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Google Exec Pushing RCS Adoption Says He's 'Not Asking Apple to Make iMessage Available on Android'

I find the comments here surprising. For me, Apple adopting a standard that is way secure than SMS is a win for everyone. Google is right on this. If Apple is serious about security, they should push for the adoption of this standard on iMessage. Granted Apple has no incentive to do so, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something i can root for.
 
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contacos said:
So who is using this RCS then? Never heard of it. Another US only thing?
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All the major US carriers started the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative, which sought to standardize RCS among carriers and technologies. Of course Apple doesn't use it, because it's a standard. But Android started rolling it out around 2017, but it needs technology on the carrier side. Not sure of the status outside the US.
 
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PygmySurfer said:
No, he's asking Apple to support RCS, just like Apple supports SMS/MMS currently.
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What does he (meaning Google) get out of it though? We can be certain it’s not “out of the goodness of his heart”. Is he seeing the world neatly divided into iMessage and WhatsApp and Google not having any view into what all those folks are chatting about?

Something tells me it’s not as clear cut as “support of next gen MMS”.
 
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Eddie Cue wanted to write an iMessage app for Android, and presumably Windows as well. He saw iMessage as the next "halo" feature like iTunes. Of course, given Apple's general quality of Android/Windows apps over the past decade, it probably would have ended up being an albatross rather than a halo.

RCS support is a much better solution.
 
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Unregistered 4U said:
What does he (meaning Google) get out of it though? We can be certain it’s not “out of the goodness of his heart”. Is he seeing the world neatly divided into iMessage and WhatsApp and Google not having any view into what all those folks are chatting about?

Something tells me it’s not as clear cut as “support of next gen MMS”.
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SMS/MMS is a horrible experience with modern devices. It needs to be replaced, and Apple is the last holdout. Google gets to finally work to sunset SMS if they can get Apple onboard the RCS train.
 
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ch1ptune said:
Well, I don’t know anyone who uses WhatsApp or WeChat. It’s all iMessage or Messenger.
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I think both of your worlds are problems for Google. There are chats going on in iMessage and WhatsApp that they don’t have a view into and they want very badly to change that. They don’t DARE challenge Facebook, so they go begging to Apple. Apple’s marketshare for messaging in the WORLD is small compared to WhatsApp.
 
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His reasoning is a joke too. Like it is Apple's fault if people are willing to bully people over something so silly as what phone people use. That issue lies with the people doing the bullying and the parents that are raising them, not Apple. What he is talking about is just a symptom of the problem of people becoming more narcissistic, materialistic, and mean-spirited.
 
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This thread will blow up, and a lot of ingorance is already posted. Here are some facts:

-RCS is not owned by Google. It's very much like SMS. There are various RCS profiles that can be used. Some talk to one another, some do not. Some are E2E encrypted, some are not. Apple can certainly use whichever profile they want.

-Yes, RCS can be E2E encrypted. It doesn't have to be, though. Apple can choose to use a profile that is.

-RCS is to replace SMS, not iMessage. There are many iMessage-only features that cannot be duplicated by RCS. RCS will likely still be Green bubbled.

-Again, RCS is a modern SMS. It's not designed to replace WhatsApp, WeChat, iMessage, etc.

The argument most are making is Apple is refusing to support RCS because those Green bubbles will not not suck as much.. you'll get delivery and read receipts, see typing, have high quality images, etc. So an iPhone users won't bully Green bubble people as much. The argument is this is bad for Apple business, because if Green bubbles are less bullied, maybe people will switch.

whether or not this will stop green bubble bullying, who knows. Even if it doesn't, one has to ask... why won't Apple support this standard protocol, then? What are the downsides to RCS over SMS (and to be clear, of RCS fails, it'll fall back to SMS still)?
 
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brofkand said:
SMS/MMS is a horrible experience with modern devices. It needs to be replaced, and Apple is the last holdout. Google gets to finally work to sunset SMS if they can get Apple onboard the RCS train.
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“Horrible”? Maybe I don’t expect much when I’m sending what’s essentially a low effort email. My criteria is, if I can read it, the communication was a success.

I would probably concede that it’s not as feature loaded of a connection, but I would have to not be able to read the text for it to be considered “horrible” to me. And, do we WANT to sunset SMS? It’s still a pretty robust way of communicating and I’d always like a fallback that’s as simple as possible. As others have said, this isn’t even a solution looking for a problem as the problem and solution is neatly encapsulated in Whatsapp, Signal, etc. Both of those run on Android and are great for folks that want to message securely across many devices, so what’s Google’s angle here?
 
