It's that time of year again, folks. As the tech world has sights set on the latest Apple event that is producing the new iPhone 16 as we speak, we all know we'll be seeing slightly improved phones, some impressive specs, and a few 'innovative" or "magic" new features from Apple. For me, however, the...
RCS is the wrong one to use, since it is not an open enough standard for there to be a single FOSS RCS app on Android. Something like Matrix or the Signal protocol would be better.
RCS is an open standard, but Google’s implementation of it isn’t AFAIK. That’s why there exist no 3rd party RCS client outside of those praised by Google.
I think they mean it more as it’s not only gonna be Google but Apple who are going to be shoving RCS down their throats of people wether they want it or not by shipping it as default.
On the other hand, the era when corporations cared even the tiniest bit for open standards in instant messaging was gone long ago. Now all instant messaging is a complete mess, we users have to deal with a myriad of apps and protocols that in the end are doing the same thing for the sake of “privacy”, and RCS will not fix that. Nor Signal, truth be told.
I yearn the glory days of multi-protocol IM apps like Pidgin and Trident on Android (though +IM seems to still be a thing) - when you could use whatever you wanted without “missing features” or risking to be banned.
When you buy a phone you know it will have calls and SMS - it’s what you bought the phone in the first place. You bought them because of that. RCS is still just a fancy alternative.
Barring that, the EU’s DMA is forcing the most important chat apps to interoperate at the very least, though full support (including calling and such) isn’t mandatory until somewhere in 2027.
And you’re missing the point again - a company doing a multi IM service app, like Beeper Mini, is not the same that a group of volunteers doing a multi service IM app, like Pidgin. They’re still going to be closed source and they will not guarantee to give support for platforms people need. Beeper mini on desktop? Beeper mini on Linux/BSD? Forget it.
For you. I have relatives with iPhones I don’t talk to frequently but when we get together and somebody takes a group photo it’s annoying. Being able to just text a decent resolution photo without people needing to download an app is a win.
I’ll continue to use Signal with friends and family I talk to regularly.
If Apple implemented the Matrix or Signal protocol it would still work the same way for you, while not forcing other Android users to use on Google or Samsung’s proprietary apps, those being the only options for RCS.
If it used the Signal protocol any app that used that protocol which is open, could interact with it, that is the point. Whereas RCS is a closed protocol, just one that happens to also be interoperable with Google Messages, but not any other third party apps that people might want to make.
To be honest, I’m a bit surprised that on Lemmy people are so against open standards and FOSS apps.
That’s not how it works. Other apps (ironically including Google’s RCS implementation) use the Signal Protocol. Simply using it doesn’t magically make your app interoperable with every other app that uses it. And Apple would be the last company to go out of their way to make it work.
Nobody here is against open standards or FOSS apps. I am actually lucky/privileged enough to be able to write open source code for a living.
You seem to not understand the reality of the situation and that use case other than yours exist.
This right here. I have to have my mom send videos of the grandkids to my work iPhone because my personal Android received them heavily pixelated and compressed.
Lol, the ios users will still be subjected to the eye-fucking shade of green when chatting with android users. Apple sure loves to mess with their users.
I find the green just fine! It’s my favorite color. I’m just happy I’ll be able to send high quality videos to my Android friends who refuse to download signal!
Most Android phones use RCS, so it’s on-subject here since most of us don’t pay attention to iPhone news - and is welcomed news because of #2’s answer
You ever been in a low or no signal area, but have wifi, and try to text an iPhone user? Ever try to send/receive photos/videos with an iPhone and they look like garbage? Tired of getting SMS’s in group chats of “Mom loved ‘Please poop in the toilet next time, we are tired of cleaning it up’” instead of it just “hearting” the SMS message? A lot of new tech coming out today started from something that “was good” and was built on to make it better.
The thing about SMS is that it sometimes worked in low signal situations where voice and internet didn’t get through. That is a virtue that shouldn’t be given up easily. If anything its reliability should be enhanced. It’s fine to also support a fancier chat scheme as well, but a robust, 1-to-1 text-only mode is important.
At least with Google messages, you can still send normal SMS if your RCS chat can’t go through. I think there’s an option for it to automatically resend as SMS if RCS fails, too.
I guess there’s no way of knowing if SMS will eventually drop out of fashion, but it would be good to keep around so it probably will stay around as a back up
Edit: well, I didn’t see the other response say basically what I said, oops
Right, I haven’t seen any of them say they are doing away with SMS. Even Android who has RCS in place also has SMS along side it, RCS is just an enhancement.
Even with RCS on both major platforms in the near future, a lot of automations and companies will continue to utilize SMS, and I’d bet that’s true for a long time.
Isn’t RCS fully controlled by Google now, with encryption only if the messages first go through Google’s servers so they can scrape their sweet sweet advertising keywords?
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RCS is the wrong one to use, since it is not an open enough standard for there to be a single FOSS RCS app on Android. Something like Matrix or the Signal protocol would be better.
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Are those carrier apps FOSS? Are they on F-Droid? How do you install them? If not, it’s not really any better.
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RCS is an open standard, but Google’s implementation of it isn’t AFAIK. That’s why there exist no 3rd party RCS client outside of those praised by Google.
