• Removing members from text messaging group

    From Tim Slattery@21:1/5 to All on Sat Nov 9 10:45:48 2024
    I recently had cause to create and manage a list of text message
    recipients in the Android text message app. Creating the group, adding
    people, and naming or renaming the group were all very easy tasks. But
    when someone wnated to be removed, I hit a brick wall. I cannot find
    any way to remove a recipient from the list.

    Is there any way to do this? It seems crazy that you canput people in
    but not take people out.

    --
    Tim Slattery
    timslattery <at> utexas <dot> edu

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  • From D@21:1/5 to Tim Slattery on Sat Nov 9 16:54:45 2024
    On Sat, 09 Nov 2024 10:45:48 -0500, Tim Slattery <[email protected]> wrote:
    I recently had cause to create and manage a list of text message
    recipients in the Android text message app. Creating the group, adding >people, and naming or renaming the group were all very easy tasks. But
    when someone wnated to be removed, I hit a brick wall. I cannot find
    any way to remove a recipient from the list.

    Is there any way to do this? It seems crazy that you canput people in
    but not take people out.

    "the" Android text message app . . . more than one

    (using Tor Browser 14.0.1)
    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=android+text+message+app

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  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to Tim Slattery on Sat Nov 9 11:35:17 2024
    Tim Slattery <[email protected]> wrote:

    I recently had cause to create and manage a list of text message
    recipients in the Android text message app. Creating the group, adding people, and naming or renaming the group were all very easy tasks. But
    when someone wnated to be removed, I hit a brick wall. I cannot find
    any way to remove a recipient from the list.

    Is there any way to do this? It seems crazy that you canput people in
    but not take people out.

    WHICH text messaging app? There are lots of them. Could be the one
    bundled on your phone, but you also didn't mention your phone's brand
    and model. Could be a different messaging app you installed. Once you
    reveal the messaging app, others that use it might be able to tell you
    how to edit the list.

    Instead of the messaging app, perhaps it is in whichever app you use for contact, like your Phone app, and the messaging app uses the contacts or
    groups defined in the other app. For example, on my LG V20 phone using
    the bundled Phone app and either the bundled Message app, or the Google Messages app, those get the recipients from the Phone app's contacts and
    groups (*). Perhaps you long-press a contact in a group to then use a
    newly presented icon bar or the menu to select Delete.

    (*) I don't do groups of recipients for texting. Texting isn't my
    thing (I'm actually irritated by texters since I prefer calls), so I
    rarely text, and only to a single recipient. So, I didn't
    experiment by adding members to a group to later have to remove
    them, anyway.

    Perhaps you have to delete the group, and recreate it, but without the recipient that doesn't want your texts.

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  • From W. Greenhouse@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Sun Nov 10 12:56:37 2024
    VanguardLH <[email protected]> writes:

    Tim Slattery <[email protected]> wrote:

    I recently had cause to create and manage a list of text message
    recipients in the Android text message app. Creating the group, adding
    people, and naming or renaming the group were all very easy tasks. But
    when someone wnated to be removed, I hit a brick wall. I cannot find
    any way to remove a recipient from the list.

    Is there any way to do this? It seems crazy that you canput people in
    but not take people out.

    WHICH text messaging app? There are lots of them. Could be the one
    bundled on your phone, but you also didn't mention your phone's brand
    and model. Could be a different messaging app you installed. Once you reveal the messaging app, others that use it might be able to tell you
    how to edit the list.

    Instead of the messaging app, perhaps it is in whichever app you use for contact, like your Phone app, and the messaging app uses the contacts or groups defined in the other app. For example, on my LG V20 phone using
    the bundled Phone app and either the bundled Message app, or the Google Messages app, those get the recipients from the Phone app's contacts and groups (*). Perhaps you long-press a contact in a group to then use a
    newly presented icon bar or the menu to select Delete.

