Google Again Criticizes Apple for Not Adopting RCS for Messages App: 'Their Texting is Stuck in the 1990s'

[gk_brown]

Most users in Europe have long moved on to other messaging platforms. It boggles the mind people in the US still use SMS or that they think iMessage is in any way superior to other messaging platforms.

It's not a question of "superiority" - it's simply availability. iMessage/SMS works well enough - what advantage do "other messaging platforms" really provide over this?

It's the same reason I use Safari and don't install Chrome. They are both web browsers and Safari comes with the OS.

 

[gk_brown]

SMS is one of those great “just enough tech” solutions. Do I need encryption to say “hi” to my brother? Or do I need read receipts let a group know “I’ll be there in 5 minutes”? Do I need to know that a person is typing when I’ve asked them if they need anything from the store? Nope.

Simple, works for as close to 100% of the cellular enabled devices out there, and is available today.

Wish I could upvote this more! I just posted a response that basically says the same thing.

 

[Supercyborgninja]

Do they think ppl are..dumb? So as a competitor you're telling us you just genuinely worry Apple is behind & that's why you're begging? RIIIIGHT..

 

[subjonas]

Pretty much everyone outside the US has been using external apps as the de facto messaging standard for years, mainly WhatsApp. There's no particular reason to rely on your phone manufacturer or your telco for this kind of service.

So pretty much everyone outside the US entrusts their privacy to Meta?? I definitely wouldn’t do that myself. And the main problem with apps like Signal is not wide enough adoption. Which just leaves default messaging services. So that means there’s a big reason to rely on them.

 

[The Mad Kiwi]

Pretty much everyone outside the US has been using external apps as the de facto messaging standard for years, mainly WhatsApp. There's no particular reason to rely on your phone manufacturer or your telco for this kind of service.

Some people prefer not to install spyware on their phones.

 

[Gasu E.]

Or they'll drop it like a hot potato

Killed by Google

Killed by Google is the open source list of dead Google products, services, and devices. It serves as a tribute and memorial of beloved services and products killed by Google.

killedbygoogle.com

Isn't Google's corporate motto: "Life is just the Beta test"?

 

[jvolkman]

No, it may support some other interoperable protocol, but RCS is about as dead as a technology can be. The GSMA has stopped promoting it and if Google wasn’t pushing “Google RCS”, people wouldn’t even be aware of it!

What is "Google RCS"? That's not a thing. Google's Jibe platform supports "Universal Profile", but other RCS players do as well. AT&T for instance runs their own RCS servers, and they interconnect with Jibe and others.

Maybe you're referring to Google's client additions like E2EE? Those are only supported by Google Messages today, but they don't rely on any special support from the actual RCS servers.

 

[bodonnell202]

So Apple not adopting a half-baked, non-encrypted, non-standard method of communication inorder to cater to the whims of a competitor (who coincidentially clearly can't come with their own messaging solution) is, according to you, "being difficult" and showing "hubris"?

So you think their current solution (SMS) is encrypted? They could easily adopt RCS universal profile as a backup, which is standard, but this is Apple being Apple.

 

[bodonnell202]

I think that MOST people that want to send a video are using some form of social media where that kind of thing is not only supported, but offers far more creative input before posting. And, immediately makes it possible to share with an even wider group with little effort.

Social media 🤮🤮. A lot of people are smart enough to not post photos of their families on that toxic cesspool.

 

[Allthings-I]

Its ok Google, just adopted the iPhone.

You have fragmented your own existence to the point of no return and much like so many of your other products, RCS is a mess with its own layer of fragmentation because you have control to so many entities on your way out the door and now are attempting to beg....for Apple to bake in your half a$$ solution?

 

[Allthings-I]

So you think their current solution (SMS) is encrypted? They could easily adopt RCS universal profile as a backup, which is standard, but this is Apple being Apple.

RCS is not just deployed by Google across the board, they gave control to smartphone manufacturers AND carriers, so many instances where 1 has played the game, and the other opted out....leaving RCS half baked.

 

[No5tromo]

To quote Tim Cooks response with regards to Elon being CEO of an Apple Tesla merger.

