Tim Cook Shoots Down Idea of iOS Adopting RCS Messages: 'Buy Your Mom an iPhone'

[Unregistered 4U]

Carriers don't support Slack either. But it doesn't matter because it's just a protocol (or an app if you like) like RCS. You have no idea what you're talking about.

And, that’s why Slack isn’t supported INSIDE Apple’s Messages app. Unlike, say, SMS/MMS. You just don’t like that I know what I’m talking about.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

This trope that older women are technologically impaired and must rely on their tech literate kids for all tech needs (especially their sons) is absolutely sexist.

I hardly ever see dads treated this way. So easy your mom can use it is a thing vs so easy your parents can use it.

To be fair, that trope WAS introduced into the conversation by the reporter. If the reporter had said they had difficulty sending images and videos to their dad, the same response applies.

 

[brofkand]

And, that’s why Slack isn’t supported INSIDE Apple’s Messages app. Unlike, say, SMS/MMS. You just don’t like that I know what I’m talking about.

Apple controls what is supported in their own apps. That is the entire point of this debate. Carrier support is irrelevant.

 

[I7guy]

Wow, this is such a BS entitled thing to say. Reporter should've responded with "great, I'll send you the bill".

Corporate execs live in a different world where there is unlimited money to throw at any problem, and forget their company's customers do not.

"I also have friends that use Android" "Buy them all iPhones too"

Perfect response by Cook.

 

[nebojsak]

I still view this recording as one of the worst Apple's put together. Makes this guy look like IBM, authoritative like a principal at a school when you've done wrong, and the status quo Apple was against.

Sad old grey bean counter.

Steve Jobs was the same kind of dikhead apparently, but with certain style. Tim is cringeworthy.

 

[kaycrystal626]

I use FB messenger to communicate with friends that have iPhones or Android. Problem solved.

 

[progx]

It doesn’t even have to be RCS, Apple could work with Google on an entirely different standard that’s up to their standard. But no, they want the experience to be bad because they want me to pressure friends and strangers to buy their phone.

The big reason Apple isn’t moving on it is due to Google trying to force standards in their Android ecosystem, where they claimed none will be there. Apple isn’t the issue, it’ll come down handset makers too. Which have resisted Google quite a few times. Remember Allo? Didn’t come preinstalled on anything outside of a Google branded phone. Samsung hopped on broad, but what about OnePlus, Xiaomi, Motorola and other handset makers? Apparently RCS isn’t even enabled on most of those phones out of the box, it requires the user to do it. I think Apple is waiting to see and testing it, they’re afraid they’ll have to rip it out or find some way to deal with it if this “standard” flops.

Especially when most Android users use Messenger, WhatsApp and other messaging apps over Google Messages (or the manufacturer’s Messages app), the question is how many people will use it on their platform. Google needs Apple to legitimize it so they can force it on their manufacturing partners next and really push the carriers to make a decision on how to implement and quick.

Google needs to get its partners on board, if they can do it and it’s widely used, then it’ll be added to Messages on Apple’s platform.

 

[boss.king]

The big reason Apple isn’t moving on it is due to Google trying to force standards in their Android ecosystem, where they claimed none will be there. Apple isn’t the issue, it’ll come down handset makers too. Which have resisted Google quite a few times. Remember Allo? Didn’t come preinstalled on anything outside of a Google branded phone. Samsung hopped on broad, but what about OnePlus, Xiaomi, Motorola and other handset makers? Apparently RCS isn’t even enabled on most of those phones out of the box, it requires the user to do it. I think Apple is waiting to see and testing it, they’re afraid they’ll have to rip it out or find some way to deal with it if this “standard” flops.

Especially when most Android users use Messenger, WhatsApp and other messaging apps over Google Messages (or the manufacturer’s Messages app), the question is how many people will use it on their platform. Google needs Apple to legitimize it so they can force it on their manufacturing partners next and really push the carriers to make a decision on how to implement and quick.

Google needs to get its partners on board, if they can do it and it’s widely used, then it’ll be added to Messages on Apple’s platform.

As an iPhone user though, I don’t care about any of that. My experience is bad on an iPhone. Google has nothing to do with my iPhone, Apple does, I expect them to at least be making an effort.

And, like you say, RCS isn’t fully established everywhere yet, that means Apple still had a chance to put their thumb on the scale and change the standard to make something they and their users will be happy with. They should be jumping at the chance to set the terms here.