    (*) I don't do groups of recipients for texting. Texting isn't my
    thing (I'm actually irritated by texters since I prefer calls), so I
    rarely text, and only to a single recipient. So, I didn't
    experiment by adding members to a group to later have to remove
    them, anyway.

    Perhaps you have to delete the group, and recreate it, but without the recipient that doesn't want your texts.

    Worth noting here that SMS/MMS group texts are really basically
    reply-all chains, not like an IRC channel or something with a member
    list. In the Google Messages app, it doesn't seem to be possible to
    delete a recipient, you just need to make a whole new group.

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to W. Greenhouse on Sun Nov 10 13:04:06 2024
    W. Greenhouse wrote:

    Worth noting here that SMS/MMS group texts are really basically
    reply-all chains

    MMS messages are, but not SMS, where every message to every recipient is
    an individual message.

    Google got that "wrong" on early Android messaging apps, by promoting
    SMS messages to MMS when there were multiple recipients involved, what
    they didn't realise was that there's a USA -> Europe difference where
    MMS messages tend to be expensive while SMS messages are often
    effectively free.

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  • From W. Greenhouse@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Sun Nov 10 14:44:03 2024
    Andy Burns <[email protected]> writes:

    W. Greenhouse wrote:

    Worth noting here that SMS/MMS group texts are really basically
    reply-all chains

    MMS messages are, but not SMS, where every message to every recipient is an individual message.

    Google got that "wrong" on early Android messaging apps, by promoting SMS messages to MMS when there
    were multiple recipients involved, what they didn't realise was that there's a USA -> Europe
    difference where MMS messages tend to be expensive while SMS messages are often effectively free.

    Ah, true, and Google Messages does retain the option to send an
    individual SMS to each, in a somewhat buried setting. I haven't looked
    to see if that would affect the UI offering you the chance to remove a recipient or not.

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  • From =?UTF-8?Q?J=C3=B6rg_Lorenz?=@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Sun Nov 10 17:24:00 2024
    On 10.11.24 14:04, Andy Burns wrote:
    W. Greenhouse wrote:

    Worth noting here that SMS/MMS group texts are really basically
    reply-all chains

    MMS messages are, but not SMS, where every message to every recipient is
    an individual message.

    Google got that "wrong" on early Android messaging apps, by promoting
    SMS messages to MMS when there were multiple recipients involved, what
    they didn't realise was that there's a USA -> Europe difference where
    MMS messages tend to be expensive while SMS messages are often
    effectively free.

    Most European providers stopped MMS years ago.

    --
    "Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)

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  • From =?UTF-8?Q?J=C3=B6rg_Lorenz?=@21:1/5 to All on Sun Nov 10 17:49:30 2024
    On 10.11.24 17:41, Jörg Lorenz wrote:
    On 10.11.24 17:27, Andy Burns wrote:
    Jörg Lorenz wrote:

    Most European providers stopped MMS years ago.
    All UK networks keep them around, presumably because some mugs are
    paying £0.60 each to send them ...

    https://www.netzwoche.ch/news/2022-02-10/swisscom-beerdigt-mms

    Article in German.

    Swisscom and other Swiss providers stopped the antiquated service almost
    2 years ago. Other European providers did as well or will soon.

    BTW: That was in the pre-iPhone era that I sent my last MMS. That was
    before 2007.


    --
    "Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)

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  • From =?UTF-8?Q?J=C3=B6rg_Lorenz?=@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Sun Nov 10 17:41:00 2024
    On 10.11.24 17:27, Andy Burns wrote:
    Jörg Lorenz wrote:

    Most European providers stopped MMS years ago.
    All UK networks keep them around, presumably because some mugs are
    paying £0.60 each to send them ...

    https://www.netzwoche.ch/news/2022-02-10/swisscom-beerdigt-mms

    Article in German.

    Swisscom and other Swiss providers stopped the antiquated service almost
    2 years ago. Other European providers did as well or will soon.


