foreign
so there were some really interesting
Google messages updates that got
announced this week I had a briefing at
the very beginning of the week to go
over all of them and it seems like
they're going to make Google messages
quite a bit better yeah you were kind of
mentioned this the other day I haven't
heard it yet so I would love to hear
about it as someone who has to still sit
inside Google messages all the time yeah
what happened yeah so there were a lot
of different changes in my overarching
sort of takeaway from all of this is
that one they're still really trying to
make RCS happen which is good uh and two
for the people that don't have access to
RCs for various reasons they are just
trying to make SMS conversations better
as well with a lot of really interesting
kind of like workarounds and hacks um
and that's nice because then Apple has
no say over what Google does true so
Google's sort of able to do this stuff
without Apple just like making your life
terrible if you don't have an iPhone
right
um so this first thing is actually very
deep and near to my eye I was gonna say
okay so I you told me you were like I
kind of want to talk about this on the
podcast I was like yes I want this to
happen because there are times we'll be
in the office and you'll just be like
something about Google messages and
iMessage and then I'll just you turn
your head put your headphones on and
just like focus in on your computer I'm
like oh man David's going off about
something right now yeah I feel like
every couple of months I just have a
tweet storm about how much I it's
specifically about emojis and emojis
exactly yep
um so this first update has to do with
Emoji reactions and just to give a
little bit of context uh prior way back
in the day which was only a few months
ago you know you had that terrible
situation where if you're in an SMS
thread with iPhone users and Android
users iPhone users were able to send a
tap back or react to any message in the
thread but then everyone would get this
separate message that said this person
likes this message yeah this person
loved this message or emphasized and
that was annoying for everyone right and
I think the the reason was I mean Apple
needed to be able to send the context of
what you were what you were doing
because you can't not send that reaction
in some form because then there's like
literal information loss in the
conversation
um but it was also useful for Apple
because it made it so that when you
would do that it would annoy everyone
and they would just bully everyone into
getting an iPhone so that everyone could
use iMessage and see stuff natively
right yeah so Google built out RCS
um and they've been trying to get apple
on it with their whole get the message
Campaign which is not working very well
it will probably not work uh but Google
just decided that they were going to
hard code
Emoji reactions into Android phones okay
so now if you were in an SMS
conversation with an iOS user and they
reacted to a message instead of sending
you the message that would say like this
person loved this message it would
intercept that message and instead of
sending the message it would stamp that
emoji on the message so all of a sudden
how the turns have tabled right the
Android users know how to better
experience because they didn't have to
see that whole separate message yep
right okay that was step one then
um when iOS 16 there was this whole
thing that happened where on Apple's
website they ended up sort of like
taking credit for that change that
Google made oh yes and I personally
think that they didn't do this on
purpose I think that this was a
communication error because there was
there was an actual change in iOS 16
where it would still send the message
that said this person loved this message
but instead of saying this person loved
this message it would say like David
heart emoji quote they just sort of
changed the way that it looked and used
the Emoji instead of like writing out
the emotion right okay
and then uh Google recently just this
week this is the change that they made
now in an SMS thread you can Emoji react
to SMS messages so now Android users
actually have the best experience even
in SMS threads because not only when an
iOS user reacts to your message do you
just see the Emoji you can also Emoji at
iOS users
and now iOS users will get a separate
message that said oh they gave us yeah
so Google literally turned the tables on
this whole situation fantastic so now
the only thing that Apple could do is
now hard code in Google's Emoji
reactions and then basically everyone
just has Emoji reactions which is
amazing
you might be giving Apple too much
credit that do you think they'd go that
way I well so now the only thing that
they are doing is pissing off their own
users
I agree with you I don't want this to
sound like I don't agree with you do do
you honestly think that's what Apple
will wind up doing or is there going to
be like
okay I'm imagining a world and I don't
think this is that unlikely I am I'm the
iMessage user who's always been doing it
who always likes to make fun of green
bubbles by the way if you are that
person shut up it's so stupid if you're
arguing over bubble color yeah no one
cares next time at me yeah at me I get
why it's frustrating yeah sure but again
but it's still dumb so yeah
I see a world where people in iMessage
are now going to be like you use Android
and you reacting to my things are
screwing up my messages and annoying me
this is your fault yeah that's the only
so I see two worlds here either Apple
says okay we just need to make the
experience better for our users or their
they just stick with their guns and they
say hmm now we can make our users angry
at Android users yeah so it depends on
whether or not they want to weaponize
them yeah and um I think we both agree
on what they should do yeah but I also
don't know if I would have like betting
faith on if that were to happen so I'll
be interested to see I really like that
Google's doing something like this
because it makes it feel less like let's
put a bunch of ads out and like try and
make everyone tell Apple they're wrong
rather it's like let's take action let's
throw this in their face see how they
feel about it and see how they're
responsible yeah yeah so for the
listeners I apologize if that was
extremely confusing I'm sure everyone
