Most of the world’s carriers aren’t. IF they were, that would be a different situation altogether. As it is, RCS accounts for a tiny sliver of all the messages sent every day worldwide.
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Android Users Can Soon Add Emoji Reactions to iPhone Texts With Annoying Catch
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“Harm” is kinda strong, right?
“I couldn’t see that my brother was typing back to me, so I threw myself into traffic! If only Apple supported Google RCS!”
Android users can switch to iPhone 14 Plus
What is up with all this hate for thumbs up lately??? It just means yes ok etc. It's a positive response to something
Nooo, people using WhatsApp aren’t going to stop using and/or recommending WhatsApp.
They’re actively NOT using Google Messages OR Apple’s Messages everywhere except in the US. Google would LOVE it if they WOULD stop using WhatsApp and used Google Messages, but that ship sailed loooong ago.The Messages by Google app is not available on the Apple App Store. (You can check for yourself!) You could reasonably ask why Google does not make the app available on iOS, and the answer is obviously that they realize no iOS user will use it so they don't bother.
Google's version of RCS is not exclusive to T-Mobile. (Again, you can check for yourself!)
I don't think you could find anyone to argue in favor of the merits of Google's messaging strategy. But it's better to stick to facts when trying to talk about things, I think!
Why would they? Who cares about this at all? The headline should read … because Google lacks iMessage support. Who cares what “standard” Google finally jumped on. The standard is the terrible whatsapp or for lucky people iMessage.
Yeah, Google weren’t the only ones resting on their laurels, the carriers were too busy trying to milk the SMS cash cow that they let their RCS advantage wither on the vine. Now that messaging is firmly set and occurring within a plethora of IP apps, anything the carriers came up with now (especially with users expecting basic messaging to be free) would be building more features into a thing they’re giving away… not something carriers are interested in. Not to mention, customers would also be expecting to send those HUGE images and video files over whatever solution they create, for free. As a result, they wouldn’t even be able to recoup the investment on expanding their data capacity to cover it.
So, the time has effectively passed. There’s really no need, at this point, for an improvement to SMS/MMS save for a few folks in the US that can’t conceive of using anything other than Google Messages or Apple Messages. And that group’s not large enough for the carriers to put in the effort.
Too late on that one I’m afraid, Google have been collecting iPhone user data for many many years.
This went so poorly in India that they deactivated the service.Why is RCS important? Because advertising and marketing! Anything google does is in service to advertising. RCS allows them to extend adwords and DFA to mobile, so they can spam you directly by sending rich ads right to your mobile.
"RCS messaging could provide a powerful tool for businesses looking to engage with their audience like never before. It has the potential to extend the bounds of creativity in your marketing campaigns and could possibly help to make your efforts to connect with your clients more streamlined and meaningful."
What Is RCS Messaging and How Does It Work? | SlickText
Updated March 4th, 2025 RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging is a messaging protocol that's designed to replace SMS. It allows messaging RCS messaging enhances daily messaging activities with features such as read receipts, group messaging features, and multimedia capabilities.www.slicktext.com
Yeah, there are a lot of folks in the US that will die on the “Google Messages” or “Apple Messages” hill. Meanwhile, most of the rest of the world have left them both behind.
There are many folks that have made their YouTube/video streaming career from being annoyed with things. Apparently there are a lot of folks that enjoy seeing other folks share what annoys them. And, as long as it keeps the views and the checks coming, they’ll be never NOT be annoyed at something.
This is the best article I've ever read regarding RCS, and every word is a true take.A good read on why it doesn't make any business sense for Apple to support it. Honestly, it's not that big of a problem and it's not worth the engineering time.
Sorry, Google — Apple is right to keep ignoring RCS for the iPhone
Apple continues to ignore RCS on iPhones despite all the very good reasons to adopt it. The company may have a point.www.digitaltrends.com
"RCS has been available for so long that my defunct Windows Phone can support it, provided it’s equipped with an RCS-compatible SIM. Notably, Google didn’t implement RCS then. Rather, only after the company failed in pushing proprietary messaging app after proprietary messaging app did it finally switch to RCS as the new best thing."
"RCS isn’t catching up to WhatsApp of today, it’s catching up to WhatsApp’s original release."
Funny enough, this article has made me even more anti-RCS now.
For me, the main reason for why not, is just because that’s not how SMS/MMS works. The separate message with text saying “someone liked”… as annoying as some folks find it, are still within the specifications for how SMS/MMS is expected to work. And, the part about the app “deleting” text that has been sent? Having “any” condition where, as a part of a functioning feature, the app is deleting a message is like having a condition on a plane where, as part of a functioning feature, it pushes the nose down. Probably not a big deal in 99.9% of circumstances, but if a bug causes the wrong things to be deleted… then it’s a bigger problem than if they’d just left the text there.
Tim Cook excuse is arrogant. However, RCS is not a worldwide carrier standard, and until its a carrier standard, Apple should hold off on it. As far as I know Google is pushing it.
i think most google users know they are the product at this point. and they are ok with it.
Google didn't create the RCS protocol, they just adopted it along with roughly a dozen other OEMs.
The GSMA created it to be a replacement for SMS, a.k.a. a new industry standard, which every major North American carrier supports. Every major carrier in Japan, South Korea, Australia also support it. A few in EU support it as well.
Don't care if Tim want's to adopt it or not. He likes his walled garden approach. So I doubt it will ever happen even if every carrier in the world supported it.
Being an industry standard really doesn't mean much to Apple beyond core communications.
Oh, even better.
It really must be enormously difficult to release an app using RCS on the iPhone as Google ONLY has released Google Chat and not Google Messages. Google Chat is good enough for chatting with my Android friend, though. Not sure what “Google RCS” would add to it (if anything).I didn’t say it was exclusive, but I can see how someone would read it that way. It should have been “Google RCS” is a thing at the US carriers because they individually DECIDED it would be a thing. Without the carriers, there would be no “Google RCS”. Additionally, all the US carriers have determined that they are fine with “Google RCS” working between Android phones only. That’s likely NOT where Google wishes they’d left it, so now it’s Google, by themselves, trying to make a thing happen that the vast majority of carriers worldwide rejected awhile back.
US carriers support “Google RCS” which, while it may communicate with other countries that have upgraded their infrastructure to support RCS, is NOT the same as the RCS that those other carriers have implemented. US carriers are fine with “Google RCS” communicating only to Android users and I don’t think anyone’s going to change their mind at this point.
Rub Google's face in their messages debacle. I'm still salty about hangouts.
Sucks to have to text Android users. That’s not a problem that I have. Most “grown ups” have an iPhone. I haven’t gone to college in a decade. Chances are if you love Google then you’re probably not someone I want to hang out with because we have completely different philosophies on life. And I can’t think of anyone in my family who doesn’t have an iPhone unless they are an actual child, like my kids, who have iPads with texting restricted to family and a couple friends because it’s all free between Apple devices.
I'm not entirely certain what you're trying to say about T-Mobile, then, but the carriers very much did not want Google's version of RCS. They joined forces to back CCMI in 2019 specifically to counter Google's RCS ambitions.Oh, even better.
I didn’t say it was exclusive, but I can see how someone would read it that way. It should have been “Google RCS” is a thing at the US carriers because they individually DECIDED it would be a thing. Without the carriers, there would be no “Google RCS”. Additionally, all the US carriers have determined that they are fine with “Google RCS” working between Android phones only. That’s likely NOT where Google wishes they’d left it, so now it’s Google, by themselves, trying to make a thing happen that the vast majority of carriers worldwide rejected awhile back.
You can read the whole sordid tale here!