    --
    "Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to All on Sun Nov 10 16:27:45 2024
    Jörg Lorenz wrote:

    Most European providers stopped MMS years ago.
    All UK networks keep them around, presumably because some mugs are
    paying £0.60 each to send them ...

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to All on Sun Nov 10 17:08:29 2024
    Jörg Lorenz wrote:

    BTW: That was in the pre-iPhone era that I sent my last MMS. That was
    before 2007.

    I think I've only ever sent two of them (perhaps others not by choice
    when google were "upgrading" SMS to MMS.

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  • From Tim Slattery@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Sun Nov 10 15:32:50 2024
    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:


    WHICH text messaging app? There are lots of them. Could be the one
    bundled on your phone, but you also didn't mention your phone's brand
    and model.

    It's the default Android text messaging app. I have a Motorola moto g
    power, running Android version 11. I have not installed any other
    messaging app.

    --
    Tim Slattery
    timslattery <at> utexas <dot> edu

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  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to Tim Slattery on Sun Nov 10 17:37:55 2024
    Tim Slattery <[email protected]> wrote:

    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:

    WHICH text messaging app? There are lots of them. Could be the one
    bundled on your phone, but you also didn't mention your phone's
    brand and model.

    It's the default Android text messaging app. I have a Motorola moto g
    power, running Android version 11. I have not installed any other
    messaging app.

    https://en-us.support.motorola.com/app/home
    Select "Phones", and then "moto g family". 34 phones are listed. 6
    have "power" in their product name. There is one called just "moto g
    power", and selected it. I did a search on "messages group". None of
    the hits dwelled on how to delete a recipient from a group.

    There was a link to "moto g power - User Guide" that points to:

    https://en-us.support.motorola.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/148927/p/10847/kw/messages%20group

    which downloads a PDF file. There is damn little about using their
    Messages app, especially no mention of creating or editing groups.
    Phone docs have been historically exceedingly sparse on information.

    On a whim to look at a different chat app, I hunted on "google messages
    delete recipient from group". Google's AI search returned:

    To remove someone from a Google Messages group chat, you can do the
    following:

    1. Select Groups from the apps
    2. Click the name of the group
    3. Click Members on the left
    4. Point to each member you want to remove and check the box next to
    their name
    5. Click the Remove member button in the top right

    I think Google's AI assisted search stole the content from:

    https://teacherscollege.screenstepslive.com/a/1345224-remove-members-from-a-google-group

    If Motorola's bundled chat app doesn't let you edit groups, you may have
    to switch to a different chat app that does, and make the new chat app
    the default.

    I don't know if the Motorola bundled chat app (Messages) supports RCS.
    Some phone makers have dumped their chat app, and moved to the Google
    Messages app. However, just having the Google Messages app does not
    guarantee you can use RCS. Depends on your cellular carrier. For
    example, I have the Google Messages app installed, my phone is at an
    Android version later than required for RCS, but I cannot get the app to support RCS, because my carrier doesn't.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services

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  • From Tim Slattery@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Mon Nov 11 10:06:52 2024
    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:


    To remove someone from a Google Messages group chat, you can do the
    following:

    This has nothing to do with Google, it's the Android SMS messaging
    app.

    --
    Tim Slattery
    timslattery <at> utexas <dot> edu

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  • From =?UTF-8?Q?J=C3=B6rg_Lorenz?=@21:1/5 to Tim Slattery on Mon Nov 11 17:19:28 2024
    On 11.11.24 16:06, Tim Slattery wrote:
    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:


    To remove someone from a Google Messages group chat, you can do the
    following:

    This has nothing to do with Google, it's the Android SMS messaging
    app.

    Guess where it comes from.

    --
    "De gustibus non est disputandum."

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  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to Tim Slattery on Mon Nov 11 12:06:36 2024
    Tim Slattery <[email protected]> wrote:

    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:

    To remove someone from a Google Messages group chat, you can do the
    following:

    This has nothing to do with Google, it's the Android SMS messaging
    app.

