Comment on How RCS on iPhone Will Make Texting Better for Everyone
vhstape@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months agoI believe that RCS is a specification maintained by the GSM Association. That’s not to say Google is not a member (they are) and has a strong influence, but Google doesn’t own the standard either
The E2EE element of RCS has basically been a property Google thing, despite all their marketing BS about RCS seeming like some sort of open universal career messaging platform.
Although, allegedly they’ve finally relented and a universal encryption solution is now in the works.
They don’t own the standard, but they own the Android implementation of it. Other RCS implantations are hardcoded to not be supported on Android, with the exception of Samsung’s - and they had to enter an agreement with Google.
It’s not open unless you create your own new operating system and implement it that way.
Google’s implementation also adds a bunch of closed-source extensions on top of the standard.
That's not true. Even Microsoft Windows' phone app supports RCS itself as a client with Android. What you're referring to is Google's own RCS servers that performs E2E, which is outside the RCS standard itself (currently).
tentacles9999@lemmynsfw.com 2 months ago
Last I had looked into it, although the standard exists, they use their own servers and are not comparable with other res implementations
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They are also the only RCS supplier on Android. A random messaging app can’t simply add RCS messaging functionality.
It’s not really much of an open standard at all.
Kid_Thunder@kbin.social 2 months ago
You are correct that an app can't directly implement RCS but it can support it. RCS is implemented by the carrier, not by Google or any other text application.
RCS is an open standard that any carrier can implement to replace SMS/MMS. The only thing special that Google does is on top of RCS is provides E2E via its own servers for handling messaging. The E2E isn't a part of RCS, though it should be IMO. Regardless, Google doesn't 'own' the Android implementation because it isn't a part of Android, other than it can support the carrier's implementation of RCS.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 2 months ago
No app on Android can use RCS yet, other than Google messages.
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 months ago
E2EE via server sounds wrong.