had their like red imaginary red yarn
out like going from their heads but like
I think we've explained the process a
couple times over on the podcast so like
hopefully you should get to that point
but essentially
tldr correct me if I'm wrong
Google or Android users can basically
react to messages and at this point
iMessage users are probably getting the
short end of the stick because they're
getting the the text quote unquote
message back to them that it's a
reaction right so now Android users can
react with two messages and receive
reactions even over SMS but Apple users
can only send reactions but when they
receive them they're in text form my
family group chat I'm just going to
react to everyone because I 30 of my
family group chat is people reacting and
text messages coming in on it I cannot
wait to raise hell back at them yeah
yeah I'm coming for you guys yeah so
that was only the first change that they
did in this briefing that was just the
longest one because to me it's the most
important one the most passionate the
most passionate thing about
um second announcement they're adding an
inline YouTube player okay which is
interesting it's not like share play
where when you hit the play button it's
playing it for both of you at the same
time okay and that's again because
because it's like an SMS MMS feature
like it doesn't require an internet
connection okay so that's I guess better
it's um it's like within the app itself
so it's not like it just opens YouTube
it sort of opens YouTube within messages
and you can move it around but the idea
is that you can watch a video and be
texting each other while you're watching
the video you know it's funny because it
sounds almost like they're
you know how they've tried to do
multitasking for so long where it's like
set up two separate apps on like the
same screen but I don't know a single
person who really uses that much I'm
sure they are out there but this feels
like all right we're gonna find the most
common situations where we wanted people
to do this now let's just bake it into
the app and I think that's a way way
better idea yeah and Google actually
told me that YouTube links are the most
common link sentence I'm not surprised
by that yeah yeah which is crazy
um and so like I said earlier that was
sort of the stuff that they're just
trying to make the general texting
experience better even over SMS and MMS
but they are also trying to create
feature parity with iMessage on RCS okay
so they have a bunch of RCs updates so
now you can reply to messages over RCS
so you can like you know swipe right on
it and reply to a specific message I
didn't even realize I didn't have that
before I didn't realize that so like
sorry I'm trying to picture this so
similar to like in a slack thread where
rather than continuing the conversation
in the group chat you're almost like
replying to a specific Chrome it's still
going in the chat okay it shows what
you're replying to okay so that's really
good for
um group conversations for example yes
for sure multiple people are talking and
you didn't reply in time you can just
reply to a specific so it doesn't look
like you're responding to something
totally different than off subject
totally and iMessage has had that
forever so I I did not know that yeah
today I learned yeah so they're just
trying to they're really trying to bring
RCS up to feature parody
um that is super useful they are adding
voice transcription to the pixel 6 6 Pro
6A and the Galaxy Ford fold floor and
flip four and if you don't know what
voice transcription is it's basically at
the pixel 7 launch event they showed off
this feature where in Google messages if
someone sends a voice note the other
person could just read what they said
instead of listening to it that's
awesome yeah and this was funny because
since it was shown off at the pixel
event alongside all of these other
features that were quote unquote tensor
exclusive I think a lot of people
assumed that it was a tensor only
feature
um but it's not because it's coming to
pixel 6 6 Pro 6A
and the Galaxy full door and flip for uh
so I asked them like do you guys have
processing requirements for this and
they basically just said they're working
with oems on a like model by model basis
okay they just want to make sure that
it's running a chipset that's fast
enough to do that parsing obviously
that's accelerated on tensor but you
know the Snapdragon 8 gen 1 is going to
be able to do it fine yeah real quick
about I'm trying to like at first when
you say like voice memo transcription or
not voice memo but like voice sending a
voice message transcription first I'm
like that's really awesome it reminds me
of like voicemail transcription pretty
much right like yeah I still think
that's one of the best inventions on a
smartphone ever because I hate listening
to voicemails
um but then I'm also like the majority
of people how many people still send
voice memos rather than just voice to
text which is I guess essentially just
doing this reverse later yeah but like
most times I I guess
I could see it in a world where as an
example uh I've had older people in
family try and send voice to text and
you just get a whole lot of extra at the
end because they don't know how to end
it correctly so maybe a voice memo is
easier for them to send and then I can
get it back in text I would agree with
you I think that they are just trying to
allow for as many different permutations
of communication as possible which yeah
ultimately I think is good sorry yeah if
if some people want to you know
sometimes you want to hear someone's
voice it is nicer to hear someone's
voice you know however I have a few
friends that send a lot of Christmas
memos and I hate it uh because I'm very
rarely in a position where I can listen
to it I have to either be I have to be
wearing headphones to be able to let to
listen to what you just texted me yeah
very true to me defeats the entire
purpose but a lot of people like doing
it and like it is the only correct way
to communicate Adam loves it I feels it
all the time with his friends but yeah
I'm the more we're having this
conversation the more I'm feeling like
an old man because I do not understand
any of these communication things that
your youngins are doing yeah um we're
like the same age
shut up Adam I think that honestly at
the end of the day if you can have as
many possible ways to communicate as
