Google just wants their hands on more data to mine. All the sudden they come out with something that might actually catch on after many many failed attempts at messaging (not to mention music services) and suddenly Apple is at their beck and call to support it? Nice try. Also, it will only be supported with that terms and conditions clause completely stripped out. We don’t need Google getting their hands onto more data. They couldn’t give an 1/8th of a dump about interoperability (and neither does Apple to be fair, but this isn’t their invention).
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Google Exec Pushing RCS Adoption Says He's 'Not Asking Apple to Make iMessage Available on Android'
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This. This right here. Do You know how hard it is to get some of my non techie, android user friends to understand how to send me high quality pictures they have taken during our adventures? I’ve learned to just take pictures on my phone or settle for the lower quality on theirs.
Do you still get charged per message. I haven't since the early 2000's when carriers had buckets of texts built into service. Now it's unlimited isn't it?
Ah, standards. There are so many to choose from. Why doesn't google make an RCS client for iOS. Is that even possible, or does that happen at too low of a level?
No.
Well, I suppose in theory it's possible, but you likely wouldn't be able to use your actual phone number. Possible vs. viable.
You're blaming Google for Apple's decision to use Google as its default search engine?
If Google is that bad, you should be blaming Apple for not going with something else as the default. If Google is that bad, you should be blaming Apple for choosing not to "protect" its users.
Apple could make a bold statement on privacy if they didn't choose Google OR if they demanded something (besides the billions of dollars) from Google regarding privacy in order to be the default.
Apple has the control here.....blame them if you have an issue with the arrangement.
Apple's encryption with Full Elliptical based encryption proprietary protocols aren't TLS/IPSec which is the encryption for RCS Universal Profile and are well known to have security holes.
I guess it depends if youre on Iphone or android. I'm on an iPhone an iMessage does everything I need.
I tried WhatsApp and didn't see the point of having it on my phone.
Different strokes.
ARS Technica has it right:
"Google once had a functional competitor to iMessage in the past, called Google Hangouts. Circa 2015, Hangouts was a messaging powerhouse, which in addition to the native Hangouts messaging, also received SMS and Google Voice messages. Hangouts did group video calls five years before Zoom blew up, and it had clients on Android, iOS, the web, Gmail, and every desktop OS via a Chrome extension.
"As usual though, Google lacked any kind of long-term plan or ability to commit to a single messaging strategy, and Hangouts only survived as the "everything" messenger for a single year. By 2016, Google moved on to the next shiny messaging app and left Hangouts to rot.
"Even if Google could magically roll out RCS everywhere, RCS is a poor standard to build a messaging platform on because it is dependent on a carrier phone bill. It's anti-internet and can't natively work on webpages, PCs, smartwatches, and tablets, because those things don't have SIM cards. The carriers designed RCS, so RCS puts your carrier bill at the center of your online identity, even when free identification methods like e-mail exist and work on more devices. Google is just promoting carrier lock-in as a solution to Apple lock-in."
Link to full article: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ssaging-google-says-imessage-is-too-powerful/
"Google once had a functional competitor to iMessage in the past, called Google Hangouts. Circa 2015, Hangouts was a messaging powerhouse, which in addition to the native Hangouts messaging, also received SMS and Google Voice messages. Hangouts did group video calls five years before Zoom blew up, and it had clients on Android, iOS, the web, Gmail, and every desktop OS via a Chrome extension.
"As usual though, Google lacked any kind of long-term plan or ability to commit to a single messaging strategy, and Hangouts only survived as the "everything" messenger for a single year. By 2016, Google moved on to the next shiny messaging app and left Hangouts to rot.
"Even if Google could magically roll out RCS everywhere, RCS is a poor standard to build a messaging platform on because it is dependent on a carrier phone bill. It's anti-internet and can't natively work on webpages, PCs, smartwatches, and tablets, because those things don't have SIM cards. The carriers designed RCS, so RCS puts your carrier bill at the center of your online identity, even when free identification methods like e-mail exist and work on more devices. Google is just promoting carrier lock-in as a solution to Apple lock-in."
