351–360 of 729 posts
> This is not Apple opening up iMessage to other platforms. Instead, it’s the company adopting RCS separately from iMessage. Very important.
Speaking of opening up to other platforms due to Digital Markets Act: maybe we'll finally get FaceTime as an open industry standard at some point?
Excellent. The next step is for Google to release a free and open source way for Android developers to build apps that send RCS messages. Currently, the only messaging app on Android that fully supports RCS is Messages by Google, which is closed source and requires Google Play Services to activate RCS features. Also, end-to-end encryption is not part of the RCS specification, but is a proprietary extension to RCS tha…
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…
Having beaten Apple with the RCS stick for the last year, Google might find themselves now getting beaten back.
Is RCS a thing in Europe? I don’t think I’ve ever seen this mentioned anywhere. Does the carrier sell you an RCS package? Does it apply to messages to other countries? If that’s the case, I don’t see how it could compete with any internet message service that exists today in any capacity.
Yes. Most Android users with either the Google or Samsung Messages app are already using RCS without noticing when they message each other.
> Does the carrier sell you an RCS package?
No, it's yet another OTT service, even if your messaging app is provisioned by your carrier to use its own RCS infrastructure (which is Google Jibe in all cases).
3 of at the time 4 carriers tried to adopt RCS and push it into the market a few years ago. They called it "joyn" but nobody ever used it. Everybody is using WhatsApp, except for some privacy conscious folks.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only reason they'd move to E2EE would be if Apple forced them. Looking at / selling message contents is a large potential revenue source for all the other major players.
I am fairly certain that it's illegal to sell the content of SMS messages in the United States at least. The metadata like who is messaging who and timestamps and best guess locations maybe is sold though. But the contents can be obtained by law enforcement. However, I think the contents are purged after some expiration time.
https://www.verizon.com/about/privacy/full-privacy-policy
They definitely sell things like your real-time location (you can opt out by turning your phone off, or if they're legally obligated to let you), who you contact, what websites you visit, what DNS entries your phone looks up, your subscriber information (assuming they can link it to an advertising ID that other apps are using), and what TV shows you watch, joined with all the stuff you use your broadband and phone for.
As for communications content, it's fuzzy.
My reading of it says that they can aggregate that all together in a way that is only personally identifiable to their internal marketing team and their partners (i.e., anyone that pays them and also signs a contract), so I guess it's not "for sale"? So, for instance, they could take all the RCS messages in the US, cluster them, and sell the cluster to, say, meta. Then, meta could use it for ad targeting of third party ads, but they wouldn't be able to resell the raw data unless they first de-anonymized it.
I could be wrong though. The privacy policy is very long and incredibly vague. Maybe they don't share the contents of your private communications with their "trusted partners" or internal advertising division yet.
The only way this sort of crap will get better is if the US passes a right to privacy constitutional amendment. (Of course, congress is more likely to pass laws that somehow make it worse.)
Excellent. The next step is for Google to release a free and open source way for Android developers to build apps that send RCS messages. Currently, the only messaging app on Android that fully supports RCS is Messages by Google, which is closed source and requires Google Play Services to activate RCS features. Also, end-to-end encryption is not part of the RCS specification, but is a proprietary extension to RCS tha…
I have no insider knowledge here, but Google tried to go the high route of working with carriers for years before giving up on their intransigence. I suspect that Google's RCS is proprietary as a blunt instrument to prevent carriers from trying to either (a) undermine e2ee in some weasely way or (b) have the ability to pick and choose the pieces of the implementation they want to support. You either get the whole thi…
I'd have much rather iMessage only open up interoperability with E2EE platforms like signal or even Whatsapp (because Facebook is somehow the lesser evil in this corner of the privacy world).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm 39 and SMS not being unlimited was a huge thing. I never thought it would be unlimited, when that happened (Suncom? I forget who started it) it was huge. This was a LONG time ago though, long before WhatsApp. Probably 15-18 for me. I remember a lot of conversations in high school going "My plans maxed out can you text $friend?" IIRC you had to specifically turn off receiving texts or they'd charge you for each on…
I don't doubt that SMS were not always unlimited in the US. But the question here is: Were there any (reasonably popular) plans that provided data for smartphones, but not unlimited texting? If not, that couldn't have been a factor in the adoption of iMessage in the US.
Excellent. The next step is for Google to release a free and open source way for Android developers to build apps that send RCS messages. Currently, the only messaging app on Android that fully supports RCS is Messages by Google, which is closed source and requires Google Play Services to activate RCS features. Also, end-to-end encryption is not part of the RCS specification, but is a proprietary extension to RCS tha…
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…
Google did, Apple will, what stops other companies from doing it aside from effort and money ?
> and there's barely any carrier adoption
Expecting carriers to do adopt new technologies is usually a losing bet.
Is there a sunset timeline for SMS? No service lasts forever and if Apple knows carriers will want to turn it off sometime they'd have to get on board with the RCS sooner rather than too late.
Who would be in charge of sunsetting such a thing?