possible that's the best I agree 100
yeah because people like to communicate
in different ways so it is just ironic
that when you are sending that voice
message you have the option of either
just doing voice to text or sending a
voice memo and then when the other
person transcribes it it's just voiced
yeah it's like would you like this to be
text now or later yeah so you know
options yeah it's another option
um you can now also star messages to
remind you to answer them which is kind
of cool I would I like that because I
would rather that than my Google
messages trying to predict the like you
haven't responded to this in four days
like sometimes it's like yeah because I
didn't need to I don't know why you
really thought I wanted to so I'd rather
be able to be like I do want to respond
to this later like right now I'm seeing
it in a situation where I can't respond
to it rather than the top of my inbox
being a bunch of old random messages
that I never wanted to respond to yeah I
think I'm definitely going to be making
use of this feature what's really funny
is like uh Gmail a while ago added this
feature that if you get an email and you
open it but you don't reply to it it'll
say Hey you received this a few days ago
you want to reply to it or if you send
someone an email and they don't reply
after a few days it'll be like you said
this four days ago do you want to follow
up yeah and so now they're basically
doing the same thing in messages which
is kind of cool and I think that they're
in a way sort of seeing email and
messaging as sort of this ubiquitous
kind of free-flowing thing because they
already added in Google messages three
separate tabs for different types of
text that you're getting there's an all
tab there's a personal Tab and there's a
business tab now that's in messages yes
sorry I'm looking right oh yeah you know
I've always seen that and I've never
actually done anything so business is
basically just all the spam crackers
their business messages will just be
like spam stuff however this is also
related to another update that they're
making uh which I don't know how much
this is going to actually happen Okay
but now in Google Maps if you if a
business supports this a business can
chat with you over RCS
um to me this feels like a very like
five to ten years down the line thing
when RCS is more widely adopted okay but
effectively it's like if you want to
communicate with a business and say like
hey are you guys open today or whatever
they'll be able to literally chat with
you through your messages app sorry
is a pretty old iOS feature oh no get
out of here well okay also what's up
yeah yeah yeah I think I just use
WhatsApp whatever I like just use
WhatsApp guys get out of here turn your
mic off I like it yeah I mean like Ella
said
um I think iMessage has a feature on
Delta that I use occasionally when I'm
using an iPhone that instead of calling
them and waiting to talk to a
representative forever or like waiting
for their web portal you can literally
iMessage with somebody okay which is so
much nicer and like I totally agree with
this because if there is a situation on
like a support website where it is call
or chat live with somebody I will click
chat live one thousand percent of the
time and I would say much rather do that
yeah we don't want to talk on the phone
yeah exactly yeah
um and now like I said earlier there's
that starring thing where you can star
messages to go back to them there's also
now suggested starring so if someone
says something like oh this thing is
happening Tuesday at five it'll ask you
hey do you want to Star this or like do
you want to add a calendar event
directly from this and they have they
actually have that in Gmail too yeah so
I think that I think that Google just
thinks of communication as sort of like
there are parallels between every form
of communication and we should sort of
add feature parity to you know Gmail and
yeah messages and whatever iMessage is
doing and it's sort of just trying to
make it as ubiquitous as possible which
I like so yeah my big my biggest
takeaway is let's add iMessage feature
parity to RCS so that people stop
complaining about RCS and for the people
that don't have RCS in the meantime
let's make SMS messaging as good as we
can with the limitations we have for
sure yeah so that's a lot I like that no
I I'm excited for it I mean I think
in the tech World
messaging an Android have a have had a
rift at all times I still think they do
have a rift I like that they're working
like what I really appreciate about this
especially with like the Emoji react
things it's like we want people to go to
RCS but we know not everyone's there
let's make their experience also better
even though like so many companies will
be like we've taken the next step we
don't care about the previous steps
anymore so this is like taking the next
step and still supporting the old step
and I really appreciate that and I think
it will ultimately help
The Next Step grow because then
everyone's getting used to those
features and going forward and now
they're also uh like making the other
step over to the side a little messy and
maybe make them take a step back so they
can take a step forward but we'll all
see how that I think this is going to
put a little bit of pressure on Apple uh
I don't think apple is ever going to
score RCS unless they legally have to
um I'm sure the EU at some point might
do something that will be very
interesting uh but for now at least the
SMS experience is getting better exactly
so I'll take that thank you guys so much
for watching that clip you know when you
hit the Subscribe button on YouTube and
it sort of gives you that little
animation similar to when you hit the
love Emoji action on Google messages so
if I subscribe now your SMS will get a
subscription like 50 messages at the
same time that oh give me hugs you
should try that what about the like
button the like the like button is and
better the like button emphasizes all of
the messages everyone loves a good
emphasis exclamation points everywhere
it makes me feel very excited if you
don't David will feel very frowny face
emoji very very friend very frowny face
and I know that you just want to click I
know you just want to click your mouse
ain't broken just click it just click it
click it good you know
thank you
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