No, there is nothing. Google has no API into RCS so it's a closed system, same as iMessage unfortunately
Well that fucking sucks. We need a standard, especially since iOS and Android can't use any nifty features when talking to each other. Idk why people are so resistant to downloading telegram or signal when they gladly gobbled zuck's balls to get Facebook Messenger, which is like the 3rd worst app ever invented.
Europe has historically been charged by the text message, the US not so much. So SMS became dominant in the US primarily because of that, but also because it's the lowest common denominator and everyone supports it, no matter what phone you have.
The rest of the world has adopted other cross-platform standards, like WhatsApp in Europe. It's only US users that are stubbornly married to SMS texting, so this is a uniquely American problem.
WhatsApp is also owned by the Zuck. I'll never install a Meta owned app unless I'm forced to.
My point wasn't to say WhatsApp is good, my point is that there are a hundred alternatives that are better than SMS.
Yes, but also WhatsApp has its own set of privacy issues.
Sure, but my point is that there are plenty of "standards" that already exist. We don't need a new one, we just need to use them.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. For my threat model, I'd rather use SMS than WhatsApp
That's an interesting threat model. What about apps like signal though? Surely they are preferable to SMS?
Absolutely, Signal is preferred to SMS. I don't trust Facebook/Meta with running code on my device or keeping my data secure.
It is not uniquely American, it just isn't a European issue. The U.S.is not the only place that defaults to sms.
Bruh really? People were making it sound like iOS not having RCS support was entirely on Apple not wanting to adopt an open “better SMS” standard. (To be fair, they probably wouldn’t adopt it even if it was open either)
Not sure if this is better or worse lol. But if this is the case I don’t get the appeal of RCS at all.
It is an Apple problem.
Don't confuse a client API with a cross platform protocol. They are different beasts and Apple refuses to send or receive RCS messages. That's different than a client trying to send or receive an RCS message.
Apple is vetted as an authorized entity whereas a random client is not.
Google Messages (and I think Samsung Messages) is the only app that supports RCS.
Outside of Google, the RCS APIs are currently only available for pre installed System apps.
I'm interested in knowing too!
Google messages also has some annoying moments where the RCS will just quit working for no reason at all, first falling back from e2ee to standard RCS which is very annoying, and in some cases it will drop even further back to SMS if you haven't prevented it from doing so in the settings.
The messages app feels great to use, but it's privacy attempts aside from the e2ee are just not there IMO
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