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Send and Receive RCS Messages on iPhone

TimFL1 said:
This is such an annoying mentality that Apple has there. RCS on iOS is as underwhelming and broken as it gets, loads of issues with their implementation that grind my gears:

- The biggest issue: they group RCS with SMS/MMS
- iOS decides at random to fall back to SMS/MMS for RCS messages, that could not be delivered for whatever reason (no way to turn off and prevent accidental charges)
- Very VERY aggressive RCS connectivity checks / downgrades, it flips back to SMS at the slightest inconvenience (not-so-great connection? yeah back to SMS and you‘ll stay there for eternity even when connection recovers)… sometimes you have bulletproof full 5G, but RCS is just gone cause iOS doesn‘t like the tower or sun position -> just treat it like iMessage, once RCS is detected for a contact… stay at RCS, even when you‘re offline… until you manually send as SMS or have your fallback active
- Group chats are an absolute mess due to Apple combining RCS and SMS/MMS, they on-the-fly downgrade you to a MMS group which causes headache on the Android side, cause the spec outlines you may not mix both technologies (e.g. on Google Messages, the input box gets disabled when your RCS connection fails, whereas on iOS, Apple just lets you blast MMS in there which works for you, but you accidentally create a new MMS group for any Android participants with a single message you sent just now …). The 2 technologies aren‘t even compatible in terms of spec, MMS groups usually cap at 6-10 users whereas RCS mandates 100 as the shared limit any implementation should use… good luck downgrading your RCS group to MMS when you have 20+ participants, oh the nightmare ….
- Apple still enforces arbitrary stuff like "less than 4 participants in your group? tough luck, can‘t leave until you add another poor soul which stays in your place then" they enforce for iMessage groups … it‘s the only platform that has this awkward design choice, get rid of it (for both RCS and iMessage) and get with the times
- RCS does not work on a lot of wifi networks with limitations, cause they use awkward ports for their implementation instead of relying in well-known ones like Google Messages does

RCS on iOS is designed to do the bare minimum in an annoying way (in terms of UX), so the cries are silenced but you gain very little in return.
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Like I said, annoying for you, but it gets more people onto iMessage/iPhone for them. Tim Cook isn't your friend. Apple's goal is to gain costumers and make money.
 
I don’t know a single person that wants this. Almost every one of my contacts uses WhatsApp or iMessage

Glad for those who can use this but SMS is a thing of the past for me and there are much better messaging alternatives than this, for me
 
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DEMinSoCAL said:
What is your definition for a "private communication"? I don't think in my whole life so far that I've sent a text that I cared where someone else saw it or not. Are you using your phone for illicit activities? I mean, it's nice that an iMessage is end-to-end encrypted, but I wouldn't care if it wasn't. My texts are just grains of sand on an endless beach.
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I think Google loves people like you. Privacy is not just about doing illegal stuff. For example I do not like strangers to see me nude although they probably know what a nude man looks like.

The danger is that even harmless things can reveal much more than you may want. There may be some correlation between your favourite colour and your character for example. If your car insurance learns that your favourite colour is red, you might have to pay higher premiums because big data reveals that people who prefer red drive faster ans cause more accidents. That was just a made up example, but if you have enough data, you fill find a lot of correlations.

Even if texts are end-to-end encrypted, the meta data is still very valuable. It tells Google who you communicate with, the number of people, the time you send the most messages, the number of messages and their size and so on. If you text somebody late at night, the person likely is a very close friend of even your new girlfriend that you have not revealed to anybody yet.

Each time Google offers something "for free", it will collect of data. Google has very highly paid employees. They would not give away anything for free.

iMac The Knife said:
The people you message must be stuck in the past then. No offense to you or to them personally, but everyone I know that uses Android moved to RCS a long time ago. Most iPhone users I know have this feature toggled on as well.
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What is really more modern about RCS compared to WhatsApp for example? Just that Google collects your meta data instead of Meta? Signal even does not sell you meta data at all and Threema does not even require a mobile number. What is a feature that RCS offers that you can't get in any other messenger? As far as I understand, you could use RCS on third party apps, but the messages will still be stored on Google servers.
 
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If only RCS worked reliably. I tried it but turned it off again. And, yes, my carrier and the carriers of those I have been messaging all support RCS. Sometimes it works and sometimes messages are lost in the ether. Very unreliable. My friends and relatives report the same issues with both their iPhones and Android devices.
 
Skyscraperfan said:
I think Google loves people like you. Privacy is not just about doing illegal stuff. For example I do not like strangers to see me nude although they probably know what a nude man looks like.

The danger is that even harmless things can reveal much more than you may want. There may be some correlation between your favourite colour and your character for example. If your car insurance learns that your favourite colour is red, you might have to pay higher premiums because big data reveals that people who prefer red drive faster ans cause more accidents. That was just a made up example, but if you have enough data, you fill find a lot of correlations.

Even if texts are end-to-end encrypted, the meta data is still very valuable. It tells Google who you communicate with, the number of people, the time you send the most messages, the number of messages and their size and so on. If you text somebody late at night, the person likely is a very close friend of even your new girlfriend that you have not revealed to anybody yet.

Each time Google offers something "for free", it will collect of data. Google has very highly paid employees. They would not give away anything for free.


