I'm not sure how to interpret the idea that iMessage is doing it right but Google was wrong to shift from talk to hangouts. Hangouts is basically iMessage but you can actually reach the other half of the population that doesn't use Apple.

Hangouts is yet another app. imesssge just works and gracefully degrades when a non iOS person is included.

That's exactly how hangouts works on Nexus and Pixel devices.

It's a closed system too, though.

Yes. But if iMessage is presented as the success and as an example of what Google could have had part of if they only hadn't switched to hangouts, I'm not sure how it works as evidence since google switched to be more like iMessage.

I'm not arguing that I think a system should or should not be open, just that I don't understand how the argument that was presented is supposed to work.

All communication systems are in the process of flipping back to closed systems.

The major open ones (mail and POTS) are either going away as telcos divest and people stop answering the phone or consolidating into a small number of big players as what we see with email.

The 2030s will probably bring back the future equivalent of Telex

But not the majority (last I heard) who has never downloaded a single app from the App Store.

> iMessage, SMS is ruling the day now.

Can you do chat-groups on iMessage? Because that's one of the main advantages of using FB Messenger or WhatsApp around these parts of the world (Eastern Europe).

Yes. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202724

Yes, but adding anyone who does support iMessage downgrades it to SMS.

And anyone who starts on iMessage but deactivates their account is silently excluded from all future group communication.

Google is failing big in SMS. I have a Google Voice number that I've used since it was announced as Grand Central. Do you know what happens when someone sends a vcard? Nothing good - it just says it isn't supported. There isn't a way on the phone or even from a computer to SEE the vcard. I don't care if you support it, show me the blob of text and I'll read it myself!