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There's a new IETF standard Google has been implementing. It's up to Apple to adopt it. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc9420/
> RFC - Proposed Standard (July 2023) Proposed. And it's both ridiculous and sad that in 2023 we are going to see a messaging standard without E2EE built into the spec.
What's next? My iphone coming preinstalled with whatsapp with 5 norton antivirus refund rooms already prejoined?
> the green bubble shame set to end I'm betting the non-Apple bubbles will remain green... and remain a bit stigmatized. It was never about the resolution of pictures and even technical limitations around group chat was just part of it. It's a social thing and the technical protocol is incidental. Dr. Seuss probably explained it best in The Sneetches.
But the reality is that the Millennial and Gen Z bubble culture has been a big driver behind their market share increase in the US. And if Gen Alpha adopts the same culture (and doesn't rebel against norms created by prior generations like young people tend to do) then Apple will have a near monopoly in in the US in 15 years.
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The answer is that the carriers worked out a specification and both infra-vendors and device-vendors were left to develop the server/client based on that spec. So each major device-vendor developed his client-app, and ended up with interoperability issues not only with the RCS-servers used by a given carrier, but also with devices of OTHER vendors. And that doesn't even begin to cover the issues on inter-carrier mess…
> The situation was only resolved after Google acquired Jibe Mobile (the biggest player in developing RCS server/client applications for carriers) and basically created a single RCS-client/server implementation using their Android Messages app and a Google-owned server. Thank you for highlighting this. This important piece of information often gets lost in the "green bubble" discussion. Google has significant incenti…
Google doesn't own the RCS-specification, the spec is still defined and maintained by GSMA, with Google just having one of the seats at the table (along with carriers and device manufacturers).
Apple is also a member of GSMA, them adopting RCS means that they just take another seat at the table of the RCS working group.
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> Google has significant incentives for pushing RCS for more than one reason.
I don't know if you mean to imply some hidden Agenda. The incentive is to standardize "rich communication" across mobile platforms. "Green bubble" is one manifestation of the bigger issue that 27 years after the creation of SMS there is still no other universal method for me to send a text to your phone number today.
The main reason for that is, that several players still hope to own this communication channel to the user with their proprietary app, become the "Western WeChat" and sell access to the users.
RCS could be an universal non-proprietary method, open to be adopted by Apple, Facebook, WhatsApp and whoever wants to build a Message ecosystem. It has the potential to end this hassle and allow me to send a text to your number and reach you regardless of your OS and application of preference.
> This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users," said an Apple spokesperson. I could be wrong but I don’t see anything here to suggest non-iMessages will no longer have the “green bubble” like the author assumes.
it will remain green, which means the signaling effect will also remain. the funny thing is everyone claims it's down to quality but guessing it won't matter, plus no 8ball/facetime will still push people towards iphones. especially w young ppl, where i think like 90% have iphones. if i had a nickel for every time a gal mentioned green bubbles give her the ick, i wouldn't be rich but could probably buy a solid steak…
I mean, I guess I would be grateful to have such an earlier indicator that someone is not worth pursuing. Truly, who cares.
I was working on RCS systems back in 2012. It was the future back them - incredible low latency for messaging and gaming, rich messaging, and a decent SDK. How did carriers fuck it up so badly that, a decade later, it's barely a blip on the messaging landscape? The were so desperate to stop OTT (over the top) services that they... locked everything down in the hope that customers wouldn't churn. It backfired spectacu…
Reminder to everyone who wonders why WhatsApp and iMessage won: US phone carriers used to charge $0.10 to $0.25 per message. Yes, it was as ridiculous as it sounds. There used to be news articles about kids racking up hundreds of dollars on their phone bill. Here's one from the same year the iphone was released: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/0...
iMessage "won" because it was the default for iPhone users in the US. Similarly, Whatsapp is the default nowhere and I don't know anyone who uses it, but that might be a generational thing. Whatsapp has always struck me as common in Europe, but rare in the US. We just use text and FB Messenger.
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Why would you turn it off? What if you hire a contractor for some work and they need to send you pictures/video from an Android? Or a realtor, mechanic, craigslist seller, or just someone you don't have/want a personal relationship with. You're not adding these people to WhatsApp/Telegram.. I have probably hundreds more phone contacts than people I have on whatsapp.
> You're not adding these people to WhatsApp So far, yeah I have been. Android users don't seem to use RCS for anything advanced, they use WhatsApp. Anyway, iPhones already let you toggle MMS, so RCS might be togglable too.
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This is why I don't buy Google's bad faith shaming of Apple for not adopting RCS. The current version of it that people are using on Android isn't even a "standard" by any normal usage of the term, it's just another Google messaging service. No one can make their own app, and there's barely any carrier adoption, so Google is basically running the whole network. Does this mean that now if you send a message to someone…
RCS is still standardized and maintained by the GSMA, of which Google is a member. Google acquired Jibe in 2015 in order to get their RCS server and client architecture (Jibe was a leader in shaping the RCS-Standard). Everyone can make his own app, it's just that he would need to develop a whole RCS-client for it to interact with (Google's or carriers') RCS-Servers as well. So what is missing is Google offering their…
The carriers (full members of GSMA) came up with RCS as a replacement for SMS/MMS at a network level and then didn't have the appetite to implement it.
Instead, they either A) adopted Google’s Messages as is, B) adopted Google’s Messages in white label form, slapping their logo on it, or C) made “their own thing” running on Google’s Jibe servers.
With very few exceptions, it all goes through Google. And Google uses this to pretend that their proprietary iMessage competitor is “the” RCS standard.
The actual RCS standard is dead for all intents and purposes because nobody uses it like that, except for Apple in the short term.
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So weird reading this from the transatlantic sidelines, where noone cares one little bit what device a message was sent from.
Nobody does, it’s a bitchy trope. Green bubbles matter in group chats. You can’t easily change participants and stuff like reactions generate junk messages.
I'm willing to bet the RCS bubble will still be green to indicate loss of p2p encryption.