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Seriously? Matrix and signal already exists… So you can use them today instead of RCS to your heart’s desire.
I think they mean it more as it’s not only gonna be Google but Apple who are going to be shoving RCS down their throats of people wether they want it or not by shipping it as default.
On the other hand, the era when corporations cared even the tiniest bit for open standards in instant messaging was gone long ago. Now all instant messaging is a complete mess, we users have to deal with a myriad of apps and protocols that in the end are doing the same thing for the sake of “privacy”, and RCS will not fix that. Nor Signal, truth be told.
I yearn the glory days of multi-protocol IM apps like Pidgin and Trident on Android (though +IM seems to still be a thing) - when you could use whatever you wanted without “missing features” or risking to be banned.
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Yeah, no. Pretty bad argument.
When you buy a phone you know it will have calls and SMS - it’s what you bought the phone in the first place. You bought them because of that. RCS is still just a fancy alternative.
And you’re missing the point again - a company doing a multi IM service app, like Beeper Mini, is not the same that a group of volunteers doing a multi service IM app, like Pidgin. They’re still going to be closed source and they will not guarantee to give support for platforms people need. Beeper mini on desktop? Beeper mini on Linux/BSD? Forget it.
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The blindingly obvious thing that you’re missing is that others aren’t using it…
If Apple and Google suddenly adopted it, it would instantly become a new standard in communication.
For you. I have relatives with iPhones I don’t talk to frequently but when we get together and somebody takes a group photo it’s annoying. Being able to just text a decent resolution photo without people needing to download an app is a win.
I’ll continue to use Signal with friends and family I talk to regularly.
If Apple implemented the Matrix or Signal protocol it would still work the same way for you, while not forcing other Android users to use on Google or Samsung’s proprietary apps, those being the only options for RCS.
Huh? No it wouldn’t. If Apple implemented the Signal protocol they would still have to publish an iMessage app to the Play Store for Android users.
Call Google’s messaging app proprietary all you want but at least their implementation of RCS is E2E encrypted.
If it used the Signal protocol any app that used that protocol which is open, could interact with it, that is the point. Whereas RCS is a closed protocol, just one that happens to also be interoperable with Google Messages, but not any other third party apps that people might want to make.
To be honest, I’m a bit surprised that on Lemmy people are so against open standards and FOSS apps.
Google RCS messages already use the Signal protocol…
As does WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook and Instagram.
That’s not how it works.
That’s not how it works. Other apps (ironically including Google’s RCS implementation) use the Signal Protocol. Simply using it doesn’t magically make your app interoperable with every other app that uses it. And Apple would be the last company to go out of their way to make it work.
Nobody here is against open standards or FOSS apps. I am actually lucky/privileged enough to be able to write open source code for a living.
You seem to not understand the reality of the situation and that use case other than yours exist.
This right here. I have to have my mom send videos of the grandkids to my work iPhone because my personal Android received them heavily pixelated and compressed.
LOL there are hundreds of better solutions for this…
Hundreds?!?! Ok, just name one hundred.
LOL yeah that’s how I want to spend my evening…
Lol, the ios users will still be subjected to the eye-fucking shade of green when chatting with android users. Apple sure loves to mess with their users.
And don’t forget the white text with close to zero contrast.
Hostile design right there
I find the green just fine! It’s my favorite color. I’m just happy I’ll be able to send high quality videos to my Android friends who refuse to download signal!
Are you using the default shade of green, or did you enable higher contrast setting in accessibility? I hear it helps with readability.
Default, I’ll check that out! I’ve never cared about the colors of the text bubbles myself, but a deeper green would be pretty cool.
Most Android phones use RCS, so it’s on-subject here since most of us don’t pay attention to iPhone news - and is welcomed news because of #2’s answer
You ever been in a low or no signal area, but have wifi, and try to text an iPhone user? Ever try to send/receive photos/videos with an iPhone and they look like garbage? Tired of getting SMS’s in group chats of “Mom loved ‘Please poop in the toilet next time, we are tired of cleaning it up’” instead of it just “hearting” the SMS message? A lot of new tech coming out today started from something that “was good” and was built on to make it better.
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The thing about SMS is that it sometimes worked in low signal situations where voice and internet didn’t get through. That is a virtue that shouldn’t be given up easily. If anything its reliability should be enhanced. It’s fine to also support a fancier chat scheme as well, but a robust, 1-to-1 text-only mode is important.
At least with Google messages, you can still send normal SMS if your RCS chat can’t go through. I think there’s an option for it to automatically resend as SMS if RCS fails, too.
I guess there’s no way of knowing if SMS will eventually drop out of fashion, but it would be good to keep around so it probably will stay around as a back up
Edit: well, I didn’t see the other response say basically what I said, oops
Sounds good, thanks.
Right, I haven’t seen any of them say they are doing away with SMS. Even Android who has RCS in place also has SMS along side it, RCS is just an enhancement.
Even with RCS on both major platforms in the near future, a lot of automations and companies will continue to utilize SMS, and I’d bet that’s true for a long time.
Ah ok. I only use SMS in very basic ways, so if it’s going to stay around then I’m glad. Thanks.
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Isn’t RCS fully controlled by Google now, with encryption only if the messages first go through Google’s servers so they can scrape their sweet sweet advertising keywords?
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