Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Few iPhone users know or care about RCS. By apple not making the move, it continues the "Us vs Them" narrative, and while perhaps technologically false, keeps iPhone users in a state of feeling like the green bubbles are the problem and blue bubbles is the preferred place to be.

I'm sure they'll make the switch eventually, but certainly not because they feel bullied by Samsung's ads.
 
Hmmm... I wonder if those genius marketing people at Samsung know that Romeo and Juliet is a love story between a 16 year old and a 13 year old that resulted in the deaths of 7 people including the 2 main characters ( self inflicted ) and literally no one in the story wanted them to be together.
 
They are not worried whether this will help people or not.

What they want is for Apple to adopt the protocol, so there is one less motive to switch from Android to iPhone.
 
here is what i understand from this saga.
Apple customers use other chat applications when texting people who doesn't own iPhone/Mac.
Google is not getting that data.
So Google is forcing Apple to use RCS so that people will use RCS to text iPhone/Mac/Android users.
then very few people will use third party texting apps and Google can get all the data (or Meta data if it is end to end encrypted).

So what is Apple gaining from this ?
Bingo. If Google's goal was to have RCS available on iOS, then Google would have made an RCS app years ago. The goal here is to build RCS into the base OS and make it the default protocol, most likely for spying on users.
 
I can't see any way of Apple supporting (Google's) RCS without a very awkward UX implementation, or seriously damaging their privacy commitments.

If I'm in an iMessage group chat with 5 friends and one of them wants to invite another (Google RCS) friend, instantly that chat becomes available to Google. So what does Apple do? Warn all users (similar to an insecure HTTP connection)? Should a "voting" UI pop-up, needing an unanimous decision before they're allowed in? An Apple disclaimer that their privacy commitments no longer apply?

No thanks. I'd rather continue using a combination of iMessage and Whatsapp.
Out of curiosity, what do you use for those that have neither of those options? Of if that isn't the case, what would you use if that came up?
 
It's so shocking how people here are genuinely opposed to better interactions between iPhones and Androids. I don't understand that. SMS is terribly limited and outdated, and not E2E encrypted. And it's not like Androids are going away, so why keep the experience this bad on iMessages?

Not that I think this ad campaign will have any effect on Apple at all, but that doesn't mean that Apple should do nothing on improving communication standards on iPhone
I have a good experience with iMessage. It sounds like a good idea to somehow make iMessage more worldly. It’s a bad idea to legislate it, imo.
 
95% of apple iPhone users don't even know what the blue vs green text bubbles mean. Ignorance is bliss to them. RCS is strictly for nerds and even the nerds don't care for that 💩
 
Few iPhone users know or care about RCS. By apple not making the move, it continues the "Us vs Them" narrative, and while perhaps technologically false, keeps iPhone users in a state of feeling like the green bubbles are the problem and blue bubbles is the preferred place to be.

I'm sure they'll make the switch eventually, but certainly not because they feel bullied by Samsung's ads.
What they really want is for apple to adopt the protocol, so Android users don't feel compelled to change to iOS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LalaN
Fine, implement RCS at the telecom level then. Every current implementation goes through Google’s servers because they made a deal so the telecom doesn’t shoulder the infrastructure burden.

You can’t be for an “open” standard but just rely on Google’s “goodwill” to pipe everything through them. That’s a nonstarter.
 
Those definitely feel like the sorts of problems Apple could work with Google to address, if those are their concerns.
or apple could just release iMessage/FaceTime on android, since we're on the subject of things that would likely not happen. infinitely simpler than rcs

saying apple and google should work on rcs doesn't really mean much. rcs is still incredibly complex for the user to understand.
 
Last edited:
Last I knew, Google's RCS messaging was only private in one-to-one threads. In group chats, Google can read them... as in Google does read them.
That’s not true anymore. https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/8/23824800/google-messages-rcs-end-to-end-encryption-default-group

Lots of misinformation around RCS, but that makes sense since implementations are still evolving. Google is the main driver behind it right now, but they didn’t develop the standard. It’s a GSMA standard that carriers, phone manufacturers, and yes, google, have committed to supporting. They’re the loudest about it because of Android.

I’m sure many disagree, but it feels in bad faith for apple to not support an open standard that just about everyone else in the industry has committed to. It’s not a google created thing, but it’s really easy to push that narrative when google is doing the work to try and standardize implementations. Hard for anyone to make universal progress on RCS when a large amount of phones still default to unencrypted sms/mms (GSMA and OAP standards).
 
Last edited:
Fine, implement RCS at the telecom level then. Every current implementation goes through Google’s servers because they made a deal so the telecom doesn’t shoulder the infrastructure burden.

You can’t be for an “open” standard but just rely on Google’s “goodwill” to pipe everything through them. That’s a nonstarter.
Bingo. Google wants this because they own the whole backend of it. Simple as that.
 
What they really want is for apple to adopt the protocol, so Android users don't feel compelled to change to iOS.
They want it because the vanilla RCS standard isn’t secure at all. The only one that is “secure” is Google’s implementation…which surely the ad company is just doing out of goodwill….
 
Bingo. Google wants this because they own the whole backend of it. Simple as that.
I agree with this! Carriers just have no incentive to do that until apple joins the conversation. And the average consumer doesn’t know enough about security or why their green messages have bad pictures other than lol stupid android, so apple kinda gets a free pass here from most people. They should be doing more since they market heavily around privacy.
 
That’s not true. https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/8/23824800/google-messages-rcs-end-to-end-encryption-default-group

Lots of misinformation around RCS. It’s still evolving and google is the main driver behind it, but they didn’t develop the standard. It’s a GSMA standard that carriers, phone manufacturers, and yes, google, have committed to supporting. They’re the loudest about it because of Android.

I’m sure many disagree, but it feels in bad faith for apple to not support an open standard that just about everyone else in the industry has committed to. It’s not a google created thing, but it’s really easy to push that narrative when google is doing the work to try and standardize implementations. Hard for anyone to make universal progress on RCS when a large amount of phones still default to unencrypted sms/mms (GSMA and OAP standards).
None of the US telecoms operate the secure version of RCS, that’s been farmed out to Google’s infrastructure.

If the actual telecoms can’t be bothered, and instead just pipe everything to Google, why should Apple bother to implement this farce when the rest of the world uses WhatsApp and others?
 
Bingo. If Google's goal was to have RCS available on iOS, then Google would have made an RCS app years ago. The goal here is to build RCS into the base OS and make it the default protocol, most likely for spying on users.
I’ve been told multiple times by Google in the last couple of weeks, that “defaults” make no difference. Surely, your opinion must be wrong, then.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.