__CK You.

View attachment 2122425

EU regulators:

 

[terry.mac]

Salty message never gets you anywhere.

 

[Zaft]

No really, have you ever tried to send a photo or video to an Android user via iMessage. You may think it works based on what you see in the app, but the Android user receives pixelated garbage. That's what needs to be fixed here.

Easy fix, use the available alternatives apps such as viber, WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, telegram

 

[bodonnell202]

Easy fix, use the available alternatives apps such as viber, WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, telegram

The problem is, the person on the other end also needs to be using that app. There isn’t really another app that most people use here in Canada hsince most just use iMessage).

 

[Unregistered 4U]

AT&T just implemented RCS in February. It won't do Apple any use in implementing a service that carriers are utilizing. Give it some time. Once everyone implements it and stabilizes it into a standard, everyone will adopt it. Until then, I'll keep sending links to my Android using brother for him to download photos and videos and just SMS text him.

Carriers have stopped implementing it and the technology group that created it, the GSMA hasn’t released any information about its worldwide rollout in years. RCS if not dead is very likely dead-end.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

What is "Google RCS"?

Google RCS is the “non-carrier” implementation they’re trying to gain users for. RCS is a carrier based protocol that several carriers worldwide have implemented.

In short, if Google or Google’s servers are involved, it’s Google’s RCS. If Google is NOT involved, it’s just RCS.

 

[Naraxus]

So you think their current solution (SMS) is encrypted? They could easily adopt RCS universal profile as a backup, which is standard, but this is Apple being Apple.

RCS is a carrier standard, not the open one Google has been claiming it is, nor is it modern (again, like Google claims).

This isn't "Apple being Apple". This is Apple not wanting to have a non-universal standard as the baseline for their highly successful messaging app.

Again, Apple has ZERO OBLIGATION, repeat, zero obligation to adopt a non-industry standard, buggy, non-encrypted protocol, simply because Android users can't send or receive a picture from an iOS user.

In this, Tim Cook was right. If you want the features iMessages users enjoy, get an iPhone.

 

[mike090910]

google does cry a lot

 

[Nuno Lopes]

Chill guys, Google is just acting.

So much pro Apple mambo jambo. RCS is being promoted by GSMA for years. The only way it moves forward is if manufacturers adopt it like EU companies did with SMS. Companies such as Nokia, Ericsson ... They are the same that promote the SMS. Before Google took RCS to Android, Samsung Android phones already supported it though Samsung message app.

It's my impression there are too many around here that sound a lot more like wannabe Apple CEOs than users. Heck, they don't even sound like stock holders considering they disdain markets that basically support 60% of Apple sales ... in other words ... their stock would go deep down without the support of these markets. Imagine, 60% of the valuation gone ... sell sell ding ding ding ... would be crazy.

Fanboy insanity run high with some I guess.

 

[Gasu E.]

EU regulators:

Reagan and Bush 41 were EU regulators? Weird choice of memes.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Social media 🤮🤮. A lot of people are smart enough to not post photos of their families on that toxic cesspool.

Well, sure, anyone not interested in sharing videos/images are not sharing videos/images. But, if they want to get their pictures/videos in a place where other folks on other devices can actually view them in high quality, they’re using something, even if they restrict access to just a few people.

 

[Xand&Roby]

iMessage will be left behind. The world is embracing RCS. iMessage will become another FireWire

For those like you FireWire was a flop, just as I imagine Betamax.
For those like me, working to produce what you consume, FireWire and BetaCam have been a success and indispensable working tools: the subtle line between the doers, and the speakers.

 

[Kar98]

Well, idk what country you’re in but neither Ameritech Wireless or Cellular One offered text messaging until at least 1999.

Both of them became AT&T or Verizon.

1990s: Europe. Everybody was texting on Nokia 2110's and such:

Nokia 2110 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Early 2000s: US. Text what now? On our brick phones with single line numeric LED displays?

Took several years for the tech to take off in the US in first place, and then several more years to be able to text between different carriers.

 

[Kar98]

What is "Google RCS"? That's not a thing

It is indeed a thing where pseudo RCS is routed through Google servers instead of the carriers'. Kind of like iMessage...