Was wondering about a hybrid approach. I.E. an IM client that (hopefully) is available on the playstore, and that kosher phone companies will adopt - that would be free. Then each chat will have the paid option to enable SMS integration, which would basically have them pay cost price for twilio (or someone moderately cheaper). They may be able to skim a couple bucks off to pay for the servers, or possibly some NPO will host it l’toeles harabim. If we devs here a jtech write the server and client software and dump it on github (possibly) using some sort of non commercialization license (not to shter the toelses harabim motivation), all we need to do is daven that someone actually decides to host it.
Once such a thing is up and running, and we persuade a couple a couple kosher phones to adopt it, I can’t imagine others won’t pick it up.
What would be a good IM infrastructure to work off? I heard talk of matrix? Or possibly, just write our own?
Please don’t, personally it seems like a heavy waste of development resources. Use Matrix or IRC or XMPP or something else for the protocol if you must build something new.
There’s no way any monetization will even cover the costs.
I see two likely explanations for this site:
They haven’t thought this through or crunched the numbers.
Which means that pretty soon they’ll have to face reality, and this will be shut down.
They’re scanning chats for personal information that can be used to scam users.
That’s the only “business model” I can think of that would actually cover the costs.
I’m assuming that it’s the former, but either way I’d be wary of using it.
Even assuming that there’s something that I missed, and that they do have a viable business model, we don’t know anything about who’s behind it, or that they have good enough security to protect your personal info.
Please do everyone a favor, and warn whoever you know not to use this.
Same goes for any other option where the provider isn’t both reputable and known to have good security.
A service claiming to offer completely free SMS-based group messaging should raise some serious questions.
SMS isn’t free — every message ultimately travels through a carrier or messaging provider.
Group messages multiply quickly — 1 message to 60 people can mean 59+ outbound SMS messages.
Someone is paying the carriers — there has to be a business model somewhere.
High-volume SMS gets scrutinized — carriers actively monitor and restrict abusive or automated traffic.
Privacy isn’t free either — ask what happens to your phone number, messages, and metadata.
“Free” usually means there’s a catch — advertising, data monetization, sponsorship, usage limits, or hidden costs.
If they won’t explain how they pay for the SMS, that’s a particularly big red flag.
Unlimited + free + SMS + large groups is an especially unusual combination.
Bottom line
Free to the user doesn’t mean free to operate. If a service is absorbing potentially thousands of dollars in SMS costs while asking nothing from its users, it’s reasonable to ask: “How exactly are they paying for this?”
The problem is that we’re not the ones who get to fix this problem. If we can’t just provide free SMS to everybody like GroupMe did, then the only alternative is to have a purpose-built app that every kosher phone must have installed. This is not something that we control. The best scenario is that kosher phone manufacturers agree collectively to get on board, but a) getting any group of companies to agree on something is hard, and b) they’re the last group you’d expect to be early adopters of new software.
So if, as it seems, no one is willing and able to take accountability to solve this, the default path will end up winning, which will be flip phone users can’t be on group chats, and much more normalization of using WhatsApp.
I think our only hope is that Google will allow other developers to use RCS before this happens.
Technically, you are right. However, if something is offered to them “free for the taking” it (IMHO) raises the likeliness of:
It happening at all.
It being adopted as a uniform solution.
Let’s remember - many popular uniform protocols were not preplanned. They were semi successful in a pool of competitors and then saw increased adoption, e.g. - USB-C, which was so successful that it even bucked apple off its high horse. Not to devolve into a discussion about standards, but an argument could be made that “putting something out there” as it is would give that solution a shot at being adopted just because it exists.
In other words, instead of waiting for the GroupMe SMS Dissolution Kosherphone Conference of 2064 - let’s put something out now. If we do the legwork by:
Building an IM server (with a Twilio or other paid SMS gateway).
Hosting the said server.
Building and publishing a FOSS android client.
Optionally, a web client and/or even one for iOS.
Then, I’d argue it sees a good chance of success.
One possible downside - app users transitioning from SMS use must use a separate interface for group messaging as opposed to it being inside their messaging app. However, kosher phones shipping their own SMS/MMS clients could take advantage of our service and integrate it directly into their message apps if we build a simple API.
So, again, instead of a hodgepodge of dodgy half baked alternatives, there is something to be said for a trusted open source ecosystem developed by people who understand our unique requirements and environment. And if that is offered for the taking, I think it has a very decent chance of being adopted.
I’ll throw out another thought: Likely the SMS integration would be temporary, lasting only a couple of years until the current swath of kosher phones are phased out. TAG is already targeting the “old guard” of “kosher phones” for obsoletion because they don’t implement TAG Protect. They are already creating a market need for new phones, and it seems they would need everyone to have a “born kosher” device or at least a customized firmware to satisfy their requirements. The timing is (again, IMHO,) opportune for releasing something like this.
Introducing GROUP IT UP — FREE Group Texting! 
Group texting
Please forward this message to anyone who could benefit from a FREE group-texting solution!
SMS isn’t free — every message ultimately travels through a carrier or messaging provider.
Group messages multiply quickly — 1 message to 60 people can mean 59+ outbound SMS messages.
Someone is paying the carriers — there has to be a business model somewhere.
High-volume SMS gets scrutinized — carriers actively monitor and restrict abusive or automated traffic.
Privacy isn’t free either — ask what happens to your phone number, messages, and metadata.
“Free” usually means there’s a catch — advertising, data monetization, sponsorship, usage limits, or hidden costs.
If they won’t explain how they pay for the SMS, that’s a particularly big red flag.
Unlimited + free + SMS + large groups is an especially unusual combination.
