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

Pitogyro said:
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.
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The iPhone is the most popular phone in the USA and iMessage integrates perfectly with iOS so when everyone you know uses iMessage and it's so easy to use then where is the incentive to use something else? It's the same reason why WhatsApp is so popular outside the US, when everyone uses WhatsApp then you end up using WhatsApp but in the case of the USA it's iMessage; providing you have an iPhone and if you don't then there is a good chance you'll be excluded from group chats (especially if your a teenager) and that's the whole reason why Google is pushing so hard for RCS.

It's not a matter of superiority, it's just a matter of what everyone in your group be it family or friends use and in the USA for a majority of people that's iMessage.
 
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Who exactly uses RCS? The kids use discord, snap, DMs to chat. Folks in EU, India, SE Asia use WhatsApp, China has WeChat, Korea has Line, Eastern Europe has telegram, Africa is a mix between WhatsApp and Fb messenger.

Is it only the senior citizens in the US who use messaging on their free android phones they got from the carrier when they traded in their 2G devices?
 
Where I live, people use whatsapp, telegram, signal….I cannot remember the last time I used apple’s stock messaging. So outdated…
 
If Google is pushing it this hard, it probably isn't private despite the E2EE claim. Well, that or they REALLY no longer want to be green bubbles on iPhones anymore.

I avoid Google when I can these days. I use them for search, but that's about it. I do NOT allow anyone in my house to buy Google products and I care less what anyone says about it. I just don't trust Google with anything.
 
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ThatGuyInLa said:
192 years and we've come full circle. We wanted a way forward from the telegraph. Then Phones. Then video phones! Then mobile phones! Then mobile video phones! Now all we want is the that damn telegraph machine in our pocket. It's all we care about. It took nearly 200 years to realize the first method was the best method.
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If the telegraph would have been instantaneous to the individual person you wanted to reach and didn't require morse code to decipher, there would have been no need for much of that.
 
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egodspeed said:
If Google is pushing it this hard, it probably isn't private despite the E2EE claim. Well, that or they REALLY no longer want to be green bubbles on iPhones anymore.

I avoid Google when I can these days. I use them for search, but that's about it. I do NOT allow anyone in my house to buy Google products and I care less what anyone says about it. I just don't trust Google with anything.
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I believe they would respect the encryption of individual messages. What they want to do is sell your verified contact info so businesses can inject ads into your messenger and spam you with offers. It recently got out of control in India and gave everyone a glimpse of what a nightmare Google's RCS plans will become.
 
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Eminemdrdre00 said:
Apple implemented SMS. So why wouldn't they implement the next-gen version of SMS (RCS)? This has nothing to do with iMessage.
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Because iMessage gives Apple a strategic advantage and RCS would level the playing field with non Apple devices. So this has everything to do with iMessage and green bubbles.
 
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Pitogyro said:
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.
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Oh we know there are better messaging apps out there. It’s just that we’re too lazy to make an account just to text 😆
 
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jdb8167 said:
The carriers will have to push Apple to do RCS if they want it. Apple isn't going to support it just because Google wants to whine about it. If the carriers deprecated SMS and said that they would discontinue support then Apple would switch to RCS.
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This is the answer, but the network operators don’t care. All the major operators took a year or so to "investigate" rolling out RCS. What they did was research how to monetize it or use it to lock in users or upcharge for it, and when they realized they couldn't do those things they simply concluded their "investigation."

The reason Google cares so much is that they are the ones running the RCS servers, and they have screwed up on messaging so hard the last decade that they now can only count on text messaging, they don't have anything else that anyone actually uses.

They had their chance to fix this way back in the Hangouts days. They abandoned that like they abandon everything else they don't directly charge money for (and even some of those.)
 
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JM said:
If google is pushing it, something tells me that they have a way to exploit it and read your texts.
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They're first and foremost trying to fix the "green bubble problem." Apple doesn't see that as a problem but as an advantage to them. That's all this really boils down to.

Late edit but to be clear I'm certain the bubble would remain green, but it wouldn't be so useless. I don't care about this whole green bubble nonsense, I text who I need to text, but I learned on my own not to bother trying to text pictures or anything but a short message.

Apple definitely wants to promote the social stigma which is gross, but it also just plain doesn't work well and that's all Google can try to fix.
 
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bostonMAC said:
Why would Apple implement RCS when they have iMessage? Strategically they won't do it because it's one less thing locking you to your iPhone and I can't see iPhone users clamoring for RCS support when iMessage already provides everything that RCS supports. The problem for Google and why they are trying to get Apple to implement RCS is that kids without an iPhone are second class citizens when it comes to messaging and no kid wants to the be the one in a group chat that is green. So the result is every kid has or wants an iPhone and that is obviously not good for Google. So Google tries to make Apple look like the bad guy when in reality they are trying to weaken Apple's position.
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No it's not the kids, if you (not you in particular but in general) want RCS because you are concerned about a green bubble, then you have bigger things to worry about. The issue is the horrible user experience in sending pictures and video that get downsized to MMS.

I'm not advocating for RCS in its current implementation, it's a proprietary Google solution and not the carrier RCS that they abandoned years ago because they couldn't figure out how to make money off it. What I find odd is why Apple won't come out and state this, it would make consumers understand a bit better. But Apple's silence makes them look like the bad guys, when they are just trying to avoid a proprietary system that could be abandoned at any minute given Google's record.
 
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KrisLord said:
I actually think this is a reason for Apple to support RCS.

In Europe we use WhatsApp because we know it’s free to message someone. With iMessage there’s a risk of green bubbles and having to pay for picture or video message at a stupidly high price per message.

If I knew it would be free even if I sent a picture to an android user from the messages app it would mean I didn’t need to use WhatsApp at all.

The benefits that brings are worthwhile to me and Apple - WhatsApp doesn’t let me control things like messages - for example I can stop unknown numbers messaging my daughter with messages but can’t with WhatsApp.
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I think it’s been said elsewhere… but, just cut the green bubbles out of your life.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🔥🗑️
 
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For most Indians, budget for a smartphone is under $150. He/she is not bothered about the operative system or features like SMS or email. All they want to know is if it capable of running WhatsApp. Google sounds like RCS is the most popular messaging platform.
 
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till said:
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.
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Would love to use messages instead of WhatsApp. Because f*ck Facebook.
 
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