Google's Messages App Will Now Use RCS By Default and Encrypt Group Chats - Slas...
source link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/23/08/08/1936246/googles-messages-app-will-now-use-rcs-by-default-and-encrypt-group-chats
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
Google's Messages App Will Now Use RCS By Default and Encrypt Group Chats
Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter
binspamdupenotthebestofftopicslownewsdaystalestupid freshfunnyinsightfulinterestingmaybe offtopicflamebaittrollredundantoverrated insightfulinterestinginformativefunnyunderrated descriptive typodupeerror
Do you develop on GitHub? You can keep using GitHub but automatically sync your GitHub releases to SourceForge quickly and easily with this tool so your projects have a backup location, and get your project in front of SourceForge's nearly 30 million monthly users. It takes less than a minute. Get new users downloading your project releases today!
Since rolling out RCS to U.S. Android users in 2019, Google has been campaigning in an effort to pressure Apple into adopting the technology in its own messaging service, iMessage. It even launched a website last year to explain why RCS benefits consumers, noting "It's not about the color of the bubbles. It's the blurry videos, broken group chats, missing read receipts and typing indicators, no texting over Wi-Fi and more."
-
-
Welcome to BlackBerry 2005.
-
-
›
I'm pretty sure all the major cell carriers have supported a cellular-to-wifi layer for years.
-
Definitely. Our network has had it since about 2017.
-
What's the best way to implement messaging, location and presence and, I don't know, a video intercom or calling on a local network? XMPP or SIP? Sorry to take it off topic.
-
RCS is actually a pretty good all-round solution. It's just that (a) having been conditioned by OTT apps that messaging should be a free service, subscribers won't pay for it and therefore carriers don't want to implement it and (b) as the article states, Apple have no reason to support it and every reason not to, so it would take regulatory intervention on the scale of FCC or EU to force their hand.
For truly local networks though I would say XMPP for simple text messages and WebRTC for the video intercom/c
-
Check out Matrix Synapse for DIY.
It works as well as XMPP with a modern architecture.
-
RCS is actually a pretty good all-round solution
Yes, if you're Google and advertisers and wish to spam every phone nearby.
Apple have no reason to support it and every reason not to, so it would take regulatory intervention on the scale of FCC or EU to force their hand.
Of course. Why would Apple willingly support a spam method?
I mean, so far it's only purpose is spamming users to the point where Google had to turn it off because users were getting too much spam.
I'm just wondering if "blink" is one of the sty
-
I don't know what you mean by RCS is a 'spam method'. Carriers don't have to choose to allow advertisers to use the chatbot features of RCS. But Google *is* an advertiser, so naturally they have no problem with that. If you have a problem with Google's business practices then get an iPhone. It's not RCS that's the issue here. It's that you bought a phone with an OS written by an advertising company.
On the other hand, I am right now in the throes of a project which completely modernises the SMS service at th
-
-
-
-
-
For a pre-paid plan where texting actually costs money, having it bypass SMS and use WiFi directly is a win. But for most people, nobody cares.
-
-
About 25% of the time it just sits and times out and fails to send message, and I have to type 'switch to SMS/MMS'.
Which is maddening because I'm used to typing a message, hitting enter, and ignoring it. Now hours later I realize it failed to work.
-
by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @05:03PM (#63751456)
RCS is made for spam. No one other than advertisers wants this "feature". Apple is right to reject it.
-
Could you elaborate? How would we be threatened for more spam with rsc?
-
-
That (relatively old, 2019) article describes some features (custom colors, branded icons, verified senders and such), but doesn't say why some of them might be bad.
-
-
-
Apple has many rea$on$ to keep its messaging platform proprietary and insecure.
Google's play is to get carriers to abandon SMS for e2e RCS as a reasonable trustworthy platform.
2FA over SMS is a persistent disaster. Soon enough you'll get a warning that the message "from your bank" used forged keys.
That's not happening with iMessage. Android users will have a notable security advantage.
-
https://automateddreams.com/bl... [automateddreams.com]
iMessage has a walled garden issue and I'm not defending that - but it is not built for spam. RCS is designed to for personal advertisements, nudges and delivery confirmation included.