    This DOES have something to do with the Google Messages *app* -- should
    you decide to install it to replace your current bundled text app on
    your phone. Your current and bundled text app has no means to delete a recipient once added to a group. The Google Messages *APP* does.

    If you find having to delete the entire group to recreate it sans the
    unwanted recipient(s) to be a great nuisance (i.e., delete the group,
    and create a new group), you have to change to a different texting app.

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging

    That is a texting/SMS/MMS/RCS *app*. Whether it can do RCS depends on
    your cellular carrier.

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Mon Nov 11 19:03:01 2024
    VanguardLH wrote:

    This DOES have something to do with the Google Messages app -- should
    you decide to install it to replace your current bundled text app on
    your phone. Your current and bundled text app has no means to delete a recipient once added to a group. The Google Messages APP does.

    Where's that then?

    Within Google Messages I can see how to add people to a group, and view
    the group details to see who's in it, but under the "obvious" place
    [...] per contact there is no option to remove them, only to edit them.

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  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Tue Nov 12 00:57:59 2024
    Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

    VanguardLH wrote:

    This DOES have something to do with the Google Messages app -- should
    you decide to install it to replace your current bundled text app on
    your phone. Your current and bundled text app has no means to delete a
    recipient once added to a group. The Google Messages APP does.

    Where's that then?

    Within Google Messages I can see how to add people to a group, and view
    the group details to see who's in it, but under the "obvious" place
    [...] per contact there is no option to remove them, only to edit them.

    From my reply for Message-ID: <[email protected]>, I cited
    what I found online with Google's AI-assisted search. Also,

    https://teacherscollege.screenstepslive.com/a/1345224-remove-members-from-a-google-group

    looks to be editing your "group" under Google Groups, not of editing a
    "group" in the SMS app. The term group gets way overused, so I got
    misled to the wrong directions.

    While Google Messages is an SMS/RCS texting app, it organizes into conversations. Its "group" is a list of contacts used within a
    conversation (aka chat), not a group of contacts, so "group" really
    doesn't mean what we think it means. It's not something stored to be
    reused later for a new conversation, but a list of recipients for a
    particular conversation.

    I thought the Google Messages app might grab groups defined in the Phone
    app (under its Contacts tab where I can add groups of contacts), but
    that test failed. A group defined in the Phone app did not show up in
    the Google Messages app to let me select it as a recipient list.

    From what I can see and test in the Google Messages app, "group" is a per-conversation object, not something you can reuse for other
    conversations withe the same recipients. If you want to keep using that "group", you must not delete the conversation where the "group" was
    defined. If you delete the entire conversation, the "group" disappears.

    So, do delete a recipient in a "group" means deleting the conversation
    to delete the "group" to get rid of the recipient. However, since a
    "group" is specific to a conversation, it's not something you can reuse
    to define recipients in a new conversation.

    I couldn't test the default Messages app (bundled by LG on my phone)
    since it bitches that another app (Google Messages) is the default
    messaging app. Possibly in that app a "group" would be a list of
    contacts that could get reused across multiple and new conversations,
    not something defined for just a particular conversation.

    Once I'm done texting with someone, it is not very long until I delete a conversation. It isn't relevant, anymore. A conversation about a
    grocery delivery is irrelevant after the groceries got delivered. A 2FA
    code I need to complete a web site login is a worthless conversation
    after I've used the 2FA code to login. My conversations aka chats aka
    texts aka SMS message threads don't survive long, so neither would any
    "group" defined for the recipients for a particular conversation.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ChSDXBed_k

    This guy says "group *chat*", not "recipients group". That fits with my testing that shows a "group" only survives as long as the conversation survives. Delete the conversation, and the "group" is gone.

    You create a "group" when you create new conversation. You can add
    recipients to the group, but not delete. The thread has already been
    created. Deleting the conversation gets rid of the "group", because the "group" were the recipients in THAT conversation. You would have to
    keep around old conversations to retain the "group". I'm a neat freak,
    so conversations never last long on my phone.

