All Three Major U.S. Carriers and Google Adopt Rich Communication Services, But No Sign of Apple Interest

[mhnd]

😗

Apple contractors 'regularly hear confidential details' on Siri recordings

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www.theguardian.com

Apple apologises for allowing workers to listen to Siri recordings

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www.theguardian.com

2019. Are you saying Google had two years to follow Apple’s example but still decided to do nothing? Point taken.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

RCS may be more secure, but it certainly won't be more private. Google with retain every communication, as it does with every other piece of information it has access to.

This is an end-to-end protocol that, if it works like it's described, would not reveal messages while in transit or to Google.

 

[Mrjetsondc]

I’m going to buy the iPhone 13. Then I’m going to enjoy watching Apple fall apart as employees leave bc of their shyt work from home policy. Then I’m going to buy Apple stock cheap. Then Tim Apple get fired, Greta Thunberg is the new CEO and we are now using windows phones.

 

[One2Grift]

Apple using RCS with end-to-end encryption as a fallback instead of SMS would be a good thing for iPhone and Android users.

Wow, that's a lot of Android fans here on MR, now that's a surprising development /s

I've had two back and forth previous posting reply enjoyments with Android fans regarding data privacy security. I really enjoyed it. It's easy to enjoy a conversation when the facts, that are publicly known, are on my side.

 

[blazerunner]

Not holding my breath. Apple is slow to do anything.

Apple's always the last to adopt, first to take credit.

 

[ouimetnick]

Apple COULD have made iMessage a replacement for SMS and leave RCS in the dust, but of course not. 😂

 

[yeye11]

And who has the key? lol.

Mr, you clearly do not know how tech works. Just google "end to end encryption", educate yourself then come back and and apologise to him.

I ussualy do not post but really hate when technically illiterate people start telling everyone how things work.

Just stop. Please.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Dear US Citizens, you make up 4% of the worlds population.
What 3 carriers do in the USA is fairly much irrelevant to the rest of the world.

Mobile carriers in Europe and Asia tried to push RCS years ago.

Requiring proprietary apps, having limited device or carrier support (MVNOs often did not support it) and carriers (initially) wanting to charge per use or only include it in more expensive price plans, it was basically DOA.

Users have moved on to Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or whatever the (in some countries another) dominant messenger platform is, and that's that.

 

[bollman]

Really? People actually caring about texting? That sounds like 90s tech.
In the last month, I’ve had 5 texts from people, rest is notifications from companies, like 10 or so.

 

[mansplains]

I doubt anybody under the age of 65 uses SMS anymore anyway. When I do, it's only to reply to somebody with an Android phone over the age of 65 who doesn't have Signal. Are there many situations where SMS is still used? companies use it still to contact you? Banks, airlines etc. I guess.

I don't know anyone over 65 who uses SMS either, those I know in that demographic barely know what texting is and prefer calls and emails.

 

[Deguello]

Really? People actually caring about texting? That sounds like 90s tech.
In the last month, I’ve had 5 texts from people, rest is notifications from companies, like 10 or so.

Maybe if texts did the stuff mentioned in RCS people would care about texting without having to worry about who’s on which app when trying to communicate.

 

[triptolemus]

Perhaps you didn't comprehend what I said. I acknoledged the security, but mentioned that G will still have access to the messages, thus no privacy.

That's not how end to end encryption works.

 

[dba415]

If Apple really cared about privacy and it wasn't just marketing BS, ban TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube etc. from the App Store. Oh wait they won't because by then no one would buy the iPhone. lol

 

[AppliedMicro]

Even my (65+) mother uses iMessage or Telegram.
Sometimes too much, for my attention capacity.

That said, I hardly know anyone that uses plain SMS text messages anymore.

 

[Le Big Mac]

Apple built the blue bubble vs green bubble class divide for a reason.

This is a great opportunity to introduce a third color to iMessage -
Blue - iMessage
Purple - RCS
Green - SMS

 

[Le Big Mac]

I get that Apple wants everyone to use iMessage but supporting RCS would help with privacy when messaging people on Android.

+1.

Don't see what the cost (other than development) to Apple is to allow RCS for non-iMessages. Are there really customers who think "I'm going to move to/stick with iPhone" because I can't text across platforms securely? On the other hand, RCS may make Android users in US less willing to switch.

 

[Macintosh IIvx]

This is really just Google and Android catching up to the experience that Apple has offered for years.

 

[Jawad M Shabbir]

And who has the key? lol.

If you are in doubt about E2E on Google Messages, you can read more on this PDF.

 

[edam]

RCS is END to END encrypted. It won' matter what servers the messages moves through.

