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This has been a critical year for Android Messages, Google’s answer to Apple’s sticky iMessage. After taking control of the global rollout of RCS, the long-awaited replacement for the embarrassingly archaic and insecure SMS, Google has followed with default end-to-end encryption and a raft of fun features to provide a much-needed uplift to Android’s standard messenger.
But in reality, the messaging war isn’t really Apple Vs Google—it’s their smartphone OS duopoly Vs the so-called over-the-tops, and in the case of non-Chinese messengers, this means Meta/Facebook. And it’s Meta that has just leaked the most significant change to the messaging landscape in years—and one that represents such a radical change that it will be hard for Android Messages to compete.
WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messenger, and Facebook Messenger isn’t too far behind. It’s WhatsApp that popularized end-to-end encryption, secure backups, disappearing messages and media, ‘easy-button’ privacy settings and the shift from messaging to add encrypted voice and video calling as well. Yes, Signal is more secure. But that security comes at a usability price.
Make no mistake, it’s WhatsApp’s incessant privacy- and security-centric advertising that has pushed the end-to-end encryption focus that has seen Android Messages and even Facebook Messenger join that particularly welcome club. All of which now leaves Telegram as the outlier, given its lack of default end-to-end encryption—oddly so, given its user-base.
www.forbes.com
But in reality, the messaging war isn’t really Apple Vs Google—it’s their smartphone OS duopoly Vs the so-called over-the-tops, and in the case of non-Chinese messengers, this means Meta/Facebook. And it’s Meta that has just leaked the most significant change to the messaging landscape in years—and one that represents such a radical change that it will be hard for Android Messages to compete.
WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messenger, and Facebook Messenger isn’t too far behind. It’s WhatsApp that popularized end-to-end encryption, secure backups, disappearing messages and media, ‘easy-button’ privacy settings and the shift from messaging to add encrypted voice and video calling as well. Yes, Signal is more secure. But that security comes at a usability price.
Make no mistake, it’s WhatsApp’s incessant privacy- and security-centric advertising that has pushed the end-to-end encryption focus that has seen Android Messages and even Facebook Messenger join that particularly welcome club. All of which now leaves Telegram as the outlier, given its lack of default end-to-end encryption—oddly so, given its user-base.
Google Messages Soundly Beaten As Radical New Update Leaks
Surprise new update for millions of Android users suddenly exposed...
www.forbes.com
