It really isn't and as other have pointed out and many articles point out that it is a U.S. market issue, but it is the businesses to blame. Apple pitched iMessage the equivilant to RCS to carriers to have a standard in 2011 the carriers said no, then the internal email that went around in 2013 of rumbles of it again, but execs said no (probably do to seeing success). Fast forward over the years, businesses here still use the "enter your phone number for notifications and wait times and blah blah" Other countries moved to like WeChat and WhatsApp, but nope businesses here in the U.S. keep sms the standard
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Google Urges Apple Not to 'Drop the Ball' on Fixing Messaging in New Billboard Pushing RCS
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Agree what is up with all the commercials attacking people. It's as bad as the political ones were. And then I see that spectacular commercial about the accessability features of iPhone. It showed the features of their phone without even mentioning any competitors. One of the few times a commercial made me cry
RCS in itself if the same security as SMS basically nothing, it is the individual protocols like Googles that encrypts it (currently only single end to end not group encryption). RCS encryption is an added cost that companies like carriers and stuff don't want to foot the bill especially if they are not loosing customers over it. Apple foots the bill to host the servers that iMessages go through in the hope that iMessage helps get more customers, and Google foots the bill for well basically the same thing (along with Google adding advertisements into RCS).
SMS is good to have as the lowest denominator, it basically costs nothing for the carriers to support and doesn't need data. I don't know about other countries, but there are plenty of areas in the U.S. still that you cannot get a data connection, but maybe you can get cellular signal to send a text, and until this satellite SOS thing becomes more widespread...there is nothing wrong with sms being the final fall back
Google holds the address book for Multiple carriers RCS implementation. If apple opts in, and you're on one of those carriers, good bye messaging in apple's apps. your number belongs to google apps now. No Thanks!
Not to mention that the RCS protocol doesn't have native end to end encryption support. That is a proprietary google add on that's not part of the standard. Who's the key register for that, google, meaning they can literally man in the middle you. All the worlds communications shouldn't be handed to google.
Perhaps if it was something to be rolled out worldwide. As it is, with most of the world using “something else”, this would only be for US users. Which is why, rather than a worldwide ad blitz, Google’s ONLY advertising in the US and ONLY via an ad campaign focused on ONE of that countries’ cities.
It’ll eventually run out of steam as Google’s not making as much as they used to and are already axing many internal projects. Eventually, someone inside will ask, “Do we actually think that spending this money will provide any results? Like, what’s the profit motive.” There will be blank stares and >blip< another messaging service bites the dust!
Yeah the old iMessage isn't used worldwide blah blah, it gets kind of old and tired, we get it. Personally I'm not keen on giving up my privacy with Whatsapp and others of the same ilk, if there is a worse company than Google for privacy it's sure as hell Facebook/Meta. iMessage is used quite a bit in the US where text messaging is free and unlimited.
Surely the US is a big target for high end phones for both Apple and Google/Google's partners otherwise Google wouldn't be wasting their marketing budget on these ads. Their profit motive is simply that Apple is increasing their market share in the US, and iMessage most likely plays a significant role in that. When all your friends and family use iMessage, and you can't really communicate with them other than simple SMS/MMS, yeah that really makes you think twice about going Android.
My iPhone also came with the app called Messages but it appears that I'm in the minority of users who enjoy communicating with users of all type of devices.View attachment 2137342
My iPhone came with this app called "Messages"
It allows me to send a message to any phone in the world if I know their phone number.
So it seems that Apple already has a compatible messaging app.
If you are a person who lives in a bubble and only communicates with other iPhone users then the RCS topic is a NON issue. But for the rest of us it is. I hate it so much when a friend or a family member sends me a photo and what I get is a blocky usless thing due to the SMS compression. I don't want to continue using SMS. Yes, iphone to iPhone its perfect but that is not what I'm asking Apple to change.
What I find amusing is that the marketeers for Google have worded this in a way that they assume average Joe will know what the hell they’re talking about. The general public don’t care about messaging protocols.
If Apple doesn't do it, perhaps Sunbird Messaging will be the way to bring iMessage to Android.
www.sunbirdapp.com
Sunbird Messaging - Chat with any bubble you want
Unify all your messaging apps including iMessage without needing any Apple device! iMessage, SMS/MMS, WhatsApp, FB messenger & more. Join the waitlist!
www.sunbirdapp.com
I hear ya. Nobody likes pixelated photos.
So if Apple didn't introduce iMessage a decade ago... would things be better today?
Would everyone be using RCS today? Or would we all still be using SMS?
Or would we be in the same place today where almost everyone has moved to 3rd-party messaging apps?
There are two billion people using WhatsApp today. Did iMessage cause that?
🤔
Geez, we used to PAY for OS upgrades until Apple stopped doing it. And including decent Apple apps for productivity and music and ...
You really need to know some industry history before making comments like this.