To be clear, standard RCS is not itself end to end encrypted. Google offers E2EE in Google Messages (and has committed to open documentation thereof; Google's E2EE system is actually based on Signal) on top of RCS, but it's not part of the official RCS standard and as such is not guaranteed to be interoperable with other RCS clients.

Can you explain why you think these messages will involve google the all if they’re sent and received from and by people on AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile? Do you think google gets your SMS stuff now?

AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile delegated all responsibility over RCS to Google. None of them wanted to do the work of implementing RCS/Universal Profile and handling all the routing, so Google eventually forced Android devices to bypass the carriers and connect directly to Google's Jibe services. As a practical matter, the implementation is similar to iMessage; in fact, just as you have to deregister your mobile number with Apple if you move from iMessage to Android, you need to deregister your mobile number with Google if you move to a non-Google Messages SMS client (apart from Samsung Messages, with which Google has a special deal) or you'll no longer get SMS messages.

FWIW, I am confident that Google's E2EE RCS messages are secure (metadata aside), so I'm not arguing against RCS being safe, but I did want to clarify the implementation details. And yes, even though RCS is effectively controlled by Google, I'd like to see Apple implement RCS as a fallback (with higher priority than SMS) for iMessage. Doing so would be of significant benefit to iPhone users and Android users alike, even if it does have a small deleterious effect on Apple's iMessage "lock-in" and perhaps some marginal effect on iPhone sales. Apple can still Green Bubble RCS messages.

 

[Macintosh IIvx]

+1.

Don't see what the cost (other than development) to Apple is to allow RCS for non-iMessages. Are there really customers who think "I'm going to move to/stick with iPhone" because I can't text across platforms securely? On the other hand, RCS may make Android users in US less willing to switch.

Messages security doesn't make iOS users stick but the other features do. The seamlessness of it and ease in use with other iOS users keeps many around. You'd be amazed at those that don't want to be green bubble too.

There's a reason Apple hasn't released it for Android. It'd give Android users just one less reason to switch and iOS users an easier time dropping Apple.

 

[allenvanhellen]

It’s a protocol and it won’t all go through google any more than your SMS messages do now.

Verizon is going to use Messages by Google as the default app on its phones, meaning that texting a Verizon user will likely mean your messages are passing through Google.

 

[Le Big Mac]

Messages security doesn't make iOS users stick but the other features do. The seamlessness of it and ease in use with other iOS users keeps many around. You'd be amazed at those that don't want to be green bubble too.

There's a reason Apple hasn't released it for Android. It'd give Android users just one less reason to switch and iOS users an easier time dropping Apple.

I get that, but not porting iMessage to Android and adopting/supporting RCS in iMessage are two entirely different things with different business effects.

 

[spinedoc77]

Apple using RCS with end-to-end encryption as a fallback instead of SMS would be a good thing for iPhone and Android users.

I thought RCS still needed the fallback to SMS if there was no internet service (from what I understand both RCS and iMessage fall back to SMS mainly when you are on 3g and/or have no data coverage)? So even if Apple adopted RCS, they both would still need SMS. I don't know if it's worth upgrading SMS itself or just scrapping it and having a different system, or if it's just not technically feasible.

I'd be really surprised if Apple wasn't at least considering this, especially with all the flack they are taking on being non-competitive and their app store trials, at least as a gesture of good will and how magnanimous they are. iMessage has a ton of stuff added on to it which make it worthwhile to Apple consumers, it just seems straight up malicious and greedy for them to not support bare bones RCS.

 

[Aichon]

Regarding RCS and its security, as was said, this is a protocol designed to replace SMS. While it provides the potential for end-to-end (E2E) encryption, what was left unmentioned in MacRumors' reporting is that support for E2E is optional and is left up to the carriers to adopt separately. They can support RCS without supporting E2E, and so far as I'm aware, that's what they've been doing up to this point (I haven't checked in the last year or two, so my info may be outdated).

Regarding Google being able to read your messages, yes, they can, though I don't know that they are. E2E encryption protects you against anyone being able to intercept and decrypt your message, but Google built the OS that runs on Android phones, and an Android is one of the "ends" in end-to-end encryption for RCS, so the message is already decrypted at that point. As such, if Google was so inclined, they could forward a decrypted copy to themselves. By that same token, however, Apple could be doing the exact same thing with iMessages sent via the Messages app. In both cases you still enjoy E2E encryption (i.e. no one in between could eavesdrop), but your OS vendor would have broken your trust by using their control over one of the ends to gain access to something you thought was private. You need to be able to trust that your OS isn't forwarding copies to anyone else, so if you find that you don't trust one or the other vendor for some reason, don't get phones with that OS.

 

[mazz0]

Apple has its own technology that it wants to make an industry standard, Google doesn’t help with any of those, either.

Which technology would that be? Did I miss the part where they open-sourced iMessage?