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Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

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Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#451

Post by vitorgrs »

TerrifiedMouse wrote: post #230
throw0101a wrote: post #33

> Breaking: Apple will support RCS - the green bubble shame set to end Note that the green bubble could be kept for other reasons: RCS is a major improvement over SMS/MMS, but there could still be functionality that isn't on par with a completely in-house system like 'iMessage'. The green/blue distinction may still be useful for setting certain expectations on how things work.

If carriers can charge per RCS message like they do with SMS/MMS, usually after X amount used a month, Apple needs to make it a different color from iMessages which they provide for free. People have to know if they are using free iMessages when talking to other people or if they are using up their SMS/MMS/RCS quota. Edit: Maybe charging for SMSs is not a thing in your country but it is in mine. If I see a green bubb…

Charging for SMS is a thing on some plans here in Brazil, but I don't know in other countries, RCS works completely for free as it works even on Wifi. You don't need mobile data or SMS plans.

If you are on mobile data, it just doesn't use your quota...

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#452

Post by vitorgrs »

X-Istence wrote: post #117
andrewmunsell wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that blue represents E2EE and not simply iMessage? If data isn't available and the iPhone sends an SMS, like you mentioned, the bubble is green, but this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with encryption. For example, the satellite SOS messages are represented as gray. It seems more like the color represents the transport.

Because blue means iMessage and iMessage means E2EE. Grey and Green means not encrypted. Simple.

Years ago iMessage was not E2EE and it was already blue...

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#453

Post by kcb »

madeofpalk wrote: post #363
commoner wrote: post #80

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…

So. What exactly is the "RCS" that Apple is supposedly going to support? RSC for Android? RCS for Pixel? RCS for Samsung? RCS for Verion? What's the point of a standard that has 5 different ways it's fragmented on the same base platform?

The point is that they interoperate.

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#454

Post by kcb »

hocuspocus wrote: post #192
no_wizard wrote: post #28

This is something I never thought I'd see. I hope the GSM association moves fast to make robust E2EE a standard required for proper implementation for carriers. That would go a long way in making a huge improvement over SMS/MMS. This is a win for RCS, ultimately. Maybe this will kick carriers into high gear to up their messaging standard support game and have standard interop. I don't think this will lead to a declin…

> I hope the GSM association moves fast to make robust E2EE a standard required for proper implementation for carriers. This is pretty moot now. Google has effectively turned RCS into a proprietary protocol, they fully control the only relevant server implementation, carriers that want to interconnect have no choice but to deploy Jibe or use Jibe as a service.

Apple implementing RCS will surely be a major change to that.

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#455

Post by vitorgrs »

TerrifiedMouse wrote: post #444
ThatPlayer wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If iMessage gets declared a gatekeeper, RCS wouldn't be enough. Not all iMessage users can send/receive RCS or SMS.

> Not all iMessage users can send/receive RCS or SMS. What do you mean? If Apple includes RCS like they did SMS then it would operate as follows: Is target an iPhone with iMessage enabled? Yes? Use iMessage. No? Fallback to RCS. RCS doesn’t work? Fallback to SMS.

I'm not sure it would follow. as part of the act is to allow other apps to request interop in these services like iMessage or WhatsApp.

But I guess it was worth to try this instead of directly opening iMessage for interop, for business reasons.

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#456

Post by stouset »

spiralpolitik wrote: post #352
hbn wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That's the trap door in this. Apple is going to implement RCS exactly as the specification says it should be implemented, no more or no less. Any incompatibilities with Android will be laid at Google's door to resolve. Having beaten Apple with the RCS stick for the last year, Google might find themselves now getting beaten back.

If RCS doesn’t get E2E encryption added to the public spec, they should highlight unencrypted messages with an even more offensive yellow bubble.

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#457

Post by nicce »

commoner wrote: post #80

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…

>Also, end-to-end encryption is not part of the RCS specification, but is a proprietary extension to RCS that Google has made exclusive to Messages by Google.[1] This feature should be made open and added to the actual RCS specification so that Apple and other vendors can make use of it.

I thought it is based on Signal protocol? Maybe some commercial wrapper around it.

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#458

Post by hfjjbf »

rickdeckard wrote: post #187
hbn wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[dead]

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#459

Post by mercutio2 »

eitally wrote: post #402
MBCook wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s more than that. Videos and pictures sent via SMS absolutely suck because they were designed for 2004 era quality standards. I agree RCS will stay green. It will have text, good quality media, maybe read receipts. And that’s it. No E2EE or other extensions. Apple is fixing one issue (bad media quality) and taking away a disingenuous Google talking point. Perhaps this is also an argument to legislators that they d…

Media quality would be a start, at least. The only other thing I'd love for them to "fix" is the inability to add non-iPhone users to existing group chats. With those two things I -- and probably most Android users -- would be at a "don't care, this is good enough for me" state.

You can “add” SMS users to iMessage groups, if the group consists entirely of phone numbers and you’re on a device that supports SMS.

The newly created SMS group doesn’t replace the thread associated with the original group, though, so it’s easy for the group to fork when this happens.

Unlikely this will change with RCS.

Re: Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

#460

Post by 310260 »

hocuspocus wrote: post #192
no_wizard wrote: post #28

This is something I never thought I'd see. I hope the GSM association moves fast to make robust E2EE a standard required for proper implementation for carriers. That would go a long way in making a huge improvement over SMS/MMS. This is a win for RCS, ultimately. Maybe this will kick carriers into high gear to up their messaging standard support game and have standard interop. I don't think this will lead to a declin…

> I hope the GSM association moves fast to make robust E2EE a standard required for proper implementation for carriers. This is pretty moot now. Google has effectively turned RCS into a proprietary protocol, they fully control the only relevant server implementation, carriers that want to interconnect have no choice but to deploy Jibe or use Jibe as a service.

> the only relevant server implementation

That's not true. Mavenir offers an RCS platform that T-Mobile has been using up until recently. A renewed interest in RCS due to Apple supporting it might end up with their platform being more sellable.

https://www.lightreading.com/mobile-core/mavenir-t-mobile-co...

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