Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Android’s green bubbles will remain as it continues to ignore Google’s little-used RCS messaging mess. Cook said Apple doesn’t make much effort to improve the text messaging experience between iPhones and Android devices because its users haven’t requested it. Instead, he said, “I’d like to convert you to iPhone.”
Michael Allison for digital trends:
Let’s make a brief summary of what RCS is. It’s an update to the SMS standard that’s powered by a combination of Google and a handful of global carriers. It offers modern features like typing indicators, read receipts, and support for high resolution images to regular text messages. It was deliberately ignored by Apple, killing its usefulness as a replacement for SMS between iPhones and Android phones.
Although Google pushed for RCS to come to the iPhone and replace SMS from time to time, Apple’s response was simply a well-rounded “visa”. The benefits are obvious for Google. Being a “green bubble” would not necessarily be a cause for shame if RCS were to land. Apple’s rejection here seems remarkably reticent until you read the fine print.
It’s estimated that only 20% of Android users have access to RCS … Second, RCS isn’t necessarily a less confusing experience. Although nominally an initiative of the carrier, it is almost entirely managed by Google’s servers. Some carriers like AT&T have their own implementations. It’s an unstable mess that results in a broken experience where two users on the same phone but with different operators could end up with different versions of RCS. Even Google’s advertised end-to-end encryption is only a feature of Google’s Messages app, not RCS itself.
MacDailyNews takes: Yup.
Why would Apple do anything to improve the messaging experience for those who are content with a stolen product, iPhone knockoff?
Apple should support RCS in Messages immediately after making Windows the default operating system for the Macintosh. – MacDailyNews, August 11, 2022
Those who saddle themselves with imitated iPhones deserve to bask forever in the verdant swamp of inferiority. – MacDailyNews, September 8, 2022
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