this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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With simple messager selling out & qksms no longer being actively worked on. What's our options for open source sms messagers?

Should I dedicate time to learning flutter and building my own or does anyone know any cool foss projects working on this issue?

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

You definitely shouldn't invest time in SMS. Without RCS (or some custom messaging protocol support), "texting apps" are pretty much a dead market.

RCS is ~~both more secure and~~ more user friendly than SMS can be by design. Once the iPhone gets RCS support in the coming months/years, this will be especially true.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If you message cross-platform from Android to iOS, and you can't get everyone to agree upon a 3rd party app, then you're kind of stuck with sms. This isn't a problem that is going away in the near future. Apple relies on their locked messaging platform to influence their users into thinking iOS is the best. The users then pressure all of their friends to get iPhones too. It's an effective strategy for them. Very few iPhone users seem to understand the games being played.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
[–] fadedmaster 3 points 9 months ago

In fairness, even the author of the article you linked didn't think that'd ever happen. I'm somewhat up to date on most general tech things and missed this announcement too (though to be honest I don't follow Apple announcements anyway).

[–] priapus 13 points 9 months ago

There is no open source RCS messaging app afaik

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Samsung messages has Google's RCS implementation and E2EE, too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You're right, I've updated my reply... Hopefully someday that will be a generic RCS feature not exclusive to Google and/or Apple and Google will work to make the E2EE work between their two systems.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

If the MLS group messaging encryption protocol can get finalized any day soon then they might use that

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Plenty of services still unfortunately rely on SMS for 2FA, so we'll still need a client to receive them. Doesn't really need to be able to send them though, I don't think any human has sent an SMS message deliberately for about 12 years!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don't think any human has sent an SMS message deliberately for about 12 years!

sweats nervously in American

[–] spacecowboy 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don’t know anyone in Canada that isn’t a new Canadian that uses anything other than the default sms app on their phone. (FBM and Insta and what not don’t count in my example).

SMS is alive and well in Canada.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My condolences. But seriously though, what if you want to have a group chat, or send a file?

[–] spacecowboy 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Plenty of group chats that mix iMessage and sms, just through iMessage, or just sms group chats.

Most new Canadians I interact with have WhatsApp, however, as I understand that’s quite popular abroad.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

SMS doesn't have group chats does it? Unless your client is just sending the same message to everyone and grouping together the responses?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I don't know about the underlying technology, but every client I've used for the past couple decades supported groups.

However, they absolutely sucked. There was no way to leave. Unless someone made a new group without you and everyone used that, you'd keep getting messages.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

@smeg Me and my friends use it as a fallback for mildly urgent stuff. If anything is more urgent, then we call each other.

@Dark_Arc

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Quick question, is RCS mostly a protocol used in the US or something? Cos never heard of the term here in Europe. Maybe I just live under a rock tho.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I am on Vodafone and I have it as well. I heard it's only available on the Google Messages app and on Samsung's app.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

If you have a Samsung or use the Google SMS messaging app then you can use RCS via their servers, even in Europe