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RCS in iOS 18: What You Need to Know About Apple's Android Messaging Overhaul

vantelimus said:
Thank you for that clear explanation.
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No problem.
vantelimus said:
You say that Google's implementation is not proprietary. Is Jibe open source? Where may I download it? I can't find it. All I can find is information about carriers using Google's software/service. There's no mention of it being open or modifiable. Of course, I could have missed that since the Google websites about Jibe that I found are clearly made by marketing people, not engineers.
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Jibe is a google owned (bought) cloud service that hosts RCS infrastructure as well as serves as an interconnect to other global RCS Hubs. So not unless you are a Mobile network operator or own a MVNO, I'm not sure what your interest are in Jibe. You don't need to use Jibe to connect to the RCS Hub, you can create your own.

Go see the GSMA guidelines on how to do so.
www.gsma.com

RCC.07 RCS Advanced Communications Services and Client Specification Version 14.0

This specification defines the interactions between a client and the network to configure operator services on the device. It is used among others for the configuration of RCS services.
www.gsma.com www.gsma.com
vantelimus said:
Google has implemented RCS UP 2.7, and you say Apple’s implementation of UP 2.4 lacks features. However, 2.7 was issued as a standard in June, suggesting Apple’s implementation began before the release. It’s misleading to say there are many missing features since implementations aren’t released on spec approval. In my experience, supporting later revisions is a marketing decision and subject to product-cycle timelines, unless a company is politically driving the standard (as Google is).
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The standard is being contributed to by mobile operators and platform holders which Apple and Google are. Apple had every access to the standard and specification as it is being drafted. They didn't have to wait for the specification to be finalized to adopt features. Google adopted 2.7 before it was even published, they were beta testing features. Apple has no incentive to; you are forgetting they had to be forced to adopt RCS in the first place.

vantelimus said:
It sounds like what you are saying is that the implementation of RCS across different carriers has been borked until quite recently. I agree. We can appreciate the trouble Google has gone through to try to force a clean up of the mess. (Indeed, reading through the history, RCS has been as bad a political nightmare as it gets in industry standards bodies.)
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It's been a long struggle to get to this point.
vantelimus said:
We shouldn't criticize Apple for having different priorities from Google. The two companies have always had radically different business models and product development processes and views of the computer industry.
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We should definitely criticize Apple for actively refusing to adopt RCS and waiting to be forced to adopt it because they wanted to lock people into Apple ecosystem. Same thing they did with USB C on iPhones even though they helped create and contributed to the standard. Tim cook said "buy an iPhone" to someone who asked when they would make messaging with Android as good as iMessage. Their view is making the experience worse, so you are forced to stay in their ecosystem. I'm not making it up, there have been published emails of Apple executives saying it.
vantelimus said:
On End-to-end encryption (E2EE)... It isn’t part of the standard. The implementation on Android is a non-standard Google extension using the signal protocol. This extension is unique to Android and isn’t guaranteed to be used by anyone other than Google. So complaints that Apple’s RCS implementation lacks support for Google’s E2EE reflect a misunderstanding of RCS’s scope.
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It's not part of the standard but Signal is an open protocol that anyone can adopt. Google published the white paper on how they integrated signal extension on top of RCS. Apple is no stranger in working with Google when it suits them financially to do so.
vantelimus said:
Future E2EE support on Android will depend on the proposed MLS standard extension. Until GSMA includes it, Google will be the only one implementing it. Given the likelihood of standard inclusion, Apple may support it in future Messages releases. Criticizing Apple for not implementing it now is misplaced.
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GSMA has announced their plans to add MLS protocol to the Universal Profile spec. MLS specifications were fully published last year. Google has already started implementing it in their messaging app. I can criticize Apple a multitrillion dollar corporation for not adopting features that protect their customers messages when they talk all the time about privacy and security. I don't understand your insistence on shielding a multitrillion dollar corporation from being criticized.
 
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Been waiting a long time for this. Already did it with an android friend. It was trippy to see him typing and read receipts.

Biggest wins here are:
-guaranteed receiving of messages (I assume. SMS texts sometimes come a week late)
-texts over wifi. If I don’t have service, being able to send and receive texts if I’m at a McDonald’s or something is big
-functional multi platform group texts
 
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MacBookPro88 said:
This is funny because it has always been Apple making texting between Apple and Android trash. It was not Android devices that were the culprit here. It has always been Tim Apple trying to play games to get people to buy iPhones.

I am happy about this change. Now when I send pictures or videos to android friends it will go through instead of getting a "not sent" error message over and over again.

It's so funny when Apple people say this is a google thing or an android problem when it has always been about Apple's greed.

