{"id":36731,"date":"2022-08-10T14:02:45","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T18:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=36731"},"modified":"2023-06-02T15:25:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T19:25:58","slug":"time-for-apple-to-fix-texting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/10\/time-for-apple-to-fix-texting\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for Apple to Fix Texting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Android<\/a> (MacRumors<\/a>, Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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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. These problems exist because Apple refuses to adopt modern texting standards when people with iPhones and Android phones text each other.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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RCS messages are only end-to-end encrypted sometimes, if both the sender and recipient are using Google’s Messenger app<\/a> — and never for group chats, even with Google’s Messenger app.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

So, practically speaking, neither RCS nor iMessage is actually private for most users. Right now, the experience of communicating with Android users from Messages is not very good. And it happens via SMS, which is even less secure. Whether or not you consider RCS to be a real open standard, it seems like it would be better than what we have now, and I don’t see Apple proposing a better alternative. It’s unclear whether this is a case of perfect being the enemy of good, RCS having genuine problems, Apple deliberately making things worse for their customers for strategic reasons, or simply not caring.<\/p>\n\n

Regardless, they should also make Messages work better with SMS<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Ron Amadeo<\/a> (via Jack Wellborn<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Google has been pushing<\/a> this strategy since the beginning of the year, but coming from the company with the world’s most dysfunctional<\/a> messaging strategy, it just comes across as a company tired of reaping what it has been sowing.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

RCS has hung around so long and is still so poorly implemented because it was created by the carriers (through the GSMA) as a carrier-centric messaging standard. Carriers did this in the heyday of pay-per-message SMS, when carrier messaging was a real revenue stream. Now that carrier messaging is commoditized though, the carriers in control of RCS don’t have an incentive<\/a> to care about RCS. RCS is a zombie spec.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Dave Mark<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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What is the down side to RCS?<\/p>\n

I get why Apple doesn’t want RCS (walled garden, green vs blue bubbles differentiator, etc), but is there a technical downside to switching to RCS?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Matt Birchler<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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The thing for me is that everyone who is railing against Apple adding support for RCS are saying it’s because it’s not as good as iMessage, but that’s not what it’s replacing…it’s better for everyone than SMS, which I think is the better comparison.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n