Apple to Adopt RCS Messaging Standard for Better Interoperability With Android Devices

[Amazing Iceman]

RCS is so stupid. No thanks.

Get ready for "oh you're a green bubble? are you non-RCS green bubble or RCS green bubble?"

Or is it a new color? Brown bubble? Can you video chat with brown bubble people? Who knows. Imagine teaching your mom this.

Well, for Apple, supporting or adopting RCS is better than having to open their Messages protocol to Google.
I just hope they include an option to disable it if it starts to cause trouble. The last thing I want is Google/Android Spam.
I was helping a client over the phone, she's using Android ad every time she tries to browse a website, other sites open and show ads.. so her phone has Adware. That doesn't happen on iOS/iPadOS.

 

[NMBob]

Of course they will. Blue for Apple devices and green for everyone else. It's a selling point for Apple.

It'll be a security thing for the children. If a blue message comes from a friend that you know has an Android phone then you know something is up.

 

[jvolkman]

So they’re adopting the Universal Profile, the base level of RCS. They’re then working with the actual standards group to whip it into shape….basically the exact opposite of what Google was trying to pressure them to do (adopt Google’s version of RCS).

I see there’s already 12 pages I haven’t gone through, but given this is MR I’m sure there’s hundreds of posts saying Google actually won here?

Let’s be clear, Google wanted everything piped through them, because they’re a data collection firm. That’s not what’s happening here. None of Google’s aims were about “user experience”, despite that being the rhetoric used, because user experience does not generate any income for them. Piping things through Google’s servers, however, would allow them (or their Military partners/owners) to do exactly that.

A hollow “victory” for Google here.

Google uses Universal Profile.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

RCS messages will still be green...or if they are some other color, they still won’t be blue because that denotes iMessage. Expect complaining about that next.

Make them purple or pink or any other color, so we can easy tell what it is.

 

[Apple$]

As a Android phone user, I am celebrating! 😆😄

 

[ATmahe]

It is absolutely hilarious how many iOS users in here are actively hoping that Apple implements this in such a way that their own user experience is hampered. "I hope Apple uses some colour scheme that is absolutely atrocious so that when one of my Android using friends messages me, I can barely read it." Forget about whether this actually improves the user experience when communicating with others who happen to buy a different product than you do - you are actually willing to have a worse experience just so you can point and say "ah-ha" to them.

Well, I was just joking 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[bob24]

"Gate keeper". Good grief. Why on earth shouldn't Apple create the best messaging service that they can for devices on their platform? This has gotten so out of hand with people believing they are entitled to things simply because they...like using Apple products.

To me there is a contradiction in the very idea of “best messaging service that they can for devices on their platform“.

This is because when it comes to messaging, the single most important factor is to be able to reach as many as possible of the people I want to communicate with. And by definition a service which is only available on a single platform will not score well on this criteria (unless you are willing to ignore friends, colleagues, and family members who don’t happen to like the same mobile phone platform as you do).

This is why even though I am a bit of an Apple fanboy as well as an iPhone user since the first generation, I have never been too happy with Apple both making iMessage a closed system and not letting other messaging Apps fully replace the texting App.

Of course Apple can do as they please and I get that in the US this is a marketing argument to sell iPhones (however US users need to realise this is not the case in most other countries and Apple’s stubbornness to keep it single-platform has let to iMessage being largely surpassed by other messaging platforms and become less relevant in most of the world). But at the same time, I don’t see the problem with Apple customers expressing their dissatisfaction if they are not happy with the decision …

 

[sw1tcher]

Back in September 2022, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that adopting RCS was not a priority for Apple. "I don't hear our users asking that we put a lot of energy into that at this point," he said. It is not clear why Apple has changed its stance....

Alphabet/Google offered to pay Apple billions more to adopt RCS on top of the billions they already pay Apple for making Google the default search engine for Safari.

 

[jakey rolling]

How is wanting to remain a blue bubble having a worse experience?

Remaining white-on-green for some texts is a worse experience (harder to read than white-on-blue). White on yellow, as another user suggested, would be even harder.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Disgusting hopefully we are able to know who’s an Android user.
Because I will still discriminate ya green bubble asses

Insta-block.