 

[boss.king]

So, if it doesn’t have to be RCS, might I interest you in being a Telegram or Signal salesman? Or perhaps, WhatsApp? Or, do you ONLY want to be a Google salesman? Best thing about these other products is, you don’t even have to wait for them to have wide usage around the world, they’re ALREADY there! And, for folks outside the US, you don’t even have to be a salesman because they’re already using them!

I already use basically every messaging app on the market because I don’t want to be a salesman for anything. I want Apple to stop ****ing around and improve their interplatform messaging standard so that I can ditch some of these apps.

Also, I live outside of the US and I can assure you that not everyone is already using them. It shouldn’t be my job to convert people to some third party app, it should be Apple’s job to make the first party app good enough that I don’t have to.

 

[I7guy]

As an iPhone user though, I don’t care about any of that. My experience is bad on an iPhone. Google has nothing to do with my iPhone, Apple does, I expect them to at least be making an effort.

And, like you say, RCS isn’t fully established everywhere yet, that means Apple still had a chance to put their thumb on the scale and change the standard to make something they and their users will be happy with. They should be jumping at the chance to set the terms here.

Apple probably weighs those that have a “bad” iPhone experience to those that don’t care. If this affected apples bottom line they would make something happen.

 

[boss.king]

Call ‘em? Post on their social media? Send them an email? Use a search engine and you can find myriad ways to get a message to someone with a different brand of phone. It’s a problem that’s been solved myriad numbers of ways.

Obviously those are options, but that’s not what we were talking about. Context is key.

 

[M3gatron]

No, it’s not nonsense. It’s not RCS because Google doesn’t call it RCS, T-mobile doesn’t call it RCS, they all refer to it as “Google RCS” which is NOT the same as the RCS standard that has been all but forgotten by the GSMA that proposed it.

Now those are a bunch of contradictions that aren't worth anybody's time.

 

[boss.king]

Apple probably weighs those that have a “bad” iPhone experience to those that don’t care. If this affected apples bottom line they would make something happen.

Yup, that’s definitely the approach that Apple now takes. It used to be that Apple would just, I dunno, make the experience good for its own sake. But when fixing a problem costs money, and the issue makes your customer into a free sales team, maybe it’s a feature and not a bug, right?

 

[ggibson913]

Perhaps it’s time for Tim to retire. The arrogance of the statement “buy your mom an iPhone”. Were I Samsung or another Android phone producer, I would be plastering that sentiment all over the web.

 

[I7guy]

Perhaps it’s time for Tim to retire. The arrogance of the statement “buy your mom an iPhone”. Were I Samsung or another Android phone producer, I would be plastering that sentiment all over the web.

I thought it was a great line. I’m sure Tim will retire…in 5 years.

 

[visualseed]

Perhaps it’s time for Tim to retire. The arrogance of the statement “buy your mom an iPhone”. Were I Samsung or another Android phone producer, I would be plastering that sentiment all over the web.

You would plaster "Tom Cook said 'Buy your mom an iPhone' if you want a better messaging experience" all over the web? Probably a good thing you aren't head of marketing over at Samsung.

 

[MichaelReineke]

And, that’s why Slack isn’t supported INSIDE Apple’s Messages app. Unlike, say, SMS/MMS. You just don’t like that I know what I’m talking about.

Slack would require a data connection on your cell plan. RCS, SMS, MMS, use* your unlimited Talk & Text which plans usually provides nowadays. Data is expensive.
For example if you're economically disadvantaged and have a cheap cellphone and cheap plan, being able to send high quality photos of, say, your kids, to your family and not eat into your tiny data plan would be a huge win. But of course Apple doesn't care about poor people. "Just buy your whole family iPhones", could've followed that up with "Why don't poor people just buy more money?"

Apple also doesn't even care about their own customer's privacy, as all of your iPhone messags over SMS/MMS are unencrypted. Syniverse, a middleman who helps rout SMS messages for AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile, and others, was hacked, and that hack was active for FIVE YEARS, possibly exposing your texts. You're much better off having your private communications end to end encrypted in iMessage, and also encrypted in RCS as a fallback.

Let's just focus on Syniverse here even more. At one point they screwed up and 16k of people's possible deadly important SMS/MMS messages got delayed and took over half a year to reach the other end.

"Hey Mom, you still okay? I got your message that your car broke down and you're stranded in the middle of winter, but it seems that was NINE MONTHS AGO. Tim says I HAVE to buy you an iPhone, or else he'll continue to put your life in danger on purpose by only supporting an unreliable protocol from 1992, instead of the newer, 14 year old, RCS protocol."

*Some implementations, on some carriers, with some phones, and some apps, count RCS as OTT and would charge you data to use it.

