In a surprising move, Apple has announced today that it will adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard. The feature will launch via a software update “later next year” and bring a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users.
Apple’s decision comes amid pressure from regulators and competitors like Google and Samsung. It also comes as RCS has continued to develop and become a more mature platform than it once was.
Waiting for Apple to play it off like they weren’t the problem the whole time.
Fucking thank you. I’m so sick of not having typing indicators and read receipts with my parents lmao.
Mostly I just want videos that aren’t compressed into oblivion
This is great but surprising news. Hopefully the implementation is actually good
I imagine they’ll probably keep the blue bubbles and some features exclusive to iMessage users, but this is still great news.
I wonder if this will encourage Google to allow Fi users to have RCS while texting from PC…
Yep, they’ll definitely stick to the blue green system that already exists, threads with greens will just be improved from what they were/currently are
What do you guys think is going to happen with like an open RCS standard? RCS is only available on Google messages.
RCS has always been an open standard.
Only Google has done the work to implement it for billions of devices, so far.
That has never prevented Apple from also implementing the standard on their devices.
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They’re going to implement the open standard … which isn’t what most Android users are actually using. Does Google’s Messages app gracefully transition to the RCS standard if that’s what the other person is using?
No idea but, I suspect that Apple will have some negotiating power here, hopefully weakening Google’s control and making it mostly open
RCS is already an open standard, that’s why Apple is and always has been able to implement it themselves without relying on Google for anything.
Obnoxious "@"ing behavior
They’re on Mastodon, interaction between Lemmy and Mastodon can be weird sometimes it automatically put those there they probably didn’t manually try to @ people.
Yuck, it’s like replying in all caps
I haven’t used that feature but I think it’s neat as fuck
My understanding is that it can be fully open but Google’s current implementation is not. That’s why the Google/Samsung messaging apps are the only texting apps that support it
Google and Samsung were the only apps to implement RCS (and the infrastructure to support the app) so far.
Nothing Google has done prevents any other organizations that want to invest the time and money from also implementing the standard.
https://www.gsma.com/futurenetworks/rcs/universal-profile/
Apple, on the other hand, doesn’t allow iMessage apps or servers that they didn’t create themselves. Or even an SMS/RCS app on their devices.
Hopefully someone more educated on the topic than me can jump in here haha, maybe I’ve been misinformed idk
Alright so who do you think implements it first: Google Voice or Apple?
Please, I’m dying over here. Is there an alternative that does support it?
I’m crossing my fingers textra will get rcs, but I can understand 1) the security concerns and 2) the hoops they’d have to jump through to get it cleared because of said security concerns
Google flat out doesn’t allow it. Not even side loaded.
RCS isn’t the open standard Google claims it to be. They don’t allow anyone to make an RCS app that isn’t Google or an approved manufacturer. They also control the majority of the back end infrastructure with their Jibe service.
You would be hard pressed to find someone using RCS that doesn’t have some of their conversations going through Google’s service.
Google was pressuring Apple to move to RCS as it would give Google more data about iPhone users, as most of their chats would go through Google’s Jibe servers. This would help more conversations from SMS, WhatsApp, telegram and signal to RCS. This open standard is Google getting serious about being the messaging monopoly.
If Apple is series about privacy for their users they will implement their own RCS server infrastructure and compete with Jibe. Giving carriers more options in providing RCS service. While also pushing all iPhone users through their own servers.
If Apple isn’t implementing their own RCS server infrastructure it’ll be because Google is paying them to use RCS and leave it dependent on Google. Essentially making the default messaging service on Android and iPhone Jibe RCS.
Does Nothing get credit?
This has nothing to do with Nothing, in fact imessage forwarding software has been around long before the announcement by nothing (i was using airmessage back in 2021). And yes, i own a nothing phone 1.
This has more to do with the impending investigation and potential legislation from the EU. Apple needs to get ahead of the curve before the EU starts putting down heavy regulations on their business practices.
Yes but the software existing is different from it being used by a major-ish brand in this space
Nothing is not a major brand. The average person has no idea who they are
Still better than WhatsApp, but i would bet this will haunt us for many more years. I couldn’t convince others to use any alternative messenger to WhatsApp, unfortunately. It is easy too pupillary here
I finally deleted my WhatsApp account and it feels good to not have any Meta tentacles on my device.
There’salways going to be a group of plebs sucking on corporate balls. Think of this as the digital version of people buying some slave trade Nikes because they are super cool.
Only read? Haha
Morons. I would pay $5 a month to have imessage functionality on my android, rather than RCS compatibility on my friends’ iphones…
Apple relies too much on lock-in effect to actually offer that - instead of taking $5/month and having to develop and maintain such interoperability they’d really prefer you just get on their platform instead.
