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What a weird dig coming from Google. Who is Google to complain about outdated messenger tech when they don't even built RCS into Android? The RCS Google wants you to use (the one with encryption) is part of their messenger, not part of the operating system itself. It's not even standardised.
The iMessage/SMS situation is stupid, but Google isn't exactly doing much better here.
Give google a break, its hard for them to keep track of what message backend is in which app. They have created and killed 5 messaging apps in the time I wrote out this comment, how can you expect them to know whats going on?
Google is taking the "monkeys with typewriters" approach to messaging apps, if they release enough of them they'll eventually stumble across a messaging app that's compatible with iMessage.
And then cancel it two weeks later.
I miss Hangouts π₯²
I miss shouting and whispering with Allo
Wheres my Google circle crowd at? Y'all move over to Wave?
This kind of shit is why I've been working on replacing things, and leaving their ecosystem. There are 57 ways to do everything, and nothing ever works properly.
I am all about tweaking and changing things, or adopting something new, but that's all under the assumption that it works. One of the reason why people like iMessage is because they don't have to fuck with thirdparty apps, half of which can't even receive a text message without issues
I'm not using RCS until it is available with no vendor lock-in. Call me when third-party apps like Textra can use it, and I don't need to use Google's relay.
Google's relay is a requirement for carriers who don't host their own RCS infrastructure. Google set up a fallback server because outside of a few specific carriers, nobody bothered implementing RCS in their networks. In theory your carrier could set up a server and you wouldn't need Google at all.
In theory apps could build an RCS implementation and take control of your RCS account.
I trust my carrier even less than Google, which is saying something.
The nice thing about E2EE is that you don't need to trust your carrier. You could write your messages on a billboard along the highway if you can keep the message's secret key to yourself and the recipient(s).
Annoyingly, that does require someone to actually implement Google's RCS encryption protocol (which is really just Signal + MLS but over RCS) and publish the source code (and provide reproducible builds to prove nothing's been messed with).
When RCS first came out, my carrier provided their own app to use it lol
Canadian carriers did, but they since have started moving towards Google's RCS servers instead. Probably realized it wasn't worth hosting a server, and then maintaining it. I remember some carriers wouldn't update their servers, so not all RCS features would be available to them.
It should just be an API that any text messaging app can use on Android, with the ability to define your own relay if desired.
The rest of the world doesnβt use SMS/RCS/iMessage as much as WhatsApp and the like
SMSes use a standard available to any app. WhatsApp is controlled by a single company.
If you were arguing that XMPP or something like that should be used instead of SMS, okay, that's one thing, but I have a hard time favoring a walled garden.
Ok, I'm gonna get into this.
2005: Google Talk released.
2013: Google Hangouts released.
2015: Google announces Google Talk shutting down, encourages people to move to Hangouts.
2016: Despite Hangouts being a one stop shop for SMS and Chat, Google discourages people from using it for SMS, asking people to use the Google Messages app instead.
2016: Google Allo released.
2016: RCS adoption begins.
2017: Google Talk shuts down.
2017: Google Chat released.
2017: Hangouts is re-targeted for business and moves to some sort of consumer freemium model?
~2018(?): YouTube Chat released, a 1:1 messaging system inside of YouTube. No idea when it was discontinued but it didn't last long.
2019: Google Allo discontinued.
2022: Whatever was left of Hangouts is discontinued.
2023: RCS through Google Messenger is now default instead of SMS and group messages are finally encrypted.
Compare this to:
2011: iMessage released. As far as I can tell, it's been e2e encrypted since at least 2012 and potentially since release.
Google, you have no fucking leg to stand on. Get your shit together. If you had had a coherent messaging strategy, maybe Apple would have been amenable to working with you, but what incentive do they have right now? For all anyone knows, you'll drop RCS by 2026 in favor of moving everyone to Google Heythere, the new ridiculous app for messaging!
Your comment is disingenuous.
Adding the 2018 YouTube Chat isn't fair. Google has products that allow communicating between users. It was never meant to be any replacement for SMS, it was simply a chat system within YouTube. You know, the same YouTube that has had DM's since day 1?
You also said in 2016 Google encourages people to use the Google Messages app. The same app being used today.
Google also launched other apps around the same time. Apps that were in development for a while. Then they shut them down, to focus all of the features/time into Google Messages.
You're also adding very specific apps that Google never intended to make into an SMS app. Like Google Chat or Hangouts Rebrand.
Your timeline is disingenuous. Essentially from 2016 - NOW Google has been working on making Google Messages the one stop shop. Only 5 years less than Apple has been making iMessage.
Samsung supported RCS natively in their messaging apps since about 2013, and my carrier released their own RCS+SMS messaging app around that time to bridge the gap for non-samsung android users
Google was pretty late to the RCS boat lol
Can some custom rom group do the same type of video but about Google not allowing third party sms apps to use RCS?
