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.
RCS in iOS 18: What You Need to Know About Apple's Android Messaging Overhaul
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Its very hit and miss for me RCS. Some of the people who I message who do not have iPhones, some it will show Text Message RCS in the message field, other people I message it just shows Text Message SMS.
For the time being I think I will just keep on using WhatsApp to message the said people, until reliability improves with RCS messaging.
For the time being I think I will just keep on using WhatsApp to message the said people, until reliability improves with RCS messaging.
I’ve little interest in Jibe other than to explore your assertion that Google has no proprietary implementation of RCS. Apparently it does contrary to your assertion.
Apple didn’t have to wait for the specification to be finalized, but what advantage was there for them to do so? iMessage/Messages has served its users well while RCS has been a hellscape of patchy and incompatible carrier support. What other projects would they have to cut to fund an RCS project? I’ve worked on software that has been going through industry-standard revisions. Adopting and implementing proposed changes before they have been accepted is speculative work. It only pays off if you have agreements with others who will use those changes or if you have an interest championing/forcing change.
There really was no benefit for Apple to adopt RCS sooner. As you will admit, it was only recently that carriers in the US started using RCS in an interoperable way. And, in the US at least, that was only due to a persistent lobbying campaign to get them to adopt Jibe, with Verizon only relenting this year. Globally, the implementation is still patchy. Someone on this thread was even complaining that carriers in Australia don’t support it.
As has been noted, Google has a service called Jibe which implements RCS support for carriers. Google has economic incentive for them to stay on the leading edge.
No one has been locked into the Apple ecosystem by Messages.
I think you are out of touch with users. Most Apple users I know were initially upset that Apple switched to USB C. Literally within the week or two I have heard two different comedians make snide jokes about disliking Apple because they keep changing cable connectors. Let’s not forget that lightning predates USB-C by four years. Nor should we forget that people still have USB A devices and get upset at having to buy dongles to use old devices on new machines.
Still, it was a Google only implementation. If you are arguing that Apple should follow just because Google did something, then you cannot be taken seriously.
Yes, you can criticize Apple for not implementing MLS, even though it is not yet part of a published standard and no one else has implemented it either. You can criticize Apple for “not adopting features that protect their customers messages”, even though Messages has had E2EE since 2011. And you can laud Google, even though it didn’t get around to adding an Android-only non-standard E2EE until 2020. Of course, it all sounds very special pleading and biased.
The feature list is incorrect. Apple does NOT support reactions as part of their RCS implementation.
What you‘re seeing is the good old '😂 to "hey"' reaction vanilla text parsing on your device kicking in that both sides (iOS and Android) added years ago.
Please correct your article and stop spreading misinformation.
What you‘re seeing is the good old '😂 to "hey"' reaction vanilla text parsing on your device kicking in that both sides (iOS and Android) added years ago.
Please correct your article and stop spreading misinformation.
Any I have messaged with RCS, they have just replied back to me in the same way. Even though my usual means of messaging these people was with WhatsApp.
I wonder if they'll be prepared to continue the conversation in the messages app or if they'll switch your conversation back to WhatsApp after a while?
I think they will just continue the conversation in whichever app I have used to message them with last.
I wonder if they'll start a conversation with you in WhatsApp 🤣
I can see conversations being fragmented amongst multiple apps going forward.
Apart from Samsung, I don't think there are any thrid party text apps that support RCS, but I could be wrong. Even Samsung by all accounts have Googles on text app as default.
I use Textra as it has features I like, not bothered about RCS, all I want to do is send a message and receive a message.
Also, some Android phones cost just as much if not more than Iphones.
I admit I did choose an Android phone because of the high prices of Iphones, I don't see the point in me paying what I call silly amount of money just for a phone., that does the same things as my £130 phone, but a bit faster.
The other thing is I don't like the Iphone UI, no doubt I could get used to it, but Apple control what can be put on an Iphone too much for me.