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JPack said:
I don't know anybody who voluntarily uses iMessage or SMS. Those are antiquated systems.

It's all WhatsApp or WeChat.
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We must travel in very different circles. I don't know anyone who uses WhatsApp or WeChat. It's about 75% iMessage, and 25% SMS. I downloaded WhatsApp once but deleted it because no one I know used it, and now that it's owned by Facebook (Meta) it basically spyware. Don't know anything about WeChat at all. iMessage works flawless for me, and if I message anyone on android, it just automatically defaults to SMS. If they make RCS encrypted end to end and keep google from mining data from it, I'd be all for apple adopting it as an alternative to SMS when dealing with android users. Not sure that's what's going to happen though. Google loves to mine data, which is why I avoid Google products and services like the plague.
 
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nutritious said:
His reasoning is a joke too. Like it is Apple's fault if people are willing to bully people over something so silly as what phone people use. That issue lies with the people doing the bullying and the parents that are raising them, not Apple. What he is talking about is just a symptom of the problem of people becoming more narcissistic, materialistic, and mean-spirited.
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It's not a joke. The allegation is Apple is purposely choosing not to support a standard, modern messaging protocol that almost every carrier supports. What is the reasoning behind this lack of support? The allegation is bc it's bad for business bc apple profits off of this.

Now could it be other reasons? sure. Maybe Apple will support it, but just not yet bc it's not "ready," etc.

But the fact remains: bullying is a problem with these kids in the US, and Apple has a way to mitigate it. Why aren't they acting?
 
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BGPL said:
Finally, no more green bubbles. I've erased so many friendships because they refused to use iMessage. So frustrating!
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Seriously? Some friend you are...

RONS67 said:
That's so Google can provide "iMessage" for Android... and track the cr@p out of its users.
Sorry, pal.
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Citation needed to show that Google can and does track RCS users. If that's a concern, Apple can launch their own RCS network for iOS users to thwart such tracking.

Unregistered 4U said:
What does he (meaning Google) get out of it though? We can be certain it’s not “out of the goodness of his heart”. Is he seeing the world neatly divided into iMessage and WhatsApp and Google not having any view into what all those folks are chatting about?

Something tells me it’s not as clear cut as “support of next gen MMS”.
Click to expand...

RCS messages are currently 1:1 encrypted, so Google presumably isn't using it to harvest data on users.

I think the benefits are interoperability between iOS and Android users, specifically:

- end to end encryption
- reactions
- no more broken group chats

The current situation is sub-optimal for EVERYONE. Apple supporting RCS would make life better for everyone.
 
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Wrote this somewhere else, but Google just started getting the ball rolling with RCS in late 2020. By August of 2021 the rollout was mostly good enough to put out some additional press. They know full well that Apple typically doesn't jump on tech until it's a full-evolved, widely available solution. Android's are pouncing on them as if they decided not to join RCS out of spite... Yet with Apple's software cycle for new features being a year, they wouldn't be able to add it in until 2022 or 2023. It will most likely come eventually, but damn - this "lock-in strategy" thing is an absolute junk talking point when Google and carriers have barely got their RCS crap together.
 
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Or Apple could allow other apps that support RCS to be your primary text/sms app for your carrier and you could delete iMessage. :rolleyes:
 
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PygmySurfer said:
Seriously? Some friend you are...



Citation needed to show that Google can and does track RCS users. If that's a concern, Apple can launch their own RCS network for iOS users to thwart such tracking.



RCS messages are currently 1:1 encrypted, so Google presumably isn't using it to harvest data on users.

I think the benefits are interoperability between iOS and Android users, specifically:

- end to end encryption
- reactions
- no more broken group chats

The current situation is sub-optimal for EVERYONE. Apple supporting RCS would make life better for everyone.
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Or google supporting iMessage would be better. Always amazes me when someone says the other guy should reprogram their system to meet these new “standards” that were developed afterwards
 
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Treq said:
We must travel in very different circles. I don't know anyone who uses WhatsApp or WeChat.
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From what I understand (not a user, but the discussion comes up at times), there are governments outside the US that have defined WhatsApp as somewhat as a formal requirement for official electronic communication, payments, etc. There’s little way for folks in those countries to NOT use WhatsApp and take part in their country’s electronic commerce. Also, most of this happened prior to FaceBook buying WhatsApp, but it’s not likely those countries will ever extricate themselves from their WhatsApp dependence.

So, yeah, there are masses of folks for which iMessage isn’t considered even if both folks own iPhones!
 
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