 

[Ludatyk]

To be clear, RCS didn’t find a way as, at this point, it’s effectively nothing (though the rosy predictions on the GSMA website thought it would replace SMS/MMS including in dumb phones). Apple didn’t put a layer on SMS/MMS, they check to see if the other user is an iPhone user and have iMessage enabled and then ignore SMS/MMS. iMessage does indeed replace the carrier network connection between devices when enabled.

That’s why any cross-platform solution which must include dumb phones, will have to be done at the carrier and that’s the only way SMS/MMS gets supplanted. For “smartphone only” solutions, there are apps for that.

And to be clear, I use RCS… not sure about you. And from my experience it behaves like iMessage… once I enable RCS there is type indications, read receipts and a better experience compared to SMS/MMS. I’ve never gotten any ads that news reported… from my usage it’s been alright.

I don’t think cross platform should include dumb phones… their solution is SMS/MMS. I’m only speaking in terms of blue vs green bubbles controversy that’s mostly a USA problem. Although RCS is ineffective in your point of view, I think it’s the best solution going forward.

 

[kyleh22]

other than its a hodgepodge not everyone even supports the entire thing and its not even supported by more than 20 carriers outside the US

If it was the default messaging protocol for apple and android every carrier would support it...

 

[bobcomer]

I don't agree with everything Tim Cook/Apple says or does, but I love this. I even love the way he phrased it.

The way he said it, if it was said to me, I'd have thrown my iPhone on the floor, stomped on it, and left. Of course I would brick the phone later from find my, and shut my Macs down for the last time when I got home.

 

[visualseed]

The way he said it, if it was said to me, I'd have thrown my iPhone on the floor, stomped on it, and left. Of course I would brick the phone later from find my, and shut my Macs down for the last time when I got home.

Because acting like is a child is the only way you can deal with not getting your way?

 

[progx]

As an iPhone user though, I don’t care about any of that. My experience is bad on an iPhone. Google has nothing to do with my iPhone, Apple does, I expect them to at least be making an effort.

And, like you say, RCS isn’t fully established everywhere yet, that means Apple still had a chance to put their thumb on the scale and change the standard to make something they and their users will be happy with. They should be jumping at the chance to set the terms here.

Problem with RCS, it has been around since 2007 and it’s pretty out of date compared to the competition (ie. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc) and not including the features in iMessage. I’m sure Apple has tested it before Google decided it needed something back in 2018 when all their other solutions just failed miserably. The other issue is the supposed “end-to-end encryption,” if it isn’t being handled by Google or the mobile providers, it’s no different than SMS.

Apple sees they have a standard: iMessage. Could they port it to Android and Windows? Sure. Are they going to? Probably not.

Not to mention, if Apple pushed iMessage as a standard, you don’t think there wouldn’t be pushback? Another thing, there is plenty of data showing Android users don’t rely on SMS solely. Again, if it becomes a popular standard, Apple will adopt it for their products. If they have to support it, that would take resources from their platforms. Apple has always been Apple first, even when Steve Jobs was alive. Jobs could care less about Windows users, he’d tell them to buy a Mac for a better experience.

Also, if you’re having a bad experience, have you considered switching to a different platform? Apple doesn’t need to bend to your will when the rest of us don’t really care. I have alternate ways in sending pictures to Android users, specifically through Messenger, Photos and OneDrive links. Same with video. Majority of my family uses iPhone, so we all communicate via iMessage.

 

[grkm3]

They didn’t “team up” for RCS. T-mobile, Verizon, and AT&T “teamed up” for the CCMI (Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative) in order to implement actual RCS. That failed about two years ago. What Google is doing is called “Google RCS” which is not even something that the GSMA considers RCS.

Well it says so on there web site

Verizon and Google team up to bring enhanced messaging services to Android users

Verizon announced a collaboration with Google to expand advanced messaging services to Android users in the U.S. starting next year using Google’s Android Messages app.

www.verizon.com

 

[bobcomer]

Because acting like is a child is the only way you can deal with not getting your way?

lol, no because I wouldn't want to keep dealing with a company that has so little respect for its customers. And yes, I'm not above showing my displeasure directly. When getting disrespected so visibly, I can't imagine any other way without looking like a total wimp.

 

[MichaelReineke]

lol, no because I wouldn't want to keep dealing with a company that has so little respect for its customers. And yes, I'm not above showing my displeasure directly. When getting disrespected so visibly, I can't imagine any other way without looking like a total wimp.

What he means to say is that when a billionare talks down to you, you're supposed to look down at your feet and say "Yes sir! I will buy my mother an iPhone!"
Standing up for yourself? Who do you think you are? A billionare? No.