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'It's Time for Apple to Fix Texting' Says New Android Website Pushing RCS Messaging Technology
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Today, I can buy pretty much any Android device and see both RCS and SMS/MMS. I cannot see iMessage on these devices.
Today I can see iMessage and SMS/MMS on any iPhone.
To help replace/retire SMS Apple had the path to allow use of iMessage support across the landscape or an Android version of iMessage and they punted. Now outside of Apple, globally, RCS has been adopted as the default solution. The current RCS version - using standard RCS design - is of Google design.
Since Apple will not allow any other app / system to use iMessage functionality, Apple is being asked to allow standard RCS functionality in iMessage so all platforms can communicate using the default messaging app.
Here is a quote I ran across which is a great point:
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The other question is, do we need a replacement for SMS? It’s unencrypted, insecure, and simjacking makes SMS a terrible way to send two-factor (2FA) login authentication codes. But so what? We have plenty of secure alternatives, like Signal and iMessage, and those 2FA codes shouldn’t be going over SMS anyway.
SMS is like email. It’s universally supported, it’s basic, and it’s fundamentally insecure. It might also prove just as hard to kill. Carriers could indeed switch off support for SMS, but that only works once most of the carriers in the world have switched to RCS.
Otherwise, what happens when you get a message from overseas? Or when you travel and you have no data connection, how can you send a message? It’s a complex situation, but it seems like SMS may be around for a while yet.
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Of course, you’re right, there’s effectively no problem save for some cell users in the US. Not all, of course, because even many of them are just using the app that connects them to the people they want to be in touch with (I’ve got 3 messaging apps installed myself). For those with cross platform friends, they’re using common social media apps to share videos, music, pictures as a low requirement solution.
I’m sure one of the reasons why the carriers killed RCS is because with the rise of the internet and applications, they’d be throwing money after something most of the world wouldn’t even have a use for at this point.
Oh I completely agree with you, no one else has stepped up. I'd much rather see Google RCS support on Apple phones with a toggle for those who want to opt out and stay with SMS/MMS, but I highly doubt Apple would ever go that far. At the end of the day who is to judge whether Google's proprietary RCS is ethically better or worse than Apple's proprietary iMessages, it's an exercise in hypocrisy at best. But being that it's proprietary versus proprietary we can't really blame Apple for choosing in favor of its shareholders.
The true issue lies with why the GSMA and carriers aren't pushing for universal RCS where Apple would have no choice. Maybe ulterior motives from GSMA members like Google? Who knows, but without governments putting GSMA's feet to the fire it's going to remain a dead issue.
No he's not right in essence, although from a profit point of view he is. Belaboring the point that outside of the US everyone uses Whatsapp, or Facebook, or whatever still doesn't make it true in the US. I can only imagine the trouble for me to try to get friends, family, business associates, co-workers, etc to all switch to the same third party app, and then I am left with 10 different messaging apps and left out of iMessage group messages.
You're probably right carriers gave up on RCS because of a lack of profit, but they should be held accountable for doing things more for the social good than for profit, like reducing robocalling or providing network coverage to rural areas.
have given up on native support for RCS. Correct. And they don’t plan to implement a native RCS solution.
no, not any more than iPhone to android is, and given this is an apple fans site im guessing 95% will be expressing their opinions from an apple user perspective.
For ALL phones? Or for ANDROID phones? There’s a difference as there are still non-smart phones that don’t have any OS, and they support SMS. Are those going to support RCS? My take? Doubtful, because that would require support from the carriers and carriers have not shown any interest in supporting RCS.
Again, for ALL phones, including dumb phones? Or JUST for smart phones and, specifically, for Google Android based smart phones?
The thread is about Apple incorporating RCS because the experience of texting from an Android phone to an iPhone is terrible. Not to be redundant but OBVIOUSLY texting from an iPhone to an iPhone is very easy and convenient, but has NOTHING to do with RCS.
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RCS as “sending messages via IP data applications from one user to another” was first solved with WhatsApp and has been solved many times over with every successive “just another app”. It requires the users to download and use the same client. RCS as “sending carrier supported RCS messages, alongside SMS and MMS, to any other carrier’s user” is never going to happen as carriers are not interested in supporting it.
