Comment Re:annoying downgrade, ingores major usage pattern (Score 1) 101
I find it really ironic that Google, a company so used to being the new hotness upstart company, is so willfully ignoring usage patterns of a significant minority comprising "the youth" and people on the wrong side of the internet divide, and much of the third world, and anyone without a data plan outside of wifi range.
It's you that's out of touch. Kids don't use SMS like they used to, it's all about apps like Snapchat now. And most kids don't generally care about calendar reminders either.
As for people without data plans, Google are inventing record-breaking new technologies like Loon precisely to reach these people. They are about as far away from ignoring the problem as you can possibly get.
Personally, I use sms to ensure my kids get the notification no matter what
Nope, SMS doesn't achieve that, it needs a signal at the point at which the notification is received. Whereas an app that generates local notifications only needs to sync the event once. The app-based method is much more reliable.