Edit: NOTE, I am the receiver of the texts.

So many people asking me to have my wife do something different on her end.

Beloved, she is on iPhone because she doesn’t want to do anything “weird.” She is texting from her phone number using her texting app. That’s what’s going to happen.

Now, why can’t I get iMessage on my android phone? If it’s just a messenger app why not make it available for Android?

I’d use it.

  • Zak@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    SMS/MMS has really low file size limits, and iPhones may downscale a little more aggressively than required.

    Just pick an internet based messaging service. I like Signal, but they all work.

    • AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      The next version of iOS should add support for RCS which should allow for cross platform larger images as well.

      • Zak@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        RCS from what I can tell still has some significant limitations, like the version common on Android having some Google proprietary extensions it’s not clear if other vendors will fully support. I’d still recommend something like Signal to most people, though RCS improves the experience for those not using that.

        • xlash123@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          It’s all a huge mess… Apple is complying with the RCS spec, but isn’t using Google’s proprietary encryption method because it’s proprietary. Google also won’t open the API on Android to allow for 3rd party RCS apps. So until Google decides to abandon their stronghold over the encryption standard and API access, RCS will continue to suck from a privacy standpoint.

          • Zak@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I haven’t been following the RCS story closely. My impression is it’s a standard core on which each provider can tack on nonstandard extensions, and somehow carriers are involved even though it’s internet-based. It sounds like people who won’t adopt third-party internet messaging apps are going to continue to have a bad time.

      • Khrux@ttrpg.network
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        2 months ago

        Do you mean should add RCS as in they’re expected to, or should add RCS as in “that would be wise”?

        • AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          It is expected, it is already in the betas but may also require carriers to enable it as some beta testers found it wasn’t available to them initially.

        • AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          To be far, apple has had iMessage since 2011 and no one cared about RCS until it was adopted on Android in 2019.

          • 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            To be additionally fair, Android still has phones out there in use that still dont have the RCS feature, and never will because those phones are no longer supported.

              • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                2 months ago

                Yes but it wasn’t marketed that way. Which is why there is more interest.

                Apple has been blatantly obvious that they want it to remain proprietary and exclusively on their hardware.

                • NaN@lemmy.sdf.org
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                  2 months ago

                  This is true, Google has cared less about the hardware and more about being the platform to run all of it. Not all that different than Android in that regard.

                  I’m still not sure why people are so quick to jump on board though. You can degoogle Android, it’s much harder to degoogle RCS.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    iPhones tend to have pretty shit cameras compared to Samsungs - it’s not just purely a question of pixels but lense quality as well.

  • fjordbasa@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Messaging between iPhones uses iMessage and messaging between android probably uses RCS, both of which do not have the limitations of MMS, which is a limit of around 3.5 MB for most carriers. “Texting” pictures and videos from iPhone to android or vice versa will likely use MMS, hence the blurry media. Until Apple joins the party, the solution is to use another app like WhatsApp, telegram, signal, etc.

  • potentiallynotfelix@lemdro.id
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    2 months ago

    Apple doesn’t do RCS. This should be changing soon, but for now you should be using another messaging app, because everything you send is unencrypted and shittier quality

    • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Me and my wife do this and its pretty much the only person we talk to on there.

      Its got some nice features to keep track of images and such. I was surprised she went for it really, usually 99% of the ideas I mention to her get turned down lol

      Oh forgot to add, we also have android and iOS.

      • Anonymouse@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I had to double check that I didn’t write this because those words could have literally come from my fingers.

          • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            One of my wife’s friends started a group chat there for some reason. Maybe the facebook app attacked them? Who knows but its catching on!

  • Coolkidbozzy [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    they use proprietary file formats (MOV and HEIC) that need to be converted to a universal format like jpg or MP4 to be viewed on android (I think this can be changed in iPhone settings), and the conversion looks like shit

    • 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      It’s very funny you say MOV and HEIC are proprietary and then list MP4 considering

      • HEIC is just H.265, the video codec, used to encode images
      • H.264, the codec used for most mp4 files has the same license as H.265 with patent bullshit license fees going on
      • MP4 container is pretty similar to MOV, and is also not an open standard
      • this also means MOV and MP4 can be losslessly converted
      • Apple provides documentation for MOV format free of charge while ISO really wants you to pay to get official standard PDF
      • All this doesn’t matter anyway because ffmpeg can decode everything (though I guess it might matter in bizarro land where software patents are a thing)

      Also Android can totally read at least HEIC images. Not sure about MOV. Any of this is also not related to the problem the OP has.

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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      2 months ago

      HEIC is not proprietary to Apple at all, they were just one of the early adopters of it.

      My Android phone takes pictures in HEIC/HEIF by default, and it’s not nearly as much of a problem anymore almost all software can handle the format now.

