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.
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Finally! But I’m sure they’ll keep the green color for non imessage, and the (incredibly stupid) social stigma it carries in the US.
If it a) successfully fools people into thinking their products are good, b) further fools them into thinking they’re worth the batshit insane pricetag, and c) isn’t illegal enough to be unprofitable, then they’ll keep doing it.
So yeah, I’d wager they keep the blue/green boxes. Bet they’ll also change non-rcs+non-imessage to another color to further divide things up as well.
Does RSC have end to end encryption? Is it on by default?
No. The e2ee is a proprietary extension developed by Google. To use it and the full set of extensions, you must either use the closed Google RCS API, which at the moment only Samsung is allowed to access. Alternatively you can use Google’s current flavor of the month chat app, Messages.
I have been very vocal that while this is a good thing, Apple for all their faults, should not be chastised for not implementing anything beyond the core of RCS. Google has been attempted to leverage RCS as a market force, and their widely publicized shaming of Apple not adopting it is at least partly in bad faith. If a telcom wants to implement RCS as Google touts it, you must also purchase and install the RCS gateways that Google can conveniently sell you for very large sums.
https://www.xda-developers.com/google-messages-rcs-api-third-party-apps/
I’ve read that it doesn’t have e2ee in its specs. Google has a proprietary tweak enabling it but Apple will stick to RSC specs.
Let’s hope that RSC gets e2ee asap.
This is due to licensing issues on Google’s end. They indirectly manufacture the gateways needed to implement the e2ee extensions at scale.
About time in my opinion, but “later next year” sounds to me like this will be iOS 18. Hopefully I’m wrong with that though
This is great news.
