Google famously campaigned for Apple to "get the message" and use RCS, but now doesn't let rooted Android users use RCS.
TL;DR
Users who have rooted their phone, have their bootloader unlocked or are using some custom ROMs report that their RCS messages are not being sent, even though RCS shows them as connected.
The Google Messages app does not show any error messages when blocking RCS messages of these users and does not send the messages out as SMS or MMS either.
Google famously campaigned for Apple to include RCS messaging in iMessage but is now blocking it for certain Android users.
It's worse than that. Carriers have a say as well. For example, Samsung messages works with RCS in some markets but US providers currently lock it out. They only allow Google messages for RCS. Absolutely infuriating.
Not only for its time! While flawed, I still see it as probably the best middle ground for messaging. It has evolved since then, its servers are easy to host and it has a variety of clients that support e2e.
RCS is just stupid. When I was still building phones a decade ago we had some operators ask for it - but after reading the standards decided to just ignore it and hope it passes. Pretty much everybody did that, until google got interested - presumably because they figured it'd be a good way to get control of messaging on a lower level. As that's exactly what RCS is: control of messaging, and ideally the option to charge for it, just like SMS and MMS before that.
What's really bizarre is that Google had the chance to be a dominant player in messaging when they made Hangouts the default SMS client on Android. Instead, they backpedaled and let Hangouts wither into obscurity. I'm mostly glad they screwed that up, but also puzzled.
The hostility towards custom ROM in general, is what forced me to root. Initially I used LineageOs without root. However, that got me in to issues with various apps, due to not passing safety net. So now I use magisk to hide that I use a custom ROM. So, they basically forced me to root.
Google is probably trying to get around the cardinal rule of network security: you can't trust the client.
Their RCS client probably doesn't make sending a huge volume of messages (i.e. spam) easy, and more automation is possible with root. Yes, it's stupid, but it's not completely without purpose.
This is really it. Plus not everyone who roots (or, rather, everyone with a rooted phone) fully understands the security implications of running as root. I’d assume that since their implementation of end to end encryption must require a device-side key pair, and I’d wager that it’s pretty trivial to obtain private keys once you’ve obtained control of a rooted phone. For an adversary, this is a serious threat to the users privacy and security.
This is just one example. I’m sure it’s incredibly difficult to make a platform that you market as secure and private when your users have full control of the system that the application is running on. It’s a never ending cat and mouse game where the device user (whether “intended use” or not) has the upper-hand most of the time.
Not being a total Google apologist here though. They should have made it quite clear that they were blocking messages, and why. Not doing at least that, is inexcusable.
I knew it! I had the sneaking suspicion that this was the case. About a month ago I updated my phone to Android 14 (custom rom) and noticed I started having trouble with RCS after a couple days since the update. I knew I was going to lose the play integrity but whatever. RCS was nice but I will not bend... just pushing me a step further to de-googling my phone. Lol it's funny how they cry to Apple about supporting RCS but yet refuse to allow third party apps or phones that don't meet their requirements, pathetic. There should be an encrypted text communication standard that isn't controlled by one company who can lock you out because you don't have approved software, that is ridiculous. That being said, I wish Signal was still a SMS app.
There should be an encrypted text communication standard that isn’t controlled by one company who can lock you out because you don’t have approved software
I agree but there's 2 apps there is no good alternative for and they are paid, at least one of them I am learning Android studio + Kotlin to recreate it. The other I have found Wx which is OK but besides that there is no good advanced weather radar.
No, they want people part of their ecosystem (play services) so they can spy on you better. And incase ya forgot RCS could be a potential attack vector as it is more code that can possibly be used for nefarious actors.
MMS can be easily be used this way because of auto retrieval of pictures that have been modified with code that auto runs once downloaded and opened by the messaging app.
I was able to get RCS working again yesterday by updating to the latest version of Play Integrity Fix, but if that hadn't worked, I would have disabled it and then probably switched over to Textra or Yatta for texting since RCS is basically the only thing keeping me on messages for texting.
Person a: So.. ..looks like in order to get into the Chinese market, we'll have to work with the Chinese government to help them censor certain topics..
Person b: but.. ..our motto.. The optics aren't good on that..
now they are owned by alphabet too which is funny cause it was founded by the guys that founded google and they just restructured google and all its holdings to be under alphabet.
I remember rooting for their upstart little browser and being excited getting an invite to gmail, and thinking their OS was a cool alternative to the big mega-maniacal Apple stuff...
...now I just feel like my younger self had been taken for such a fool.
The thing is, RCS isn't SMS. That's kind of the point. RCS is a replacement for SMS. The two protocols just happen to be available in the same Messages app. It's like sticking WhatsApp inside Messages, except it's a different protocol.
That is what blew my mind indeed, and as someone who hates constantly dialing companies and such for minor crap, I kinda am glad they went this way lol.
Nobody who cares about RCS cares about the bubble color.
People who care about the bubble color are tech-illiterate Apple fanbois.
People who care about RCS care about being able to send high-resolution photos, group chats, and video calls with their tech-illiterate Apple fanboi friends and family in a default, common messaging app.