-
-
That is not a secret - it is exactly how they sell RCS to their business customers: https://jibe.google.com/busine... [google.com]
They have already demonstrated how they can turn the advertising firehose on and off at will: https://www.theverge.com/2022/... [theverge.com]
Remember, that despite the non-standard encryption layer that Google created, they operate most of the global RCS infrastructure and get to see who is talking to who. That is tremendously valuable data - with RCS, your identity is your phone number. You cannot eas
-
> That is not a secret
Apparently it is to a lot of people, just read this thread.
-
-
-
On the whole the number of carriers that have adopted RCS is low, and among those that support it almost none have full support across their entire network. Coverage for RCS is still very spotty and adoption is at crawling speed since years. Source: I work for a telecom services provider, and we still cannot offer RCS-as-a-service because the "reach" is almost none.
-
RCS has always seemed like a really weird strategy from Google. SMS sucked so much that everyone, including Apple, bailed on it as soon as they could. Google for some reason decided to build on it.
Come on Google. If RCS is so great, release an app so we can try it out. It would be great to be able to send pictures and video to friends with Android phones from my iPhone, notebook, desktop, etc. Oh, right, you can't. Good thing there's WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, sixteen different chat apps from Facebook and
-
Google wants RCS to happen because it's cross platform, and universal. Every phone has SMS, but it sucks.
All iPhones have iMessage. Google's various chat apps over the years aren't even on all Android devices by default.
-
Given Google's proven track record of staying power vis-a-vis messaging apps, I can understand why the adoption rate is low. No one expects this to still exist in 3-4 years.
-
RCS isn't cross platform and it's not universal. It only works where the carrier supports it.
-
-
Why would I want to stop using SMS? My plan has unlimited SMS, but limited data. Isn't that the norm?
-
Good luck tapping out enough SMS to even register on a modern plan. Is this why SMS keeps going? Innumeracy?
-
-
Whatsapp is shit though. If you use it on more than one device you can see how often messages have incorrect sent/delivered/read status, appear out of order or simply don't show up at all.
-
Well, RCS has a good solution for that. You can only use it on one device.
-
Well then I can't read messages on my bathroom-shower phone like my walking around phone !/sarcasm
-
-
-
-
-
I am happy enough with SMS. I do not need "blurry videos, [broken] group chats, missing read receipts and typing indicators, no texting over Wi-Fi and more".
-
I don't want SMS, RCS or iMessage. Getting texts from strangers is so pre-Y2K. Any system that isn't white list by default with verified identities is next to worthless for initiating contact. This is why email and plain old telephone service is crap.
-
-
I don't need read reciepts and typing indicators. I don't need someone getting all pissy cause I read their msg and didn't respond till hours later because im busy in my real life or that I started typing a reply and decided to wait till later to respond.
-
Then just turn those features off?
You don't have to use all the features that RCS offers, it's not a single package. I use the wi-fi and secure messaging features, but have no read recipients sent and no typing indicators (but I can get indication from others that they are typing still).
-
-
The only reason to use SMS/MMS is because you know everyone has it. All you need is their phone number. You don't need to know which platform they are using and you don't have to convince everyone you know to switch to something different. We need that same level of ubiquity that supports larger attachments, encryption, read receipts, etc. It's precisely what Google is trying to accomplish with RCS. But it's slow going because 1. The carriers are slow to implement, 2. 50% of the phones are iPhones and t
-
4. RCS is not encrypted because the carriers are opposed to it. Encryption is a proprietary Google add-on that doesn't interoperate with other RCS systems.
You want a single proprietary messaging system from the advertising company disinterested in privacy.
-
I don't want larger attachments, encryption, or read receipts. And I don't want text messages to use my mobile data.
-
-
It's about putting pressure on the industry to abandon SMS to further break compatibility with old phones and get more Pixels shoved into everyone's pants.
I've been using xmpp for about a decade now so I really had no idea that it's just now catching up.
-
Instead of RCS, they should use the more convenient CVS, or the more modern Subversion.
Recommend
About Joyk
Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK