Other alternatives:
A reason to avoid the stock SMS app on Android:
Android’s Messages, Dialer apps quietly sent text, call info to Google
Google’s Messages and Dialer apps for Android devices have been collecting and sending data to Google without specific notice and consent, and without offering the opportunity to opt-out, potentially in violation of Europe’s data protection law.
According to a research paper, “What Data Do The Google Dialer and Messages Apps On Android Send to Google?” [PDF], by Trinity College Dublin computer science professor Douglas Leith, Google Messages (for text messaging) and Google Dialer (for phone calls) have been sending data about user communications to the Google Play Services Clearcut logger service and to Google’s Firebase Analytics service.
“The data sent by Google Messages includes a hash of the message text, allowing linking of sender and receiver in a message exchange,” the paper says. “The data sent by Google Dialer includes the call time and duration, again allowing linking of the two handsets engaged in a phone call. Phone numbers are also sent to Google.”
The timing and duration of other user interactions with these apps has also been transmitted to Google. And Google offers no way to opt-out of this data collection.
Nah, I like it that way.
SMS has been shit since it first came out. Well, to be fair, it was always a best-effort, cell-based “protocol”, so could never really grow out of it’s origins.
There was no value for cell vendors to replace it - it was low-cost for them, and they got a lot of data mining from it.
Apple saw an opportunity to make an app that made iPhone superior. So why not.
Anyone else could’ve done the same with a cross-platform app, but chose not too (except by then Apple had already said “only one SMS app”).
Still, an app on Android that integrated SMS with proper modern messaging would’ve made iMessage look like the holdout, instead of the reverse (which is what we have today) - and the pressure would be on Apple to compete.
Also, RCS is too little, too late, and being tied to a phone number it’s backwards.