    You need to use some other SMS app that keeps a group of *contact*
    available for reuse in later and new conversations. I found:

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=crazy.pradeep.multismssender&hl=en_US&pli=1
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.MSMS&hl=en_US

    Never used them, so no idea if it is reliable. Maybe it does what the
    OP wants, which is to define a "contacts group" that is reusable in
    separate conversations, or after deleting a conversations and later
    starting a new conversation where the OP wants to specify the same
    collection of recipients. That is, perhaps they create sending lists
    reusable for separate conversations.

    This were "group" means a list of contacts in the Contacts app (or
    Contacts list in the Phone app) versus "group" in SMS messages being a
    list of recipients within a conversation.

    I don't have a moto g phone to know what features or deficiences it has.
    Google Message doesn't save contact groups for later reuse. A "group"
    is a list of recipients within a conversation, not a separate reusable
    object to use in new conversations.

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  • From Richmond@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Tue Nov 12 21:00:00 2024
    VanguardLH <[email protected]> writes:

    Tim Slattery <[email protected]> wrote:

    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:

    To remove someone from a Google Messages group chat, you can do the
    following:

    This has nothing to do with Google, it's the Android SMS messaging
    app.

    This DOES have something to do with the Google Messages *app* -- should
    you decide to install it to replace your current bundled text app on
    your phone.

    I have a motorola moto g8 power lite, and the default messaging app is
    Google Messages, this one:

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging

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  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Wed Nov 13 18:25:30 2024
    VanguardLH wrote:

    looks to be editing your "group" under Google Groups, not of editing a "group" in the SMS app. The term group gets way overused, so I got
    misled to the wrong directions.

    Conversation would indeed be a better term for it, still it lets you add participants, I guess if you removed a participant, there's no guarantee
    the remaining participants (from your perspective) would notice, so
    they would likely continue to include the person you'd cut out ...

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  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Wed Nov 13 18:06:43 2024
    Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

    VanguardLH wrote:

    looks to be editing your "group" under Google Groups, not of editing a
    "group" in the SMS app. The term group gets way overused, so I got
    misled to the wrong directions.

    Conversation would indeed be a better term for it, still it lets you add participants, I guess if you removed a participant, there's no guarantee
    the remaining participants (from your perspective) would notice, so
    they would likely continue to include the person you'd cut out ...

    Would recipients of an SMS message to sent to multiple recipients even
    see who were the other recipients of that message? That would seem to
    violate the privacy of recipients who probably never granted the sender
    to include them in a conversation. I would expect a group message to be similar to using BCC in an outbound e-mail, but maybe the CC equivalent
    gets used instead.

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  • From Frank Slootweg@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Thu Nov 14 15:22:19 2024
    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:
    Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

    VanguardLH wrote:

    looks to be editing your "group" under Google Groups, not of editing a
    "group" in the SMS app. The term group gets way overused, so I got
    misled to the wrong directions.

    Conversation would indeed be a better term for it, still it lets you add participants, I guess if you removed a participant, there's no guarantee the remaining participants (from your perspective) would notice, so
    they would likely continue to include the person you'd cut out ...

    Would recipients of an SMS message to sent to multiple recipients even
    see who were the other recipients of that message? That would seem to violate the privacy of recipients who probably never granted the sender
    to include them in a conversation. I would expect a group message to be similar to using BCC in an outbound e-mail, but maybe the CC equivalent
    gets used instead.

    Well, for example for a real IM (Instant Messaging) platform like
    WhatsApp the members of a group can see the number of members and who
    they are. The creator/admin of the group can add and delete members and
    members can choose to exit the group. So at any time, a member can see
    the current number of members and who they are. I do not know if members
    get notified if a member is deleted or exits or a member is added. I
    assume they get notified, but I don't know.