What is really more modern about RCS compared to WhatsApp for example? Just that Google collects your meta data instead of Meta? Signal even does not sell you meta data at all and Threema does not even require a mobile number. What is a feature that RCS offers that you can't get in any other messenger? As far as I understand, you could use RCS on third party apps, but the messages will still be stored on Google servers.
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Well, WhatsApp is owned by Meta, so I don't think I need to say much more there. I don't know a single person in the US that uses WhatsApp. Therefore, I cannot speak to what might be better or more modern about RCS. I just know that RCS is the fastest and most reliable way to message on Android that I've encountered. I'm not telling anyone not to use WhatsApp, if that is what they prefer.
 
headlessmike said:
It varies a lot from country to country in Europe. WhatsApp is indeed the standard in many parts. When I was in Austria I even booked doctors appointments using WhatsApp. In Sweden iMessage is very common (iPhone has a large market share), while FB Messenger is the main cross-platform app, which makes like difficult for people like me without an account. I ate at a restaurant in Stockholm once that used Messenger as their only way to order food...
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Oh gosh, Messenger - even worse than WhatsApp.
 
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ThomasJL said:
The fact that Tim Cook allowed RCS messages to be green shows how utterly clueless he is, and how Steve Jobs was right when he complained to his biographer that Cook is not a products person. SMS messages are green. iMessages are blue in order to easily know that it is not an SMS message. Clueless Cook allowed RCS messages to be green, thus not making it easy to know if it is an RCS message or an SMS message. If Clueless Cook actually cared about user-friendliness, RCS messages would be a different color which is neither green nor blue.
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It tells you if it's on RCS or SMS message in the area where you type your message. Clueless indeed.
 
For me, RCS is no big deal. It's a text message, for God's sake. Just another excuse to use bandwidth on servers that are already gobbling electricity more than most small/medium cities.
 
joeblow7777 said:
Like I said, annoying for you, but it gets more people onto iMessage/iPhone for them. Tim Cook isn't your friend. Apple's goal is to gain costumers and make money.
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Where does one draw the line between genius marketing and petty behavior is the question at hand.

Apple is borderline petty behavior by gimping these things to the point where you might as well not add support for it.
 
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iMac The Knife said:
Well, WhatsApp is owned by Meta, so I don't think I need to say much more there. I don't know a single person in the US that uses WhatsApp. Therefore, I cannot speak to what might be better or more modern about RCS. I just know that RCS is the fastest and most reliable way to message on Android that I've encountered. I'm not telling anyone not to use WhatsApp, if that is what they prefer.
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Yes, I also tell people not to tell WhatsApp. Signal, Threema and Telegram are much better alternatives. But using RCS on Google servers instead of WhatsApp feels like fleeing from Afghanistan to Iraq. Why does RCS have to use Google servers? I would feel safer if everybody could choose their own server for a conversation. Of course both side would have to agree some how. I had mich more trust in a server hosted by Apple.
 
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Skyscraperfan said:
Yes, I also tell people not to tell WhatsApp. Signal, Threema and Telegram are much better alternatives. But using RCS on Google servers instead of WhatsApp feels like fleeing from Afghanistan to Iraq. Why does RCS have to use Google servers? I would feel safer if everybody could choose their own server for a conversation. Of course both side would have to agree some how. I had mich more trust in a server hosted by Apple.
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You are correct, RCS messaging doesn't have to use Google servers. But, Google's implementation of RCS in Google messages obviously does. I would have more trust in Apple's servers as well.
 
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Skyscraperfan said:
As an Android user, I have not sent a single RCS message in my whole life so far. Why would anyone use a Google server for private communication?
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How many people use a Meta server to send private comunications?

I don't use RCS either and I am also an Android user , I usea third partyy SMS app that don;lt support RCS and to be honest I don't see the point in it. I don't want people sending my photos, videos or silly emojis or stickers via text. If they want to send me a video/photo, then use email. If they really must, use Facebook Messenger.
SMS is what it is, Small messaging service
I also don't like the typing indicators thing, I disable that in Facebook Messenger. Just a shame I can't disable it when people send me a message. I don't want to know they are typing, I don't care, all I want is the final message
 
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I’ve got to laugh at the fact that after all of Google’s whining about this, Android users are still relegated to being green bubble peasants in iMessage. I don’t know why being green bubble upsets some people so much, but it’s great to see nosy Google not getting what they wanted.
 
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iBluetooth said:
What will Android users find to complain about iOS now, or they silence as everything they asked for is solved?
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Android users complain about IOS, for what reason? I am an android user, but I don't complain about IOS, well, not when I am not using it. What people use is up to them. I sometime use a iPad at work, and I am not a fan, feel like chucking it out of the window sometimes, whihc is probaly one of the reason I will never buy an iPhone, even if some people say I should, since I use a Mac.
 
Why all the moaning? RCS is a no-brainer. We should all get behind it if it makes messaging across networks and devices more secure and improves functionality. The challenge is these big, bloated network providers... Vodafone UK, 02 UK.. these guys have stopped innovating, no development in network functionality.. and when it comes to device lead services.. they are slow to implement. RCS is a prime example. It's not rocket science, yet it's unavailable to UK iPhone owners. Excuses.. misinformation
 
Ad47uk said:
How many people use a Meta server to send private comunications?

I don't use RCS either and I am also an Android user , I usea third partyy SMS app that don;lt support RCS and to be honest I don't see the point in it. I don't want people sending my photos, videos or silly emojis or stickers via text. If they want to send me a video/photo, then use email. If they really must, use Facebook Messenger.
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Facebook Messenger? I would much rather that Google see my photos and messages than Meta.
 
TimFL1 said:
Where does one draw the line between genius marketing and petty behavior is the question at hand.

Apple is borderline petty behavior by gimping these things to the point where you might as well not add support for it.
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We each choose where we draw that line by voting with our wallets.
 
I love it! I haven't had any issues sending videos and pics to my android friends now. I used to always get errors before.
 
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