It’s happening!!!
Now, if only Google wasn’t a cunt about allowing other apps for rcs, that would be great
Man that would be nice. Could finally have it be all in one again like Google Hangouts before it was killed.
Oh that’d be nice but since no more SMS in Signal I can’t see it going back in (unless they reversed course?)
IIRC their point was that SMS is insecure, so they don’t want people using SMS in Signal to think that this is Signal. With RCS, they could do what Apple will - be interoperable while providing extras with own platform (iMessage).
Admittedly, that doesn’t sound like enough reason to reimplement SMS and RCS alone would still be kind of inconvenient.
What do you think Apple will do? 😁
Cue several years of Google and Apple pointing at each other and shouting “see, they don’t want to be compatible with us!”
RCS was an idiotic take from the start. It should’ve been a layer of encryption over SMS and remain otherwise stateless and platform agnostic.
But of course companies and governments don’t really want encryption. So it became something that’s trivially easy to subvert by each company that implements it, because it needs to pass through servers, and who controls the servers gets to be an ass about it.
RCS was an idiotic take from the start.
It’s origin came from a good place. The wireless industry, not Google, started driving the standard to retire/replace SMS/MMS. However, then the wireless industry was reduced to a duo-culture and Google decided to drive RCS after many years of carriers/manufacturers trying to do their own thing to little success.
Another route: MMS could be enhanced to have some modern features while still being backwards-compatible. The datagrams are just XML and the syntax is akin to E-Mail. Larger message sizes could be supported, while the gateways still handle resize/reformat for older device backwards compatibility. There was even a format for a few minutes in the early aughts called EMS that had some promise but it died from disuse. Message delivery confirmation has existed since GSM and CDMA.
There’s even a standard for IMS video calls that has been in the 3GPP stack since the 1999 release that would’ve allowed universal standard video calls. Since carriers hated building data networks and consumers weren’t ready for video calls, it just sat stagnant until iChat AV/FaceTime came along and popularized video calls. It’s still there, it could still be used.
Somewhere along the way, standards-based universal calls, video, and messaging took a back seat to tech bros and their proprietary stacks, and governments (at least the US) were too stupid and incompetent to understand what regulation was necessary to correct this path we are now on. Hopefully the EU can continue to help fix this.
It should’ve been a layer of encryption over SMS and remain otherwise stateless and platform agnostic.
Umm what?
SMS has a very short size limit. Implementing RCS as an encryption layer on top of it would require devices to send several messages just to cover a short one-word reply. They also often come out of order so they would need to include a numbering system so the client could piece them back together.
Granted that is already how SMS works on modern devices, but the underlying protocol is woefully inept at modern messaging and completely unviable for what you’re proposing.
How should media attachments work? I assume you expect that to just use encryption built on MMS? So media can come through even more compressed than basic MMS? None of the actual benefits of RCS would be possible if it was built on top of the existing ancient standards.
Encrypting doesn’t necessarily boost the size of the message. You can also use compression very effectively since it’s mostly text.
You don’t need to also solve media hosting, you can just leave it be links like it is now. Just adding encryption would be an amazing improvement.
There are no additional changes needed to the transport layer, it would be transparent for telcos. It can be an OTG encryption layer.
Initial key exchange would be the only part that would require a couple of additional one-time messages but it would be automated. And not all messages need to be encrypted, nobody cares that my package has been shipped. And it would be an improvement anyway from having zero encryption to being able to have encryption
The whole thing is so simple that it could be implemented today by all the SMS apps without missing a beat. The only thing missing is the willingness to do so.
In fact it could be added as an option in any SMS app very easily — only for people who are both on the same app of course.
Are there any FOSS RCS apps? Should this be the ‘open’ standard the EU are enforcing?
There aren’t any because there’s no point. And no, I hope this won’t be the standard.
There are two things called “RCS”: there’s a theoretical specification; and exactly one implementation that has managed to get any real traction, and that’s purely because it’s pushed by Google.
The RCS spec was attempted by various companies and all implementations died when they figured out they’d have to make them compatible and open their servers to each other. Even if they wanted to it would be a mess.
SMS succeeded because it doesn’t need servers, it’s just pieces of text being sent around.
Google is the only one still pushing their RCS because they figure if they tie their version of it into Android they will own the messaging on Android forever. They don’t want interoperability either.
If Google gets their way and their RCS becomes the EU standard it will lock the EU into a proprietary platform from one of the most vile data predators in the world.
There’s no point in making a FOSS implementation of RCS because the spec is highly dependent on who runs the servers. The only way it would make sense is if the EU would dictate a spec and force everybody to follow it and open their servers. In that take on things FOSS would be ideal.
Is the Google version of RCS not compatible with someone else’s RCS, then?
As in, I take it nobody else wants to run a server because it costs money, right? But suppose I did, and I had an RCS app to run with it. Would someone using my app be able to send a message to an Android user using Google Messages?
No. Google Messages only talks to Google’s servers.
The way it’s supposed to work is Google has some servers and an app, and you have your own servers and own app, and when someone sends a message from your app it goes your app > your server > Google server > Google app. And the same in reverse.
But in reality Google doesn’t let anybody’s servers talk to theirs and tries to make everybody use their app and their servers. Which they can afford to do because they own Android and can shove their app down anybody’s throat.
SMS only transits the telco infrastructure, it doesn’t need servers in the client-servers sense, RCS does. Not only that but RCS needs them because it includes hosting for things like images and videos that are sent in messages.
I don’t think Google will allow anybody to partake in “their” RCS, the least of all custom ROMS. They will make it another thing like SafetyNet, designed to maintain their own control.
It’s going to be irrelevant. It will still be separate from iMessage. Different bubbles will still exist. People who aren’t using SMS now (Europe) will continue to not use RCS either. And Apple’s implementation of RCS will be independent from Goggle’s and not 100% compatible.
In fact I suspect the whole thing is an attempt to skirt the upcoming EU interconnection regulations. Apple thinks that if they say “look we’ve implemented RCS and it’s technically interoperable with other RCS implementations” they’ll get a pass — or be able to assign blame on other vendors for not interconnecting with them and drag the whole thing for a few more years.
Glad that you emphasized Europe. Here in the states where iMessage is dominant, it’ll make a difference.
At the end of the day it’s not a bad thing. I’m also waiting for details with compatibility to be ironed out, but it’s a start.
Just surprised at the whole negative energy with this announcement considering this was a “when pigs fly” or “when hell freezes over” sorta thing. Again, it’s a start and hopefully Google opens it up (even if forcibly by the EU) down the road.
People who aren’t using SMS now (Europe) will continue to not use RCS either.
We’re all already on RCS in Europe. And you know what? Nobody cares. Or truly knows. Nobody opens their Messages, iMessage, whateveritbemessage.
I didn’t know we were on RCS which proves the point I guess. I do open my texts though.
Long overdue, but this will be a benefit for all.