    Bottom line: For real IM platforms, the OP's (Tim Slattery) problem
    (of not being able to delete a member) does not exist.

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  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to Frank Slootweg on Thu Nov 14 11:31:20 2024
    Frank Slootweg <[email protected]d> wrote:

    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:
    Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

    VanguardLH wrote:

    looks to be editing your "group" under Google Groups, not of editing a >>>> "group" in the SMS app. The term group gets way overused, so I got
    misled to the wrong directions.

    Conversation would indeed be a better term for it, still it lets you add >>> participants, I guess if you removed a participant, there's no guarantee >>> the remaining participants (from your perspective) would notice, so
    they would likely continue to include the person you'd cut out ...

    Would recipients of an SMS message to sent to multiple recipients even
    see who were the other recipients of that message? That would seem to
    violate the privacy of recipients who probably never granted the sender
    to include them in a conversation. I would expect a group message to be
    similar to using BCC in an outbound e-mail, but maybe the CC equivalent
    gets used instead.

    Well, for example for a real IM (Instant Messaging) platform like
    WhatsApp the members of a group can see the number of members and who
    they are. The creator/admin of the group can add and delete members and members can choose to exit the group. So at any time, a member can see
    the current number of members and who they are. I do not know if members
    get notified if a member is deleted or exits or a member is added. I
    assume they get notified, but I don't know.

    Bottom line: For real IM platforms, the OP's (Tim Slattery) problem
    (of not being able to delete a member) does not exist.

    Looks like WhatsApp does text (SMS), chats, and VOIP calls. Maybe
    WhatsApp could replace the OP's SMS app, and have even more
    functionality.

    Does WhatsApp do RCS? Even if it does, the other half of that equation requires a cellular carrier to also support RCS. While the Google
    Messages app on my phone supports RCS, my provider (an MVNO) does not.
    I thought RCS was supposed to supercede SMS, and an alternative to
    WhatsApp, but that doesn't preclude clients from having different
    feature sets.

    How about XMPP, so WhatsApp users aren't locked into just chatting with
    other WhatsApp users? I never got into chatting (P2P), because the chat clients only connect with with other users of the same chat app, and
    using XMPP seemed like the Rain Man of chat protocols. Plus, like my
    true e-mail address that I protect using reply-able aliases (replies to
    aliases don't expose the real e-mail address), I don't like publishing
    my phone number which then makes it a target for spammers and
    malcontents.

    This looks interesting for WhatsApp: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2024/08/20/forget-iphone-16-and-ios-18-whatsapp-update-should-stop-you-using-rcs/

    But I wonder if a username for yourself in WhatsApp is only accessible
    to other WhatsApp users. Other users won't know by your WhatsApp
    username what is your phone number to contact you via SMS or RCS.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Frank Slootweg@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Thu Nov 14 18:48:16 2024
    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:
    [...]

    Looks like WhatsApp does text (SMS), chats, and VOIP calls. Maybe
    WhatsApp could replace the OP's SMS app, and have even more
    functionality.

    AFAIK, WhatsApp does not do SMS or VOIP calls to regular phones
    (mobile or landline). It does IM ('chats') and voice/video calls to
    other WhatsApp users. So WhatsApp would be an addition, not a
    replacement for an Android SMS/MMS app.

    Does WhatsApp do RCS? Even if it does, the other half of that equation requires a cellular carrier to also support RCS. While the Google
    Messages app on my phone supports RCS, my provider (an MVNO) does not.
    I thought RCS was supposed to supercede SMS, and an alternative to
    WhatsApp, but that doesn't preclude clients from having different
    feature sets.

    No WhatsApp doesn't do RCS. And no, RCS is not superceding SMS, it's
    an additional functionality. That is, for the US, the rest of the world
    is already using WhatsApp for years and years. I never send SMS
    messages. I receive SMS messages, the (very) large majority for the
    second step in 2SV (if no better method is available).

