle RCS yet? I bought it ages ago but ditched it when it couldn’t handle RCS
Nothing can without the blessing of Google, and so far that’s limited to Google Messages and Samsung Messages (whatever it’s called)
Great standard you got there. Fucking hell
I’ve been reading articles for years about how Google say they’re going to open the RCS API to 3rd-Party apps but they have yet to do so.
This is why I scoff every time Google takes jabs at Apple about iMessage. Pot, meet kettle. Until I can use rcs with Textra, they got no room to talk
I’m not a fan either. I will swap to literally any FOSS texting app that supports RCS.
Is there any foss messaging app that support RCS though?
not yet
Not ever, unless Google is forced to open it up.
source?
Source: Google is not using standard RCS.
If I had wanted all the extra bull shit that came with these updates I’d have bought an iPhone.
I just looked through all the settings, there doesn’t seem to be a way to change it back.
Same. I installed textra right after and everyone will have to deal with getting SMS from me or not talking to me lol.
It boggles my mind how people in the US still use SMS.
I guess we cant all be enlightened enough to trust Facebook with everything.
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.
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.
Does anyone else feel like the quality of the keyboard swipe auto-complete has completely tanked as well?
Just like their search engine, every version of Android gets worse.
I thought this was just me but I swear this is so fucking annoying
Completely unnecessary filler space
Removed by mod
