TL;DR
- Users who have rooted their phone, have their bootloader unlocked or are using some custom ROMs report that their RCS messages are not being sent, even though RCS shows them as connected.
- The Google Messages app does not show any error messages when blocking RCS messages of these users and does not send the messages out as SMS or MMS either.
- Google famously campaigned for Apple to include RCS messaging in iMessage but is now blocking it for certain Android users.
Stupid question: Why should I care about RCS when I don’t use Googles communication services?
If you have an Android phone and you’re using the default texting app, you are. RCS is built into both the carrier side and device side.
what’s the benefit of using RCS ? Is it the bubble colour BS?
E2EE, unlimited attachment sizes, rich formatting, read/delivered notifications, reactions, group chat, stickers, a third-party app integration, stuff I’m forgetting about, and all part of the standard Messaging app.
E2EE
But only through Google’s RCS
Nobody who cares about RCS cares about the bubble color.
People who care about the bubble color are tech-illiterate Apple fanbois.
People who care about RCS care about being able to send high-resolution photos, group chats, and video calls with their tech-illiterate Apple fanboi friends and family in a default, common messaging app.
Also the non-fanboi Apple users, and the tech-literate Apple users, and the Android users. All in one default app and an open standard. Amazing.
You forgot teenage girls and (apparently) dumb women on Tinder, but yes.
They did say Apple fanboys
open standard.
Which is why it’s such a mess. The RCS standard is defined by the GSM association, an organization with well over a thousand members. Want to add a feature to RCS? Prepare for years of bureaucracy trying to get the standard amended. Then 750+ mobile operators worldwide need to upgrade their systems, adding at least another few years.
Meanwhile when Apple wants to add a feature they can just roll it out in the next iOS release.
No, iMessage is not compatible with RCS just yet. Messaging between an iPhone and Android is still SMS
RCS a decade ago, cool. RCS today? Dead.
WhatsApp is the defacto messaging over data globally. If you live anywhere outside the Murican bubble, SMSs are not used for anything and iMessage isn’t even a thing people with iCrap devices care about. Everyone, on every platform, uses WhatsApp. Governmental services, private companies, and all the people use WhatsApp.
The only text messages SMS I get nowadays are from Americans that don’t understand anything else and American businesses that use them for 2FA which is super insecure and equally stupid.
you had me in the first line
but no thanks Facebook app
Google are so needlessly hostile to people that root, what the fuck does sending messages have to do with having elevated permissions on a phone?!
The hostility towards custom ROM in general, is what forced me to root. Initially I used LineageOs without root. However, that got me in to issues with various apps, due to not passing safety net. So now I use magisk to hide that I use a custom ROM. So, they basically forced me to root.
and yet I get crap about complaining about android and rooting it when this shit literally happens, on the regular.
Im sorry, i want to like android, but it’s awful, and genuinely sucks.
Wait… It sucks cause they are actively working to break it. Not because its flawed. Its no different than apples stupid bubbles.
I think the point is that if it can be sabotaged by a central authority, it sucks. Both Apple and Google suck.