    How about XMPP, so WhatsApp users aren't locked into just chatting with
    other WhatsApp users? I never got into chatting (P2P), because the chat clients only connect with with other users of the same chat app, and
    using XMPP seemed like the Rain Man of chat protocols. Plus, like my
    true e-mail address that I protect using reply-able aliases (replies to aliases don't expose the real e-mail address), I don't like publishing
    my phone number which then makes it a target for spammers and
    malcontents.

    Interoperability between different IM platforms is one of the issues
    the EU (Euopean Union) is working on and being a main platform, WhatsApp
    will be required to interoperate with other IM platforms. However that
    is future, not present.

    As to 'publishing' your phone number. We don't have any spammers, etc.
    here (The Netherlands), because it's illegal here and it's probably the
    same in most of Europe. Phone spamming seems to be mostly a US thing.

    Anyway, your WhatsApp 'number' doesn't have to be your main phone
    number. Any number you 'own' will do and only needs to be used once in a
    while (for verification). The 'phone number' is actually just an
    identifier. For example in some cases it can be a landline number and I
    used WhatsApp on a SIM-less tablet and can use it on my (SIM-less)
    laptop.

    This looks interesting for WhatsApp: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2024/08/20/forget-iphone-16-and-ios-18-whatsapp-update-should-stop-you-using-rcs/

    But I wonder if a username for yourself in WhatsApp is only accessible
    to other WhatsApp users. Other users won't know by your WhatsApp
    username what is your phone number to contact you via SMS or RCS.

    Interesting development for the concerns you raised. As I said, in our experience it hasn't been a problem, but additional security/privacy
    can't hurt.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From VanguardLH@21:1/5 to Frank Slootweg on Thu Nov 14 20:53:47 2024
    Frank Slootweg <[email protected]d> wrote:

    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:

    Looks like WhatsApp does text (SMS), chats, and VOIP calls. Maybe
    WhatsApp could replace the OP's SMS app, and have even more
    functionality.

    AFAIK, WhatsApp does not do SMS or VOIP calls to regular phones
    (mobile or landline). It does IM ('chats') and voice/video calls to
    other WhatsApp users. So WhatsApp would be an addition, not a
    replacement for an Android SMS/MMS app.

    Thanks for the update. Even with the WhatsApp app, I had read that you
    still need an SMS app, like to get all those codes due to the 2FA
    security theater crap since those are sent via SMS.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Frank Slootweg@21:1/5 to VanguardLH on Fri Nov 15 10:45:43 2024
    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:
    Frank Slootweg <[email protected]d> wrote:

    VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:

    Looks like WhatsApp does text (SMS), chats, and VOIP calls. Maybe
    WhatsApp could replace the OP's SMS app, and have even more
    functionality.

    AFAIK, WhatsApp does not do SMS or VOIP calls to regular phones
    (mobile or landline). It does IM ('chats') and voice/video calls to
    other WhatsApp users. So WhatsApp would be an addition, not a
    replacement for an Android SMS/MMS app.

    Thanks for the update. Even with the WhatsApp app, I had read that you
    still need an SMS app, like to get all those codes due to the 2FA
    security theater crap since those are sent via SMS.

    If your 2SV via SMS reference (also) refers to WhatsApp:

    2SV via SMS is only used during registration, not during normal use.
    And it's optional, another method is to get the 2SV code via an
    automated voice call [1]. That's how it done for a landline [2] number
    or/and SIM-less device and the same method can be used for a 'normal'
    device, i.e. mostly - but not limited to - a smartphone.

    [1] 'How to register your account with a phone call' <https://faq.whatsapp.com/796575231429493/?helpref=faq_content&cms_platform=android>
    [2] The WhatsApp Help Center implies that landline number are no longer acceptable for regular users, only for WhatsApp Business.
    'How to register your phone number' -> 'Registration requirement' <https://faq.whatsapp.com/684051319521343/?helpref=hc_fnav&cms_platform=android>

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)