    • NaN@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      Not that surprising. Google Jibe is the largest player in RCS. Samsung created their own RCS alternative to Jibe and there are a few others, but Google is hands down the dominant platform. Apple had their own thing already, not exactly jumping to integrate Google Jibe or create another product isn’t surprising.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Samsung had support before Google and Jibe… but they have abandoned their own RCS support. Simply because Google’s works on all of their devices and they don’t need to do any development to support it going forwards. Why pay for development and support for a system you don’t have to and get nothing from? No one is buying a Samsung phone for the Samsung Messages RCS capability.

  • 🐍🩶🐢@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I think everyone has explained the how and why, but not any real solutions that don’t involve using a completely different application. I don’t have an iPhone in front of me, but with Android you can share as a link to Google Photos instead of sending the picture/video directly. I am pretty sure you can do something similar with iCloud. Have her try the share as iCloud link instead.

  • ninjaturtle@lemmy.today
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    2 months ago

    Its due to compression of the video in order to fit on a MMS message, which is very small. Android uses RCS as a new message standard that can send bigger files but Apple has yet to add it to their OS. Its similar to how Apple uses iMessage to do the same, however this is not a standard and is locked to only apple devices.

    Apple is supposedly adding support for RCS during the new iOS update but until then you can use a different messaging app to send better/larger files.

    I recommend Signal as it is easy to sign up and start using while also being private.

      • ninjaturtle@lemmy.today
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        2 months ago

        I think you are confusing private with anonymous. One can be private without being anonymous.

      • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I like and use signal, but of course the problem is convincing someone else to start using it in order to send you a message.

        • Zak@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I’d hope that’s not terribly hard when the people in question are married to each other.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Also messenger apps like Signal often have a setting to send higher quality (less compressed) videos which are bigger in size.

      In signal it’s Settings > Data and storage > Sent media qualify

    • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      +1 for Signal. I converted everyone in my friends and family circle to it …except one person, but I just ignore their texts.

  • Zak@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    So many people asking me to have my wife do something different on her end. Beloved, she is on iPhone because she doesn’t want to do anything “weird.”

    Assuming using a third-party messaging app is “weird”, then she can’t send you video with acceptable quality. That’s how it is.

    She can’t fix that. You can’t fix that. None of the readers here can fix that unless they work at Apple. This may improve in the future when Apple adopts RCS, but there’s a lot that real-world implementations of RCS do that isn’t in the standard, so the full details of interoperability are uncertain until we see it in the wild.

    Now, why can’t I get iMessage on my android phone?

    Because Apple doesn’t want you to. Apple wants situations like this one to pressure people to buy iPhones because that’s apparently easier for some people than agreeing on a messaging app.

    • proudblond@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I have an iPhone and whenever my Android-owning friend sends me something, it’s a tiny thumbnail of a photo. So yeah, goes both ways.

      • CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work
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        2 months ago

        The trick is to send a link to the photo or video instead of the actual file. This is also how iPhone users can use FaceTime with people on other platforms.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        That wouldn’t be an issue today if Apple had started supporting RCS, the replacement for the old SMS/MMS system years ago like every Android phone. Instead of trying to strangle it by acting like iMessage on iOS was the only solution.

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 months ago

          RCS has been around since 2008 and got Universal Profile specifications in 2016.

          It took Google until 2019 to get RCS out, and they include proprietary Google extensions that may or may not be supported by other providers, further complicating rollout of RCS.

          They’re genuinely not somehow way better in this regard.

          • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Well I’ve been able to RCS with basically everyone on an android phone since 2019 with almost no issues. That’s 5 years now.

            I don’t really care how Apple wants to try and justify it. The answer is they don’t want to add support for an alternative to their walled garden proprietary system that no one else can use. They want to force everyone onto an iPhone and iMessage if possible. The only reason they’re even looking at RCS support now is because of regulators starting to look at their glaring lack of support for interoperability.

            • NaN@lemmy.sdf.org
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              2 months ago

              That’s because almost everyone on an Android phone is using Google Jibe for RCS, they even turned it on through software for carriers that didn’t support it. It’s not surprising that a Google competitor didn’t jump to implement Jibe.

              Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T all ditched their own RCS, they also use Google RCS. They’ve positioned themselves central to the entire stack.

              • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                And absolutely zero users care about the reasons. They only know that sending messages back and forth is dogshit.

                The source of the lack of support across is Apple not wanting to even try because they want everyone to use their proprietary system on their devices instead. Google at least implemented a system to get RCS support to as many devices as they could, even when carriers didn’t do anything to help. Apple instead had to be threatened by regulators before they even began to consider looking at it.

                • NaN@lemmy.sdf.org
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                  2 months ago

                  “As many devices as they could” with Google at the center of nearly all of it (and if you want all the features, you want the Google one). This isn’t done out of altruism.