And then there’s Outlook just being its ancient self.
is not rcs simply another locked down standard under the thumb of google, which they have decided to limit and block on rooted devices in the past?
correct me if im wrong ? but this all seems like a freight train of no good barelling in. google propoganda has won out and we’re swapping one gatekept standard for another.
I believe that RCS is a specification maintained by the GSM Association. That’s not to say Google is not a member (they are) and has a strong influence, but Google doesn’t own the standard either
Last I had looked into it, although the standard exists, they use their own servers and are not compatible with other rcs implementations
The E2EE element of RCS has basically been a property Google thing, despite all their marketing BS about RCS seeming like some sort of open universal career messaging platform.
Although, allegedly they’ve finally relented and a universal encryption solution is now in the works.
Moving forward, Google appears to be relenting to Apple, and will be giving up their control over RCS E2EE. Apple and Google are working with the GSMA on a universal standard that is not owned by a single gatekeeper.
That said, for v1 of RCS on iOS, since that universal encryption standard doesn’t exist, RCS will be unencrypted on iOS, allegedly. So, it’s likely to mean that, this fall, iOS to Android is still just as insecure as ever over carrier text messaging, but now images and videos won’t look like shit. Then at some point soon, cross platform messaging will get proper encryption.
We’ll probably need to wait until WWDC before we get more info on what’s actually happening with cross platform RCS.
Can confirm they block rooted Android users intentionally, completely silently, at least when using Google’s RCS servers. The message just doesn’t send and is automatically deemed spam if you don’t pass PlayIntegrity. And the only RCS capable app is Google’s Messages, third party apps can only access SMS and MMS functionnality.
So yeah, fuck RCS really. I was completely on board with RCS until that. Apple was right on that one. It won’t fix messaging, it just puts it in Google’s hands unless carriers finally decide to roll out real RCS instead of relying on Google to provide it.
Third party apps had that resolved a decade ago, and Signal is just plain better.
IIRC at least textra is also able to peruse RCS, though I’m sure it goes through google servers too
They better not obstruct the Linux phones.
I don’t assume anyone has written a real client yet but there’s a library you can use: https://github.com/Hirohumi/rust-rcs-client
Obstruct? No. Not even think about? Yes.
RCS itself is an open standard (kind of), but Google Messages is literally the only RCS Client
There are no others. Like seriously you can barely find another usable RCS Client
sad! the world once again fell for google’s propaganda and deception just because they were able to muster up a good-guy attitude and a winning smile.
yeah it’s quite disappointing, I wish Matrix saw some more (individual!) funding
(organisations that have funded Matrix in the past generally want new features, but not core work on Matrix to make the experience any better 🥴)
the world once again fell for google’s propaganda
Not really — since so far nobody else has adopted RCS. And not many people use the Google one either.
The Signal protocol is a defacto standard and on the path to becoming an actual standard. It’s already the most widely used messaging protocol today except for perhaps Email… but email would only be larger if you include messages that were sent by bots. For human sent messages, Signal is the most widely used protocol in the world.
And as part of the DMA in Europe, Meta (which makes up most Signal users) is opening up their infrastructure so that any other messaging app can send/receive messages to their users. Which would essentially make it a perfect replacement for SMS and definitely better than RCS. You won’t have to use WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger yourself, to be able to securely contact anyone who does.
nobody else has adopted RCS
hm? genuinely does the following not contradict your statement?
Chinese carriers have been proponents of RCS for years, and last year, the Chinese government began the process of codifying into law that to achieve certification, new 5G devices will be required to support RCS. src
like maybe im misunderstanding but seems fairly clear that significant people groups are turning toward RCS.
Does it have end to end encryption like iMessage or WhatsApp? No. The winners and the losers are clear to me.
RCS makes everything better by forcing us to add a second proprietary communication standard to our phone that is advertised by Google and required by Chinese law regulations. And is also know for bad security…. What could possibly go wrong.
