Windows Phone and BlackBerry had apps that acted like two-way RSS for your messages. Everything in one app. They broke frequently because the app vendors changed their APIs, not wanting their products to become dumb pipes that just sent and received messages (the horror!).
Not a user but I imagine it's like the blackberry model where texts, messenger, whatsapp, and whatever else all go to the same inbox rather than having to check 40 different apps. I really wish that idea would come back.
Speaking of, I always wished the Android messaging app could just parse those messages and show the little like icon or whatever on the last matching message I sent.
now someone just needs to make a simple, free iphone app that works just like the text messaging app, but sends messages through push notifications. no signup, no aim accounts, no presence, no other fluff.
send to any phone number or contact and the app would know if the receiving number is an iphone with the same app installed. if it isn't, it lets you know that you need to use regular text messages instead. resist the urge to implement real sms functionality on the backend so users don't feel like you're trying to sell them something. make the users pressure their friends into installing the app and it'll be huge. resist trying to make it some global contact manager with a desktop version and a dozen points of integration.
then make blackberry and android versions that can all work together and you're golden.
On my windows phone 7 I was able to seamlessly message my friend via text or Skype or Facebook message, all in the same conversation thread, which was searchable. and when going on his page see his Facebook and twitter updates in one page.
From Wikipedia:
> Windows Phone 7's messaging system is organized into "threads". This allows a conversation with a person to be held through multiple platforms (such as Windows Live Messenger, Facebook messaging, or SMS within a single thread, dynamically switching between services depending on availability
Tying the messaging to something that was already familiar and ubiquitous (phone numbers) while keeping the interface essentially the same was a real innovation.
As the original poster of this thread, thanks, I think that's a good answer to my question. It seems a small step considering SMS, but then again I can't remember any other app doing that, and hindsight makes many things appear simple.
I dream of a service which I can use to send a message to a contact. It knows if that contact is on WhatsApp, Telegram etc. (or plain old SMS) and chooses the best option for that contact automatically. It merges the inbound messages from any of those apps I have so they're all in one place.
I no longer have to use all [n] chat apps installed on my phone just because for each of them, there are a few people only contactable via that particular app.
I should have been more clear at first, but my idea is going beyond that. Their web app is sad, perhaps in an attempt to make it work in too many arenas at once. No push notifications, difficult UI, lumping messages together but required scrolling through every message just to read the newest etc. I could go on, but the point is made.
I like this. I'd like it a ton if I had a single feed that would aggregate my texts, whatsapp, my various email addresses, telegram, signal, skype, zoom, facebook messenger ...
I don't know if a third-party app might be able to duplicate this functionality, but even if so the problem is third party apps can be banned, and can be seen on phones by authorities and used as a reason for suspicion. People have to be bold enough to install it to receive messages too.
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