Morons. Like I said.
If you pay attention to the history of Apple, you will notice they are happy to take your money but still keep you locked into their ecosystem. You’re asking for two things that will not coexist
But I’m saying they get to lock me into that ecosphere even without getting me in their larger ecosphere, it’s a win-win because there’s zero chance people like me will ever use apple even if it’s the only phone left.
They sell hardware, everything they make is there to want you to purchase the next version of it.
Their lockin game is on point. I was reading an article about how kids bully other kids who are not using apple products because their icons are another color.
I think ideally we should all use something that’s open source, e2e encrypted, and platform agnostic, but you are not going to get either Apple or Google on board with that since you can’t really make money off it.
That means google is going to open the rcs api up to other devs soon too…right? Right??
It says in the artical they plan to use rcs the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. So I assume they won’t be using Google version. Unless I’m misunderstanding it.
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Samsung Messages is RCS enabled too, fyi.
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Only because they have some leverage over Google. It’s also reliant on using Jibe. Which is where Google can get info on your social graph.
I’m not denying that. Later on in the article it goes into further detail about how apple use the GSM RCS standard and “work to improve it”. Which means they won’t use Google’s version. So now we see what Google will do as Apple will not be working with them on the Google version after all their fuss about rcs.
My wife and I have a pixel while the rest of my family useses iPhone so I am quite interested in how this will turn out. If there is a way the two meet on the GSM standard I think it will be great. But will Google be willing to do that?
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Yeah, it will definitely be interesting, if not tumultuous lol.
Name literally any technology standard, and it was probably co-developed by competing companies. It’s the rule, not the exception.
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What are you talking about? Google doesn’t have a proprietary chat app that they force on everyone. The Messages app is for SMS, MMS, and RCS, just like every phone that’s ever gone out has had a messaging app for SMS.
And Apple purposely hamstringing their messaging features in favor of iMessage for so long has been anti-cooperative and anti-consumer.
Allowing for better interoperability between Android and iPhone is a good thing and it’s asinine to think otherwise.
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This was a big shock but welcome nevertheless. I think the looming EU Digital Rights Commission helped apply the pressure needed to make the change
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RCS is a universal standard.
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Nothing phone in shambles.
We need to thank the nothing phone for this. They’re only responding like this after severe market pressure. Thank you Nothing
Beeper too. They got a lot of buzz a while back for a similar feature.
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It’s my understanding that they need a bunch of Apple hardware to serve as an intermediary, hence the extra monthly cost for… blue bubbles. Doesn’t seem like something that can be engineered without it.
Do you honestly think Apple cares about Nothing in any capacity? They are irrelevant and apply zero market pressure on Apple.
They don’t necessarily put market pressure on apple but they do put the messaging pressure on Apple. MKBHDs video explained it pretty well, if apple were to just shut down nothing’s messenger methods, then they’d get a lot of negative press and the EU would have more reason to take action against them.
I think that apple’s trying to get out of the EUs grasp especially with this move. But the pressure from Nothing seems to have done at least something.
They don’t necessarily put market pressure on apple but they do put the messaging pressure on Apple. MKBHDs video explained it pretty well, if apple were to just shut down nothing’s messenger methods, then they’d get a lot of negative press and the EU would have more reason to take action against them.
I think that apple’s trying to get out of the EUs grasp especially with this move. But the pressure from Nothing seems to have done at least something.
Edit: nvm https://twitter.com/MaxWinebach/status/1725223759244636320?s=20
iMessage is basically a non-player in the EU; Apple already has an extremely compelling legal argument against any regulation on that front. There’s no indication whatsoever that an announced workaround from a niche player had any bearing on Apple’s decision.
So what do we think was the motivation then?
They don’t necessarily put market pressure on apple but they do put the messaging pressure on Apple. MKBHDs video explained it pretty well, if apple were to just shut down nothing’s messenger methods, then they’d get a lot of negative press and the EU would have more reason to take action against them.
I think that apple’s trying to get out of the EUs grasp especially with this move. But the pressure from Nothing seems to have done at least something.
Almost no way. This is most likely just to avoid EU regulation.
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Man, I’ve been saying they’re gonna do this soon and I’ve been piled on by so many people on lemmy for it. Some of you really are clowns and are blinded by your hate for Apple.
Edit: hurt some butts again lmao. Cowards.
Wow you’re really stroking yourself off there. Lmao.
😅
As an iPhone convert this is a good thing.
I wonder if this comes due to the EU