Apple is a business. They sell stuff.
As always, don't like what they offer? Don't buy it.
I suppose you also think Apple's App Stores shouldnt charge 15 - 30%? And any AppStore should be allowed to sideload apps.
Forgetting that retail stores marked up well over 50% - or more!- with no instant purchase when it suited you and lagged on latest releases and wasted shelf space and binned old stock...
That’s not in the AppleInsider article that I linked to. The linked WSJ article is paywalled.
What you said is correct, but happened many years after Apple offered to try and solve the cross platform problem, and give it away for free too, but the carriers weren’t interested.
Moral of the story: Never turn down free stuff from Apple. If you don’t like the free stuff, you don’t have to use it, but don’t turn it down.
WhatsApp basically showed the carriers what they should adopt to maintain relevancy. Once GSMA finalized the initial implementation of RCS… they carriers created shortsighted, carrier-only solutions (the US was even slow adopting SMS which I didn’t know until I was searching for this stuff). Worldwide, carriers fiddled while other solutions gained more and more adoption until today where you have Google begging for Apple to implement a half-baked also-ran no longer marketed by GSMA, tech.
Very interesting. Adopted at the carrier level would have made quite a wide set of features available all the way down to dumb phones. Today, carriers are still pulling in massive amounts of dollars with SMS with no additional cash outlay, it’s all profit for ‘em.
No chance of that as long as dumbphones still exist and are sold. Far fewer are sold now than before, but as long as SMS is the only way that it’s assured that anyone using a mobile device can get the message, it’ll be there.
Carriers have never been very bright.
I don’t know about slow adopting SMS, my first phone was a ‘candy bar’ Nokia around 1995, then a couple of MicroTac/StarTac about 1998 or so. All those could send SMS messages to anyone that I messaged, which was very few since messaging was a pain on those keyboards. I even had a pager that could respond to messages, but it was a lot easier and faster just to phone the person.
If the messaging world really wants to solve the cross platform messaging issue, they really need to get the 4 horsemen (carriers), Apple, Google, and some reps from.Chinese and Indian interests to form a working group to define just what kind of a cross platform messaging tool everyone would suppport.
I have no hope. Google, Five Eyes, the Chinese and Indians would want to see everything, Apple would want privacy, Google would want an interactive ad pipeline and data slurping (that’s RCS), Apple would reject it. The carriers don’t really care as long as they can make money on it or at least it doesn’t hurt them.
To be fair, there’s a report that says the A2P (Application to Person) market for SMS globally was worth 62.2 billion in 2021. That’s not US only numbers, but I’d have to pay to find out what percentage is JUST US.
A2P SMS Messaging Market Size to Worth Around USD 89.2 Billion by 2030: Beyond Market Insights
According to Beyond Market Insights, the global A2P SMS Messaging market size is anticipated to grow from 62.2 billion in 2021 to 89.2 billion by 2030,...
Which is sad because we're already paying the carriers every month and will continue for the rest of our lives...
👀
Just found the story again. It’s from 2002, so it may be more about carriers’ adoption of bulk SMS services which, by this time apparently, was already being used around the world.
AT&T Wireless offers bulk SMS service
At&T Wireless today introduced a service that will allow enterprises to send thousands of messages a month to cell phone equipped customers or employees for as little as five cents per message.
www.computerworld.com
Yeah, if the literal GSMA, of which all the carriers and manufacturers are already a part of, couldn’t produce something that could actually BECOME a thing, then it’s all over for that. They would have to come up with a worldwide business case and, with customers outside the US using non-carrier solutions and those businesses being just fine with SMS for A2P, there’s little value in the expenditure for the infrastructure upgrades and additional support required.
Last edited:
In the end, the security issues surrounding Google's implementation of RCS explains why many users are now switching to Telegram and Signal.
And if the EU gets their way... Telegram and Signal will have to interoperate with every other messaging platform.
So you can kiss encryption and security goodbye. I'm not sure how messages can stay encrypted if they must be compatible with a dozen separate companies...
😟
Apple doesnt care about Privacy at all. Only profits.
I would bet majority is just U.S. and it actually irritates me like for instance today...my child had a dentist appointment and I got a sms message to reply back when arrived, well I replied back and waited and waited and no response. I went into the office after about 10 min of waiting and told the front desk I never got a message back.. low and behold it is a issue sometimes with not getting messages or getting them delayed on their end or the same happening on the customer end.To be fair, there’s a report that says the A2P (Application to Person) market for SMS globally was worth 62.2 billion in 2021. That’s not US only numbers, but I’d have to pay to find out what percentage is JUST US.
A2P SMS Messaging Market Size to Worth Around USD 89.2 Billion by 2030: Beyond Market Insights
According to Beyond Market Insights, the global A2P SMS Messaging market size is anticipated to grow from 62.2 billion in 2021 to 89.2 billion by 2030,...www.globenewswire.com