Since I got a Mac last year, I did think of maybe getting an Iphone, integration and all that stuff, but then realise that I don't want my phone joined up with my computer. Never did it with my windows machine3 with My phone app and don't want to do it with my Mac. My phone is a separate thing to my computer.
Europe is a big place full of different countries, don't confuse Europe with E.U. Vodafone used to support RCS in the U.K, but are now using Google version of it.
Google only stepped in because carriers were not using RCS.
RCS is available in the U.K, ok not via the carriers, but via Google, so the Iphone need the carrier to support it?
As for cross-platform messaging being solved, is it? The only proper cross-platform messaging is SMS/MMS, I can use that and everyone I know can receive it., even the ones that don't have smartphones. With apps like Signal and WhatsApp, the user has to have a smartphone and need to know what app someone is using. You could end up with a load of these apps on your phone.
I have Faceache messenger on my phone, but only use it now and again, I don't have any other messaging apps apart from my text app. I use SMS for most of my messaging.
It does what it says on the tin, send short messages.
It may say SMS because the person you send the message to may not have RCS enabled or use a different text App.
UK smartphone penetration is at 97% so almost everyone can already install and use a cross-platform messaging app.
Yes the networks need to support RCS for it to work. They’ll need an incentive to support it since implementing RCS will incur costs. Incentives might be the ability to sell messaging services to businesses, etc. (although businesses might decline since they can already reach most of the population via WhatsApp. There’d probably have to be a sizeable portion of the population who are only contactable via RCS to make that worthwhile).
Last edited:
What? All that whinging about blue and green bubbles and forcing Apple... and now carriers dont support it?
Oh the irony
Well, actually here in Europe most people use WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, etc. so the colour of the bubbles is not such a big deal. However, it shows how little the carriers are interested in supporting RCS here, as they will be losing quite a bit of their cross-border SMS fees.
I did, and it’s since come out that the text bubble colors aren’t changing. Maybe that will change as RCS adoption rises. Messaging should be platform agnostic like email.
Just assumed it would be on as default on Android phones. Yeah that makes sense what you have said though (about them not enable RCS on their phone).
RCS was not demanded by the EU, but by China. The EU doesn't even see iMessage as a gate keeper, unlike WhatsApp and the Facebook Messenger. I just think it is embarrassing that it took a state to get Apple to implement RCS.
why?
look at Bluetooth speakers... manufacturers choose whatever codecs and protocols they want to support.
should a state or EU legislate that they need to support a list of codecs etc?
maybe they can force Apple to support LDAC?
why can't my Sony speaker play FLACs natively when they an play MP3s and WAVs?
RCS is carrier dependent for compression and file sizes and support.
There is no guarantee that files are going to look better or the same as sent.
The whole need for RCS has long gone. Except where users are too lazy to get something better.
Most people have cross platform alternatives they use already.
Ha what a crap feature and how this of course was completely blown out of proportion by idiotic google.
I was looking forward to this to then find out that none of the 10 android people in my list have this omnipresent standard enabled and have obviously no clue what it is...
I was looking forward to this to then find out that none of the 10 android people in my list have this omnipresent standard enabled and have obviously no clue what it is...
Oh and to all of those over stressing thinking people won't use it? This was solved a long time ago outside of the US, we simply started using it and everyone followed.
Once you "text" someone with rcs enabled, most don't even realise it's activated btw, they then realised that it's exactly the same as WhatsApp/Facebook messenger.
I think it's more of a US issue given the prevalence of iMessage. In reality the only issues for you guys are messaging people with ancient android devices or obscure MVNOs that have 5 customers.
Once you "text" someone with rcs enabled, most don't even realise it's activated btw, they then realised that it's exactly the same as WhatsApp/Facebook messenger.
I think it's more of a US issue given the prevalence of iMessage. In reality the only issues for you guys are messaging people with ancient android devices or obscure MVNOs that have 5 customers.