Im lovin' RCS texting with my friends :)
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I can't say what it's like yet - apparently only one of my Android-using friends is using the "right" Google messaging app for it because he's the only one who shows up as RCS, and I haven't texted with him yet. All the others, who I more regularly text with, are all still SMS.

iMessage is universal among iPhones, but apparently RCS isn't universal among Android phones. But I guess that's Apple's fault too. 🤣
 
Mrjoedot said:
My RCS switch tab in setting is not there. anyone got any idea how to turn it on?
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Force close messages, restart your phone. If it's not there, there is a method that tricks your phone by using your laptop as a middleman to connect to the serve but I would advise against it unless you are technical minded. Just be patient as its a gradual rollout.
 
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tCdemon said:
E.U. always meddling.
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There is not a single carrier in Europe on Apple‘s list that supports RCS.
We brought you a lot of good lately, but I guess RCS is not one of them.
Seems to be quite US only at this time.
 
deathcab said:
At least the blue/green bubble distinctions are remaining so we can tell which friends use iPhones vs. which friends are poor.
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For my part I thnk I‘m going ro disable iMessage. iMessage is super complex and buggy, what makes it a security - I have to check, but I think I have disabled it already.
SMS is just only for receiving validation codes, like the ones from PayPal. Communication with images/emojis happens completely on Messengers like Signal/WhatsApp.
 
headlessmike said:
My service provider (in Sweden) doesn’t support RCS and has said that they have no immediate plans of doing so either. Wonder if this will change their minds?
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Which one do you have? I use 3/hallon and they do support RCS on Android. (Not on iOS yet). I think when I tested Comviq for a while in my Sony, RCS was available.
 
aero7 said:
There is not a single carrier in Europe on Apple‘s list that supports RCS.
We brought you a lot of good lately, but I guess RCS is not one of them.
Seems to be quite US only at this time.
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They do support RCS but not in iOS devices yet.
 
Well, RCS Universal Profile is not totally clear text, it’s encrypted Client to Server using TLS, but not E2E. The carriers probably wanted it this way to keep control - so the world moved on to more secure alternatives.

Ofcourse there are compromised alternatives like Telegram that defaults to no E2E encryption unless one explicitly starts a “private conversation“ (how often do people forget?) and no encryption for groups.
 
Wish Vodafone would get a move on and support RCS on iOS!

Even better option apple let me manually enter settings not relying on networks to update carrier profiles
 
podycust said:
Wish Vodafone would get a move on and support RCS on iOS!

Even better option apple let me manually enter settings not relying on networks to update carrier profiles
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I can't see most of the UK ever getting RCS since cross-platform messaging is a solved problem here already. It would just be an expense for the networks with no benefit.
 
I am hoping picture messaging switches to data with this implementation of RCS rather than SMS as every time I send a picture to someone who has an andriod phone (and does not have Whatsapp etc) then it uses picture SMS which means a £1 charge per picture which is somewhat irritating. This is in the UK.
 
My carrier (Fraenk - a subsidiary of German Telekom) has been supporting RCS since 2021. I have no problem using it on my iPhone (messaged with android). So I feel rather optimistic about the transition from SMS to RCS and hope that Meta will eventually lose some WhatsApp users to it here in the EU.

One feature I really miss about RCS though is the edit end delete function of already sent messages.
Hopefully it will come together with proper E2EE very soon.
 
jacou said:
My carrier (Fraenk - a subsidiary of German Telekom) has been supporting RCS since 2021. I have no problem using it on my iPhone (messaged with android). So I feel rather optimistic about the transition from SMS to RCS and hope that Meta will eventually lose some WhatsApp users to it here in the EU.

One feature I really miss about RCS though is the edit end delete function of already sent messages.
Hopefully it will come together with proper E2EE very soon.
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I doubt anyone would be swapping WhatsApp for RCS. What would be the benefit? You'd lose a load of features for starters.
 
It works fine, I hope Apple doesn't wait for iOS 19 to update to Universal Profile 2.7 but I guess they will. I don't mind the green bubbles, just think the green is too bright. Makes it hard to read.
 
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mrochester said:
I doubt anyone would be swapping WhatsApp for RCS. What would be the benefit? You'd lose a load of features for starters.
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The benefit of not using WhatsApp is that you become independent of Meta and it’s sketchy user agreements.

Right now people I‘m in touch with are split between WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and other messengers. If RCS makes it possible to reach out to all of them without having to install 5 messenger apps it’s a big win in my book.
 
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jacou said:
The benefit of not using WhatsApp is that you become independent of Meta and it’s sketchy user agreements.

Right now people I‘m in touch with are split between WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and other messengers. If RCS makes it possible to reach out to all of them without having to install 5 messenger apps it’s a big win in my book.
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Most people don't seem to care about Meta's user agreements.
 
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