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Google Adds RCS Feature for Texting 911
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There are some situations in txting 911 would be important.I don't know why you are getting downvoted - rcs is terrible and despite claimed being open it's owned by Google...
I was somewhat confused by how / when it would be useful but that sheds some light on it, and also explain why it's mostly a thing in the US
In my case when I need to contact emergency its EMERGENCY (someone is dying, I had an accidend) and most of the time call is more convenient to speak even barely then try to type.
Granted, it could be convenient to automatically send / signal my location somehow but still - call with voice - mooore convenient.
ah, yes... let's do nothing and allow Google shove their lacking propriety tech down our throats so they get even more control... Google should be highly regulated and split - not enabled even more!
As I said to the last person with googles RCS implementation going on practically every android devices & networks starting use it as standard it will eventually be standard couple with the fact that the 2g & 3g mobile signal will get switched off.
the RCS holdouts will eventually become the minority.
I certainly hope not especially with google pioneering anything. Thankfully I use iMessage and I don’t have any android users aside from my mom I associate with and I can just as easily use one of the third party messaging apps I’ve been using.
If given the chance, rcs will be disabled and I’ve told my circle to do the same and I encourage any other non rcs fanboys/girls to do the same.
You don’t understand things then do you
If RCS is going to be on the majority of mobile devices & carriers are adopting it then You will become the minority & end up being forced to use it anyway.
As I’ve already said the 2g & 3G signal is getting switched off in the next few years anyway. In that means all mobiles will have access to cellular data which RCS uses so there will be no reason not to use RCS as that will become standard if you actually looked at the way the market is going.
Stop getting in the way with logic. If they love the insecurity and lack of functionality of SMS so much you're not going to convince them.
hmm.. again somewhat of a US thing as rest of the world moved from mobile sma/text to IM apps altogether and virtually Noone uses it anymore. Bringing RCS would change absolutely zilch in this case...
Google is pushing the issue hard because of the ridiculous blue / green bubbles circus, but again - only us thing...
proprietary pseudo-open Google standard requiring that everything goes via Google servers...
the foundation is supposedly open but Google made so many specific extensions that you are basically coerced to use Google solution either way...
At least Apple is sincere about being closed solution that require their hardware and servers...
You're sending texts to Android devices so Google has access either way. RCS at least has the ability to be encrypted unlike SMS if Apple (or Google) really want it to be.
That's just plain wrong - you can use different app than the Google one to handle SMS. And if we are paranoid you can even use AOSP flavour of android without any Google stuff...
Also, forcing RCS is doing even more harm to having more diverse ecosystem... (there are mobile OS besides Android and iOS...)
Kind of splitting hairs here. From a user perspective, it might as well be the replacement, since that's what they'll be moved to.
SMS will probably only be used by carriers and spammers in the future
I really don't understand the language of MMS, SMS, RCS, so why do you think RCS is stupid?
Actually, it's a GSMA standard. I get why you'd believe it's Google's thing, seeing as they're the loudest cheerleader for it, but they don't really own anything related to the standard itself.
So kidnapping, home invasion, robberies, etc, not emergencies? Interesting.
Nothing proprietary required. Anyone can spin up their own interoperable RCS hub - this is even what Apple is likely doing.
This is also FUD. As mentioned previously, anyone can spin up their own hub and server to make RCS work for their customers.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no Google shill. I'm in the middle of de-Googling my life, and I believe that they only stand to harm the internet at large at this point.
A transition to RCS (even non-Google RCS) is a net positive for everyone. I'm sure no one complained when Apple added support for MMS in 2009, and if they did, I'm sure their points against it were hilarious.
What nobody seems to be pointing out or even aware of is that clearly not every 911 dispatch center is going to have software in place to let them receive texts. Larger cities might, sure, but good luck with rural areas and small towns. Additionally, this is no doubt using similar technology as RCS for Business chat is, so it probably won’t have SMS fall back. This is the sort of thing that really should be a carrier wide/phone system wide feature and shouldn’t be RCS, it really should “just work” everywhere, just as calling 911 “just works” everywhere.
It seems they're using a partner, RapidSOS, which provides software solutions to 99% of 911 centers in the US. So it seems it should work more or less everywhere upon being rolled out.
If the user is using this contact method and is in an area not served by RapidSOS (1% of the country), presumably the RapidSOS team would make the emergency call in their stead, like Apple does for their satellite SOS feature.
Ah well, that makes sense. Though that’s yet another vertical service that’s effectively monopolized its field, alas. When it comes to vertical software, there’s basically no such thing as competitive bidding anymore. But that’s a different rant for a different time.
Except they’re not adopting it to replace SMS/MMS (as SMS/MMS will still be required in areas where data is not available). They’re doing it because China said so.
Reading between the lines, none of the emergency services folks Google has reached out to has wanted to pay to adopt RCS. “We’ve got these machines already installed that do SMS and work with EVERY phone sold in America.” So, now Google’s likely offering some free add-on that will work with their already purchased SMS equipment.