Technology @lemmy.world Otter @lemmy.ca 4 mo. ago

Apple finally adds support for RCS in latest iOS 18 beta | TechCrunch

techcrunch.com Apple finally adds support for RCS in latest iOS 18 beta | TechCrunch

Apple has finally added support for Rich Communication Services (RCS) to its Messages app.

63 comments

They're also adding a lot more incompatible text formatting and shit to keep Android incomplete with their real chat protocol. Gotta keep those teens bullying Android users. Also E2E encryption would be nice, but the EU didn't force them to do that.

Still great because MMS is garbage and ruins photo and video quality.
- They won't do E2EE until it's part of the standard. That is being worked on.
  
  Google only has it because they have an extremely proprietary, non-standard RCS implementation. Tbh, Google should've open sourced this and had it as part of the RCS standard, but they didn't.
  
  And yeah the EU isn't going to force anything on iMessage because it's literally irrelevant outside of the US. I don't know anybody who seriously uses iMessage tbh, despite like 40% of people here using iPhones.
  
  Funny how many people wanted RCS on iOS in order to be compatible with Android, while large parts of Google's implementation of RCS in Android is proprietary as well.
  
  Yeah everyone uses WhatsApp when I travel to other countries.
- There is no E2EE in RCS, so no amount of EU push would’ve enabled that. Also RCS was not a EU play, it’s a China play. RCS features are dependent on carrier implementation against GSM consortium’s spec.
  
  So no, everything there is basically wrong… but hey, it goes well with the echo chamber vibes so upvotes to you!
  
  That's a really dick way to respond to that post
In Taiwan, nobody uses iMessage. It's an app called Line and it's basically the WeChat of Taiwan.

So we can basically hop from Apple to Android without issues with our messages. So that's why the % of Apple users are not inflated because of the dark patterns they are doing in the US.
- In Europe everyone uses WhatsApp and I‘d rather use iMessage than sell my soul to meta… (Which I am. And Signal and Telegram. Only using WhatsApp for work)
  
  I live in Poland, and most people use Meta's Messenger here, although some people use WhatsApp and some also Telegram (but mostly Ukrainians and Belarusians).
  
  Personally I use regular old plain SMS, Messenger, Telegram or Discord depending on situation.
  
  Unfortunately, I don't trust Apple either. I think Telegram or Signal might be a good option, but then again. They are just a CEO away from it being shitty.
  
  I wish there was a better solution that is OSS but it won't catch on.
  
  European here, this is just wrong, I don't use WhatsApp, nor does my friends or family
- The advantage of iMessage is SMS fallback when you don't have internet access.
  
  In this day and age it's more likely that you don't have voice minutes or SMS quota remaining than you not having internet access.
  
  Usually when you don't have internet access, it's because you don't have any signal at all.
- Yeah, this text messaging is very different the all over the world. Different phones, different carrier policies and different apps have resulted in different nations being invested in different platforms.
  
  SMS, and things that piggy back on it, dominate north America. So this will mean more to those users than people in Europe, Asia, etc.
  
  Well, having an app that isn't tried down by an OS would be great. You could install Google meet on an iphone. Apple is just trying to take more market share.
Just in time for Google to kill RCS and move on to something else.
They will still keep them green. You know how teens react to those bubbles.
- I do, and I couldn't care less. I think a visual indicator that tells me "hey, this is an iMessage" or "hey, this is an SMS/RCS message" is a very good thing to have.
  
  You don't care, because you're an adult, what you or I see as a simple visual indicator is yet another thing that HS teens will use to bully and peer pressure with.
  
  But you should care in the sense that Apple is exploiting teens still developing brains and maturity with dark patterns to get them "hooked for life" in a way.
  
  I agree, for both send and receive since ios can send messages differently (text vs imessage)
- That's how I react to those bubbles. It means any image I send is going to be compressed to shit and be utterly unrecognizable. Messages will sent out of order or not at all. Group chats are completely fucked.
  
  I'm sure Apple shares a lot of the blame, but holy shit how is this not solved in 2024. I shouldn't have to resort to spam filled shitware from Meta to get remotely modern messaging cross platform
  
  Hope rcs pans out and soon
  
  Apple doesn't "share a lot of the blame." The blame belongs solely to Apple and their insistence on a closed ecosystem. They intentionally hamstring any cross functionality with competing devices, even features as simple as text messaging. It's important for Apple to foster a cult-like mentality among their consumers.
  
  I’m sure Apple shares a lot of the blame, but holy shit how is this not solved in 2024. I shouldn’t have to resort to spam filled shitware from Meta to get remotely modern messaging cross platform
  
  There's no shortage of options; the problem is getting the people you're talking to to agree on one you like. I find Signal strikes a good balance between goodness and ease of use, and many people I know who aren't tech or privacy nerds use it.
  
  Google had the chance to make its Hangouts messaging app dominant when it was, briefly the default SMS client on Android devices. They threw that away following pushback from carriers.
  
  I'm glad Google doesn't have the dominant messaging service, but I find it bizarre anybody still uses SMS when there are so many internet-based options. I have six, and if somebody really wants to use another, I'll probably add it.
- It's hard to read the text against a green background too. I'm so tired of Apple.
  
  Fun fact: It doesn't even meet Apple's own standard for text contrast!
While users can see the toggle if they have installed the iOS 18 developer beta

Anyone know what toggle they are talking about? I’m not seeing anything in Messages settings nor Cellular settings. Or do they mean the toggle is US-exclusive?

edit: Ah, I found a screenshot. It’s supposed to be under the MMS messaging toggle in Messages settings but doesn’t show up for everyone yet (including me).
- The toggle showed up on Monday but RCS didn’t start working until yesterday. I have T-Mobile.
Wow! What's next?

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