Google Is 'Pausing' Work On Allo In Favor 'Chat,' An RCS-Based Messaging Standard (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader shares an exclusive report from The Verge about Google's next big fix for Android's messaging mess: Instead of bringing a better app to the table, it's trying to change the rules of the texting game, on a global scale. Google has been quietly corralling every major cellphone carrier on the planet into adopting technology to replace SMS. It's going to be called "Chat," and it's based on a standard called the "Universal Profile for Rich Communication Services." SMS is the default that everybody has to fall back to, and so Google's goal is to make that default texting experience on an Android phone as good as other modern messaging apps. As part of that effort, Google says it's "pausing" work on its most recent entry into the messaging space, Allo. It's the sort of "pause" that involves transferring almost the entire team off the project and putting all its resources into another app, Android Messages. Google won't build the iMessage clone that Android fans have clamored for, but it seems to have cajoled the carriers into doing it for them. In order to have some kind of victory in messaging, Google first had to admit defeat. Some of the new features associated with Chat include read receipts, typing indicators, full-resolution images and video, and group texts. It's important to keep in mind that it's a carrier-based service, not a Google service. It won't be end-to-end encrypted, and it will follow the same legal intercept standards. The new Chat services will be switched on in the near future, but ultimately carriers will dictate exactly when Chat will go live. Also, you may be persuaded to upgrade your data plan since Chat messages will be sent with your data plan instead of your SMS plan.

Comments

Because using standards is so 2000 & late

[ArhcAngel]

XMPP (formerly known as Jabber) has been around since 1999 and has most if not all of these features. Any it is missing can be submitted and added as it's an open standard. Google has essentially embraced its role as the new Microsoft and has begun their EEE march. Chrome has become the new IE6 with all of the non-standard extensions they've rolled out without so much as submitting anything to W3C for consideration. I'm now looking for alternatives to all Google properties.

Re:Because using standards is so 2000 & late

[jouassou]

This. I've recently gone through a phase where I've been trying to get monopolies and clouds out of my life myself. If you need any inspiration, this is what I've ended up with:

• * KolabNow as an email provider instead of GMail. They have a good privacy policy, are hosted in Switzerland which has fair privacy laws, and costs about $3/month.
• * Syncthing for making your own open-source "cloud storage" as a replacement for Dropbox and Google Drive. I've played around with a few alternatives, but this was my favourite; it's very straight-forward to set up, fully peer-to-peer so you don't need a centralized server if you don't want one, and it has clients for most operating systems. The Android app lets you set it to only sync when it's on WiFi and/or charging.
• * Maps is an alternative to Google Maps, which uses OpenStreetMaps, the "Wikipedia of navigation". It doesn't have the same knowledge of local shops and restaurants as Google Maps does, but it is "good enough" for most of my needs, and in contrast to other clients like OsmAnd, the interface is actually quite slick.
• * CopperheadOS for my phone. It's still partially in the Google ecosystem, by being an Android distribution that requires a Nexus or Pixel. But Android itself is still mostly open-source, and this comes with all Google apps and services stripped out. (Lineage works as well, but Copperhead is more focused on privacy and security.)
• * Yalp. Some apps are simply not available outside Google Store (e.g. online banking apps in my case); this helps you install such apps without having to install the full Google Services platform on your phone.
• * Firefox Focus/Klar. In contrast to the usual Firefox browser, this new app is actually useable on a phone; and last time I checked it had better privacy settings than the Chrome browsers you find on most androids.

Re:Why does it need to be carrier based?

[gehrehmee]

It's called XMPP. It's an open IETF standard, and it supports federation in exactly the way you're talking about -- multiple organizations can run their own infrastructure, and talk to each other, just like you can with email. It's extensible, and it *used* to be exactly how Google Talk works.

The key feature it's missing is the lock-in walled-garden features all the major players want.