Also the non-fanboi Apple users, and the tech-literate Apple users, and the Android users. All in one default app and an open standard. Amazing.
Which is why it’s such a mess. The RCS standard is defined by the GSM association, an organization with well over a thousand members. Want to add a feature to RCS? Prepare for years of bureaucracy trying to get the standard amended. Then 750+ mobile operators worldwide need to upgrade their systems, adding at least another few years.
Meanwhile when Apple wants to add a feature they can just roll it out in the next iOS release.
E2EE, unlimited attachment sizes, rich formatting, read/delivered notifications, reactions, group chat, stickers, a third-party app integration, stuff I'm forgetting about, and all part of the standard Messaging app.
I have a pixel, it defaults to RCS and those do not reliably deliver to my husband, who is on an android Samsung phone. I can't figure out what the big advantage of RCS is.
What is the benefit of RCS? Ever since it started using that system, I've constantly had to manually change over to SMS because RCS just stops functioning entirely causing messages sent by me to not be sent and messages sent to me don't get pushed to me until I turn RCS off. So from my perspective, RCS fuckin' sucks.
And most flying things aren't drones, they are radio controlled models, but you try getting people to stop using that term. Android/Custom ROM is the name for them, even if it doesn't mean what it should. It's not that far off as that partition is usually set as read-only, so it kinda is a ROM.
Any idea how long this has been going on? I have an unlocked bootloader but am running a standard upgrade version on my phone and it was never rooted. Some time in the last few months I started getting warnings that my texts weren't going through and was asked if I wanted to switch to SMS... yeah ok I'd never heard of RCS before so yes please use SMS for all of my messages, and everything worked fine.
Supposedly this isn't doing any warning or asking to fall back. The messages just fail silently. I'd root and use the play integrity hider magisk module.
Hmm ok, maybe not related then. I had no issues with going back to standard SMS, and if they won't play by the rules then why should I care as long as I can text my family?
So I read that the RCS Apple wants to implement isn't exactly the RCS Google is using.
My hope is that once Apple starts using (a hopefully open standard) RCS, then everyone will switch to that and everyone everywhere can communicate securely.
That's not how Apple works at all. They have had iMessage for a long while now and refuse to open up the technology. They want to monopolize the communications so that they can keep controlling it.
My guess is they are just trying to sabotage any attempts at an open standard.
We can do it right now without the need to please phone operator, device manufacturer and OS developer to add support for a protocol that does not even have E2EE standardized yet.
IMO, it sucks because it's not built to be the platform that people say it is. It can act as the platform people say it is, on top of it's existing platform, which makes for a pretty messy and unenjoyable experience.
I'm on GrapheneOS. It just never verifies my number for RCS, so everything is just sent as SMS/MMS. Has been going on for a couple of months now. I have no idea why as it does not remotely harm them whatsoever, and hurts their adoption. I'm waiting for a non shitty RCS app to come out, hopefully one that's FOSS.
WhatsApp is the defacto messaging over data globally. If you live anywhere outside the Murican bubble, SMSs are not used for anything and iMessage isn't even a thing people with iCrap devices care about. Everyone, on every platform, uses WhatsApp. Governmental services, private companies, and all the people use WhatsApp.
The only text messages SMS I get nowadays are from Americans that don't understand anything else and American businesses that use them for 2FA which is super insecure and equally stupid.
Not a defense of Meta, just saying what's used. And if the option is completely insecure SMS or RCS vs WhatsApp, WhatsApp is a clear winner. If you could push everyone to a better app like a signal or telegram, sure. But the world is on WhatsApp. And if you look at how hard it is to get Americans off of SMS or iMessage, that's the issue you have with now 2 billion people minimum to get them to use a better more secure platform. And their perceived benefit for that trouble is near zero.
I'm not saying what is good to use. I'm saying what is used. Everyone from grandma to the local store. If you want to survive communicating, you need to use WhatsApp everywhere in the world except the idiotic USA.
I personally use other apps like signal and telegram, but I also have WhatsApp because I have to and it is convenient enough. I'm ok that Meta gets a bit of data showing the amazon delivery driver and I shared a message at a certain time. It's useless data.
Do you have any numbers to back this up? My understanding is this is a very eurocentric truth, but I don't actually know the state of messaging apps in Asia, south america, or central and southern Africa.
Anecdotally it's obvious everywhere you go. I travel all over the world often and it's always WhatsApp. The taxi drivers, the hotel people, everyone.
For actual studies I found a handful with a quick google that confirm it. Whatsapp reported 2 billion users in 2020. And then WeChat is the next which is China centric. Nobody uses standard SMS except Americans.
It didn't? Last I heard google responded that it was an attempt to delay video loading for adblock users which seemed to most to be a transparent excuse. I haven't followed it closely though, I'd be curious to know more if there's an update
Verge article where the claim is due to ad blocker mitigation and not browser specific.
You said that you heard it was ad blocker related too. So the initial wave of reports about it being Firefox was inaccurate. Every article about it all sourced a singular reddit post. Just some social media "journalism".
Anecdotally, which I understand is not a great measure, I didn't experience this when it was first being reported on. But I pay for YouTube premium, so maybe that's a difference too