Apple is bringing RCS to the iPhone in iOS 18
www.theverge.com
Ding dong, the SMS is dead.

The long-awaited day is here: Apple has announced that its Messages app will support RCS in iOS 18. The move comes after years of taunting, cajoling, and finally, some regulatory scrutiny from the EU.

Right now, when people on iOS and Android message each other, the service falls back to SMS — photos and videos are sent at a lower quality, messages are shortened, and importantly, conversations are not end-to-end encrypted like they are in iMessage. Messages from Android phones show up as green bubbles in iMessage chats and chaos ensues.

Apple’s announcement was likely an effort to appease EU regulators.

    • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.worldEnglish
      216·
      5 months ago

      It would be inappropriate to not make it clear what messaging protocol is being used.

      Most RCS chats will be going through googles servers. A user might want to know that.

      • atocci@lemmy.worldEnglish
        164·
        5 months ago

        I absolutely agree on that. It should be clear to the user what protocol is being used, but that isn’t Apple’s goal. If that was the case, the bubble for RCS messages would be something other than green since green currently indicates SMS. The way they’re doing it, making RCS bubbles green too won’t do anything to tell you what protocol you’re using, but it will specifically reveal you aren’t using iMessage, and continuing that in-group mentality is the goal.

      • Quantum Cog@lemmy.worldEnglish
        112·
        5 months ago

        No, apple is not using Google’s proprietary RCS they are using Open Source GSM RCS which doesn’t go through Google’s servers and it doesn’t include end-to-end encryption.

        • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          What if you speak to someone on android, then it’ll most likely go through googles servers. Most carriers are using googles servers to service rcs. When you texting iPhone users you’ll be using iMessage so most of the time your going through googles servers.

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        65·
        5 months ago

        ABSOLUTELY. I have way more trust in iMessage’s privacy than RCS. I am ELATED for this change, but I want the colors different. I wouldn’t be upset if it changed from green to something else like peach or something, though, to reflect at least there might be SOME encryption or something going on.

        • ozymandias117@lemmy.worldEnglish
          62·
          5 months ago

          If you’re relying on iMessage for privacy, ensure you and everyone you’re messaging have gone to iCloud settings and enabled “Advanced Data Protection”

          • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            31·
            5 months ago

            Absolutely, and excellent advice. Most of my folks I talk about

            pirated

            Uhh

            movies

            …we’ll just say THC cuz it’s legal here

            with, whether it enabled or not, we go through Signal iPhone or Android

            edit: I read this again and it’s a terribly worded post but I think ya get it