RCS as “sending a message from a Google messages user to another Google messages user” is what Google RCS is.
iMessage is not and was NEVER intended to send messages between EVERY phone and supported by EVERY carrier in the world, including dumb phones.
One does not retire SMS without a solution that, like SMS works on EVERY phone. I think some people truly believe that EVERY phone in the world is a smartphone with the capability to run apps!
Well you're being selective here. I understand Googles proprietary RCS solution isn't necessarily better than a 3rd party app (although in some ways it *might* be, for example if Google puts this as a default app in Android, if Google can better support the app over other smaller companies, etc). But the point I'm trying to make is that 3rd party apps (including Google) are NOT a viable solution to the issue. The issue at heart is that SMS/MMS as a fallback has become way too antiquated and needs to be updated. Granted it's most likely never going to happen, so we are all stuck with the hodge podge of messaging apps we currently have.
This is actually the core of the issue. There is no solution that doesn’t end up as “just another app” without the carriers. Google RCS, even if it becomes a fantastic application, will still only be “just another app” among the dozens that already exist without carrier support. And “just another app” ONLY works if someone’s using a phone that supports apps. Carrier support for ALL phones should be the starting point for any solution so that folks aren’t left moving all their contacts when Google gets bored with creating websites for Google RCS and gives it up.
I guess I’m just not all that self-centered! For folks I want to communicate with, I simply use the tool that they’re using. For the folks that are still using dumb phones, they only have access to SMS/MMS, so it’s not like I’m going to tell them to buy a phone and THEN download an app just for me to communicate with them.
For me, the connection with that person is far more valuable than any quibbling about how I connect with them.And, if even the vaunted “consumer friendliness” of the EU can’t get the carriers to behave, there’s no hope for the rest of the world!
Yes, but primarily because “it’s been solved” depends on the person that’s saying it. For most of them, as Google’s solution is “just another app”, then “just another app” has been done several times already. There’s nothing unique about Google’s solution as it doesn’t take into account dumb phones just like all of the other “just another app” solutions.
RCS is obviously not going to be an SMS/MMS replacement at this point and to continue to even entertain Google’s RCS solution is just redirecting focus from the carrier level where it rightly should be in order to be a universal worldwide replacement on ALL phones.
Consider this instead. In a world where either succeeds here, be it Google with the keys to RCS, or Apple launching iMessage on Android. Which outcome doesn’t lead to an EU charging them with some kind of antitrust offense, and forcing some kind of nonsensical Messaging Poll to choose a different service and putting us right back to square one?
pretty sure Google depended on carriers for a decade and nothing has happened, that's why they are doing this.
I guess I’m just not all that self-centered! For folks I want to communicate with, I simply use the tool that they’re using. For the folks that are still using dumb phones, they only have access to SMS/MMS, so it’s not like I’m going to tell them to buy a phone and THEN download an app just for me to communicate with them.
And, if even the vaunted “consumer friendliness” of the EU can’t get the carriers to behave, there’s no hope for the rest of the world!
Yeah, no I'm not going to install 10 different messaging apps and have my messaging fragmented all over the place, not to mention being left out of group conversations. It's not being "self-centered," which I suppose is the passive-aggressive way of saying selfish. It's more basic smartphone functionality that everyone should expect at this point.
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Of course not however Apple could have allowed default messenger apps on the non-iOS side to utilize iMessage protocols so that you could iMessage without having to default to SMS.
Yeah that's kind of obvious though isn't it? The solution depends on the person, and Whatsapp, a Google app, or even just SMS/MMS may be their valid solution. Of course this is only my personal use case scenario, but those solutions all stink for myself. But at least with Google RCS they can put it as a default Android app and drive adoption fairly quickly.
Another thing I haven't really thought about, but I'm assuming that 3rd party apps like Whatsapp could adopt Google's RCS also, making it more of a universal solution regardless of what app you decide to use. I honestly don't know from a technical perspective if this is possible, just brainstorming.
I think someone(s) on the EU side saw this and why they are looking at regulating messaging apps to "cooperate".
That's certainly a valid concern, one would hope that would lead the EU, US, and whatever other governments have a say to ask why carriers and/or the GSMA haven't provided a solution to SMS/MMS. Of course in the US that means Google throwing more money at government through lobbying, but then that's the cynical side of me talking.