Here's the thing - the rest of us do use SMS, we just weren't gullible enough to fall for Apple's bullshit about text bubble colours
That's fuckin infantile π
How about we adopt open standards
Signal. Use Signal.
Signal removed SMS integration, making adoption less likely.
When I could install Signal on my parents phones, and they could SMS and Signal message in the same app, it was great. Especially since any contacts that happened to have Signal, it just worked. My parents didn't have to do anything.
After Signal removed SMS, my parents just open up Google Messages and message everyone from there. They don't want to juggle two apps. They also don't really understand it. They just go back to the "main menu", select their friends name, and type. Signal shot themselves in the foot.
The rest of the world doesnβt use SMS/RCS/iMessage as much as WhatsApp and the like, so the US is pretty much lagging behind everyone else on this anyway.
Not sure I want to end up with Facebook controlling my messaging...
WhatsApp certainly dominates Europe but I'd love to see a universal standard to replace SMS. The less messaging apps the better. WhatsApp is owned by Meta after all...
War?
Oh, right, that wrist cutting thing Apple users do in that one single continent I never visited. That. Right. They do need the help.
Good for them.
Google put more thought into this commercial than they did into their actual messaging strategy and it shows.
They should ask MS how well that Scrooge campaign worked out for them a few years back.
Lol this is funny. I wouldn't really call it much of a war, it's Apple holding back easily implemented features to cater to elitism. Would platforms like WhatsApp have taken over so heavily if basic texting was actually good enough?
I guess the iPhone sales numbers in the US are keeping them awake. I personally think Apple will only bend if they are forced somehow by the US government, like the way EU did with type-C.
So do people in the US chiefly send messages via SMS rather than WhatsApp and others like it? That's so bizarre to me haha.
It is less that people use SMS and more that people just don't use WhatsApp. I have a mix of group chats, including some with SMS and Facebook Chat. However, no one uses Whatsapp.
Yeah I use Facebook Messenger and Snapchat to keep up with friends and RCS/SMS mostly for family. Never used WhatsApp before though.
The rest of the world doesn't use SMS? This is new to me.
Why shouldn't we? They're free, they work everywhere.
they're free
They were not always free, and when they were, they were up to a limit. Yes the limit was something absurd, but surprisingly, some people did hit them.
That's why as soon as phones had easy access to the web and enough bandwidth to last a month, people started treating SMS like a last resort, and I have not met a single culture on Earth that didn't think this way in the transition period up to when what you said became universally true.
Plus... People don't want to message only their "contacts", nor want their phone address book filled with trash. Mindblowing, know, who would have thought (other than US apple users????). Facebook's Messenger was one of the earliest to give that to the wide public and it got heavily adopted. But people moved on from even that.
They're not "free", many places still charge per SMS. Even if your country doesn't, you NEED an SMS plan, which costs more than a basic data-only plan. SMS is extremely unsecure. They don't work "everywhere", especially if you're travelling, and your country charges extreme fees to receive SMS out of country (for reference, Canadian carriers charge $15/day to use your phone outside Canada. That's one expensive ass text..).
That being said, I think it's crazy that a large portion of Europe has adopted WhatsApp. I wouldn't touch that Meta garbage with a 100 kilometre pole.
They are not free here but since like no one other than my grandma uses them it's not really important.
They're limited as hell and buggy. The thing that most bothers me is the character limit and then your device sends out multiple SMSs, other devices may not understand that and instead of receiving one message you receive multiple broken ones.
Accents, anything not in the English alphabet: Γ‘ Γ€ Δ Δ Γ© Γͺ and so on, good luck with those.
Attaching media is a nightmare, basically the entire MMS protocol is broken.
You're relying on your carrier and your recipients carriers.
International messaging is also completely broken for the reason above. You can forget any media in that case too.
Geez I don't know if I should continue. Did you know SMS was not a feature planned in phones originally but rather it takes advantage of a bug that was never fixed?
In Brazil where I'm originally from people stopped using SMS altogether as soon as the first iPhone got in the market. Android followed shortly after. Viber was the popular choice back then, now WhatsApp is the standard.
At least props for Stereo MC's Connected.
Not using proprietary protocols isn't lagging behind.
I def agree that there needs to be major interoperability improvements between platforms. Though I do not want to be locked into using Google Messages to get RCS. I wish they'd open their API to other apps and even more so allow self-hosting your own RCS server but I don't foresee the latter ever happening.
Ya there's Matrix and whatnot which I use with some people, but most everyone just wants what works by default. I like to tinker and have options, but most people don't.
Till then, I'll enjoy postage stamp resolution videos from my Apple friends /s