this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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Samsung has released a new video in support of Google’s #GetTheMessage campaign which calls for Apple to adopt RCS or “Rich Communication Services,” the cross-platform protocol pitched as a successor to SMS that adopts many of the features found in modern messaging apps... like Apple’s own iMessage.

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[–] Porgey@lemmy.world 81 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (27 children)

While Apple should adopt RCS, I cannot help but feel that Google is being extremely hypocritical. They complain about iMessage being proprietary, but their implementation of RCS isn’t open source, and I believe they even mentioned they have no plans to open it up for 3rd party devs to implement it into their own sms apps. This just feels like an iMessage equivalent for Android. It has rich features that are exclusive to Android as a platform (more specifically exclusive to Google Messages or whatever the app is called now)… just like iMessage within iOS/MacOS/iPadOS..

[–] SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org -2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It doesn't seem like you understand what a protocol is

[–] Porgey@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I do, but if you pay attention to the ad-campaign, Google is touting features such as E2EE as a benefit to bringing it to iOS, which is NOT part of the rcs protocol, rather part of googles implementation.

The RCS protocol by itself is only marginally better than SMS.

[–] Prethoryn@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

"Marginally better than SMS"

I don't mean to be rude, but I agree with the sentiment of not knowing what a protocol is. RCS is significantly better than SMS and, encryption wise not entirely feature wise (depending on what you consider a feature that you care about), better than iMessage.

First, the way an SMS is delivered is a big part of the problem that RCS has fixed and it is a problem that still plagues SMS and MMS and that is message length.

The SMS and MMS protocol send your messages in layers and not always in order, hence why you can still get SMS text messages out of ordered, or that SMS that gets converted to MMS based on the length of the text fails to send. This doesn't even begin to touch group messaging sending images, encryption, etc.

https://www.androidauthority.com/rcs-vs-sms-3330098/

If you really want to learn and this honestly is a genuine conversation and you are willing to talk about it then I will let that article be your read. There are massive benefits over RCS the largest one being encryption while still being able to send larger text messages, way better video and image quality as well as different and more types of image types and RCS has the ability to just continue to get better, more secure, and continue to grow.

Apple has a tendency to stick to what you know because their customers stick to what they know. While Apple has a viable and continued method. That doesn't mean their method is great. Consider the USB-C standard on the iPhone being a forced change. Apple made an argument that forcing the iPhone to USB-C ruined the creative and innovative market. While there is probably some reasonable argument to be made there then the question becomes why weren't they working on these methods for all other products that they believed were better off with USB-C. Point being Apple is an example of only changing when they are forced to or have no other way out. This is a bad model to allow the continuance of what they are arguing against. RCS isn't worse it's better and more than marginally. The problem is Apple won't change unless forced to and that is bad for you as a consumer and innovation that they swear they believe in.

RCS should just be the standard and Apple should get on board and there is zero reason for them not to other than to push the iMessage agenda and that makes them money. They don't care about the consumer. That doesn't mean Google does either but Google at the very least wants all messaging to just be fluid across what ever platform you choose and Apple just wants you to buy an iPhone. You tell me which sounds better to you, because I will take Google's approach no matter how you feel about Google.

[–] Deftdrummer@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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