Link to full article: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ssaging-google-says-imessage-is-too-powerful/
As someone who works a little in the SMS/MMS sector, RCS is quite actually the next iteration of MMS, and Apple not supporting it is ridiculous. It's an open standard, and they are free to add it. They just ... aren't. And it's dumb.
This would make iPhones better thus removing a bullet point from Android presentations (full support for RCS). AND, that support may actually increase sales of iPhones for those who are sitting on the fence due to lack of that feature.
I’m still wondering, though, what does Google get out of it? They CAN’T be getting _nothing_ out of it.
There is no charge for iMessages. Only data rates apply same as any other messaging app.
Is that’s what’s required here? If so, I could understand why Apple wouldn’t be excited about replicating the iMessage infrastructure just for compatibility that would be nice to have, but is already covered by other methods (as long as you don’t use the method tied to your telephone number).
I’m suspicious any time Google pushes for something. Ditto Meta/Facebook. I used to chat with all my non-US friends via WhatsApp until all the publicity about the data being shared from WhatsApp to Facebook, now most of us have switched to Signal. It’s got most of the same features as iMessage: you can send higher-res photos and videos, see typing indicators, read receipts, group chats, etc.
As for my US family and friends with Android devices, most of them got tired of the heavy compression on photos and videos and they now send me media and chat to me primarily through Snapchat. I don’t care for it but I’d guess most people under 30 have Snapchat so it’s accessible and fairly ubiquitous.
I just don’t think people give much of a thought to SMS/MMS now. My sister has group chats with her friends on Instagram. One of my friends uses Facebook Messenger. There are so many ways to connect with people now that if people feel inconvenienced by SMS they just move on to another platform.
As for my US family and friends with Android devices, most of them got tired of the heavy compression on photos and videos and they now send me media and chat to me primarily through Snapchat. I don’t care for it but I’d guess most people under 30 have Snapchat so it’s accessible and fairly ubiquitous.
I just don’t think people give much of a thought to SMS/MMS now. My sister has group chats with her friends on Instagram. One of my friends uses Facebook Messenger. There are so many ways to connect with people now that if people feel inconvenienced by SMS they just move on to another platform.
In the US there are plans that are unlimited, in other countries, there are very many that are not. So, my assumption is that this would mainly be a thing in the US as few folks in other countries would be using RCS due to the exorbitant fees. I don’t even see how you get carriers, that ALREADY want to charge for sending text and low quality images to not charge even MORE for higher quality images. Still something about this that’s not connecting in the real world (unless Google’s only concerned about teens in the US being bullied, which is possible).
If RCS is really the natural evolution of SMS, I think Apple should coop with Google and other companies and walk towards an standard to use in all devices.
I have a question: Can you send pictures, photos, or even videos/documents via RCS? Do companies charge special fees for this messages, or this works with data just like the messaging apps?
I have a question: Can you send pictures, photos, or even videos/documents via RCS? Do companies charge special fees for this messages, or this works with data just like the messaging apps?
That doesn’t actually explain why not adopting RCS is the right choice though. This isn’t some arbitrary standard that no one is using, it’s clearly going to be the replacement for SMS (i.e. the next most ubiquitous messaging standard).
My solution: a globally interoperable message protocol already exists, we only need the on device apps to convert media to it. Of course I refer to ASCII Art.
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ONLY if you’re sending to other iMessage users. If iMessage has to fall back to SMS, then there’s a charge. For those using iMessage without unlimited SMS messaging there could be a charge for sending AND for receiving. (I think the US historically charged for both, but I think other countries handled it differently)
Expect Apple to launch “ACS” in the near future, largely based on RCS but with some Apple “enhancements”. Then they’ll demand Google adopt this new standard while charging them a royalty to do so. ?
It's hilarious to me that Google has failed so hard in the messaging space that their current strategy is now to support an open standard and have a SVP publicly beg Apple to join them via social media.
This was their space to lose with Gchat and they dropped the ball.
This was their space to lose with Gchat and they dropped the ball.
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