 

[ItsASpider]

After years of claiming its a terrible idea, Apple now claims its a great idea. We're living in a loop.

 

[iBluetooth]

Now we have no more to complain about Apple!

 

[ort888]

This is fantastic news. I've always found it incredibly frustrating trying to have big group texted with mixed platforms. As an Apple user it affects me too. It makes my experience worse. Apple's stubbornness in this area was making their users experiences worse. It made my experience worse.

Anyway, I would like to see them move past the green bubbles and let us give different colors to different people, so that we can see who is who in a group thread and also have different text threads with different people have some sort of quick / obvious visual identifier. I sometimes accidentally text the wrong person when I am in a hurry or not paying attention. It hasn't bitten me in the ass yet, but the potential is there. I want the screen I see when I'm texting with my wife to look completely different from the screen I see when texting someone else. It should be quickly obvious.

 

[rgwebb]

RCS has E2E encryption on group messages now. It was in beta but now considered release. Not surprised Apple is moving towards it now. The timing just wasn’t right. RCS didn’t have iMessage feature parity yet.

 

[Roadster Lewis]

WhatsApp may not be in danger in the near future, but this move certainly is a challenge to WhatsApp. I'm in Latin America where it is the standard, but I'd certainly like to be able to get away from Facebook.

Apple will likely maintain a distinction in bubble color, not because of ego, but because they'll likely still implement iMessage only features, like added security.

I was wondering if WhatsApp was becoming more of a threat to iMessage (ie people only using WhatsApp for messaging), but it seems that this is not a US thing.

 

[Chuckeee]

Anyone know if Apple will maintain blue and green bubbles, or if it will introduce a new color bubble for RCS messages?

I vote for orange.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I don't know why apple was so against this at first. This is good for everyone.

Several reasons. But I think after a while it was because they didn’t want to be seen as giving in to Google. Surprising they did it now after digging in so hard. “We believe it will be a better experience.” Oh do you now because Tim “buy your Mom an iPhone” Cook sure didn’t seem to think so, and fairly recently.

 

[bob24]

RCS has E2E encryption on group messages now. It was in beta but now considered release. Not surprised Apple is moving towards it now. The timing just wasn’t right. RCS didn’t have iMessage feature parity yet.

While I agree it is a good one, I think the timing is more political than technical.

Apple is close to being labelled a messaging “gatekeeper” by the EU and thus be forced to open APIs for other platforms to communicate directly with iMessage.

I suspect that RCS implementation is a way to try to appease the EU (and maybe have a nuclear option to disable iMessage in the EU) so that they can keep iMessage a closed platform.

 

[Chuckeee]

Now I can finally stop seeing those stupid commercials from Google about Apple “Getting the message”.

Where did you see the ad? The only place I ever saw it was in news articles that talked about it, never in the wild

 

[Mackie924]

This is all totally worth it for all the tears. People actually concerned whether their bubbles will remain blue. What a time to be alive. 😂

So many replies are so true to the Apple fanboy archetype that people rightfully make fun of. Seeing people actually get upset at this is mindboggling.

 

[NT1440]

I can see it now.
1. Apple implements the RCS standard,
2. They work with the GSM Association to implement E2EE at the carrier level,
3. Google discontinues their work on the Google messages app and the Google RCS standard 😂.

That’s exactly what’s going to happen.

 

[MasterControlProgram]

I hope there’s an option to opt-out just to spite Google.

 

[NT1440]

Google uses Universal Profile.

And builds on top of it. Universal Profile does not have encryption built into that standard.

It’s a mess, but if Apple can push encryption to being part of the standard itself that’s a win.

However, governments all over the world (including the “free world”) will make sure this doesn’t happen. Too big a blow to their data vacuuming total surveillance machinery. Expect another FBI whining campaign imploring you to “think of the children”.

 

[Rogue AI]

Good. Now i can ditch my overpriced iPhone and go back to Android.

 

[Rogue AI]

To go from "Buy your mom an iPhone" to "We're adopting RCS" in less than a year is quite the pivot. This reeks of the EU, Apple and Google making some sort of behind the scenes deal...

The EU is doing good for consumers by forcing Apple’s hand To change.