Here RCS is not even supported on most carriers, and aapparently on some phone models as well (some Chinaphones I think).

Ah, so they normally use SMS between the ecosystems? Then understandanle, although that is still weird as hell because the media on SMS is bad quality (and here would also add a lot to the SMS price).

Yeah, I get your point. I just was pointing out that iPhone users would want to install some messenger for Android family members anyway - so that they don’t get charged per each little message (although I’ve heard that unlimited SMS is common in the US), and have normal-quality media. Or you mean that they’d be still reluctant to install one more app, while the one they already use is bad, like Whatsapp? If we’re trusting proprietary software anyway - why trust iMessage over Whatsapp?

Also I doubt a Huawei that cost $100 new would be traded for any iPhone anywhere, lol

To my knowledge, they don’t have SD cards - but indeed, you could just load books by wire.

Ah, you mean $100 just for you and then everyone in your family would be able to use it? Still a very steep price but at least you’re not forcing anyone else to pay it. I just thought about messaging not just between family members and you, but between other family members as well.

Edit: just realized what else I wanted to say. It’s that the iPhone users are used to havung to install separate apps from iMessage anyway - for their friends and family members not on Apple.

Sixty percent still leaves about a half excluded and left without a cheap and conveniwnt way to participate. You think it is fair in any way?

Also a hundred bucks is a very steep price just for a messenger. Even Threema’s cheap price is seen as an adoption hurdle, this would make people wonder why you can’t just use a free app. Worst-case scanario, they’d just go back to Whatsapp.

You’d want to make adoption as seamless as possible - and yet you’re telling people they have to pay a big price (in a crisis time especially) and set some weird bridge up? They would think “Why can’t we just use something botherless?”

But most people would be excluded because they don’t have an iPhone or even funds to buy one! And would have no real way to participate! Maybe some older secondhand models would go below $300, I don’t know, but it would be weird to expect a person to buy a second phone (and an older, more worn-down one at that) just to converse with you. Even $100 is also a pretty high price just to bypass an arbitrary restriction.

There is a reason the most popular messengers are cross-platform. So the aim must be that.

I only trust my ebook because I never connect it to the internet)

I got my mother on XMPP - if you set the person’s account up, Conversations is as easy to use as Whatsapp or Signal, but doesn’t have the central server dependence.

little barrier to entry

$1000+

Revolut was recently in the news for stopping working on degoogled OSes. And judging by the comments, it is very app-dependent.

My issue is not payment itself, but rather tying all my searches to a single identity. While it seems like they resolved the issue of only accepting KYC (although the only crypto accepted is Bitcoin, which has bigger fees than Monero as well as privacy issues, and to my understanding, Lightning is harder to self-custody), the absolute linkability remains.

fair

What about Simplex? About equally easy to host and doesn’t even give an option to not encrypt. I use both.

An IMEI moving around.

You’re just shifting trust though - may be good in some cases, but not universal. Aldo does nothing about the cell tower connections tracking the location.

In a lot of places, cell carriers enforce KYC too though.