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A comment on Google is working on a 'lookup' button for unknown callers on Android.

Re:Google is working on a 'lookup' button for unknown caller... by michael_vo on Saturday April 06, 2024 @08:23PM (#39956966)
Why don't we use another protocol that isn't so unsafe? Why are we still on SMS.

Actually once you start travelling outside the USA you realize that everyone uses whatsapp for texting friends and businesses. No one uses SMS. At least with whatsapp you get the profile picture and a bio - which is a little more trustworthy.

Such a protocol should allow people to report whether this number is trustworthy or a scam.

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Re:Google is working on a 'lookup' button for unknown caller... by xnx on Saturday April 06, 2024 @09:27PM (#39957330)
Is SMS related to spam calls (which might involve caller id spoofing)?
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Re:Google is working on a 'lookup' button for unknown caller... by BuildTheRobots on Saturday April 06, 2024 @11:41PM (#39958023)
SMS also suffers massively from sender id spoofing and quite happily lets senders use an arbitrary text string as the "from" address.
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Re:Google is working on a 'lookup' button for unknown caller... by yjftsjthsd-h on Sunday April 07, 2024 @11:41AM (#39961494)
> Why don't we use another protocol that isn't so unsafe? Why are we still on SMS.

Because everything else is worse.

> Actually once you start travelling outside the USA you realize that everyone uses whatsapp for texting friends and businesses.

Case in point. Maybe giving a communications monopoly to a single private company that's completely unaccountable isn't a great idea? This is how we get https://xkcd.com/743/

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Re:Google is working on a 'lookup' button for unknown caller... by michael_vo on Thursday April 18, 2024 @10:00AM (#40076337)
I agree it's not a good idea to have that power.

I wanted to highlight that the user experience is better than SMS. For example when I add a phone number I have a higher level of trust that it's a verified business. Having read status feature is also good. Last online tells me if this is an active business number.

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