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GrapheneOS is building its own RCS support to cut Google Messages out of the picture (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/android@lemdro.id
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[–] 24 points 1 month ago (40 children)

What the fuck is RCS?

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  • [–] 28 points 1 month ago (6 children)

    Ok so RCS is basically WhatsApp/Signal but Google(+Carriers) but retarded:

    • The client software is propiertary and screws you over when you e.g. root your phone
    • They finally realized that E2EE exists - 10 years after everyone else implemented it
    • You can't view the docs unless you're a Google Partner
    • The protocol seems to be a mess
    • You need a mobile data connection for it to work (sometimes not)
    • Knowbody knows how the server software works or can be hosted, everything is "Google Jibe" or needs to connect to it to work
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  • [–] 17 points 4 weeks ago* (1 child)

    whatsApp [...] But retarded

    Huh? That's literally a Meta platform... Doesn't get much worse than that. I'd sooner just use SMS

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  • [–] 8 points 4 weeks ago

    AFAIK this is SMS... Well, they are using RCS to hijack it. So you start SMS conversation and if both parties have it enabled or will switch to their protocol. Kind of what iMessage does.

    Yeah, I keep RCS disabled on my phone and preferably would replace it with another app, but didn't know a good alternative.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 weeks ago
    • GOS will code a proprietary client, like Whatsapp? I doubt…
    • It's E2E with 3 ends, the 3rd one being Meta, like Whatsapp?
    • There is no doc available, like Whatsapp?
    • The server is as closed as one can be like Whatsapp?

    Frankly, if one actor gets in RCS and gives me confidence it's going to be secure and respect our privacy as much as can be, it's GOS.
    RCS might be below some other standards, but phone messaging is still a thing. GOS is not about idealistic massive adoption of Signal, it's about what's needed in the day-to-day life, but with privacy and security.

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  • [+] -11 points 1 month ago (30 children)

    I think it's texts for people who don't use Signal or WhatsApp, so... nobody I have ever met, I guess

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    it's trying to extend the sms/mms system

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Replace, not extend.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 weeks ago

    Isn't that a possible reason why my my e/OS/ phone can't send text messages, nor call, some numbers. (In France, where many people use meta shit like whatsapp and facebook messenger, and won't be interested in another messenging app like signal, delta chat, etc)

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  • [–] 6 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

    It is literally a standardized communication protocol. That is what iMessage is

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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

    iMessage is anything but a standardized protocol with crossplatform support

    what did you drink? are you ok?

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    Huh, I just assumed it was built on the protocol but I guess not lol

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago*

    iMessage came LOOOOONNNNG before RCS. Once Apple had a large base of iPhone users, they rolled out iMessage. And it only works on Apple hardware. But because it's the default and the general public is relatively.....err....dumb..... nobody really understood the difference until recently.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

    You're correct. EU users didn't adopt, or at least continue to utilize, SMS based messaging like users in the US did. This is not a problem for anyone using web based messaging like the ones you mentioned.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

    I'm quite surprised by the reaction this comment has received, are Americans genuinely still using SMS? Don't they need to have group chats, send pictures, transfer files, make audio and video calls, or make use of encryption?

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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    I don't know for sure but my guess is that a lot of US users thought you were wrong because they don't know that SMS / MMS is essentially dead in the EU. It's still the primary text based communication method in the US.

    MMS supports all the things you mentioned (albeit in a shittier way) except encryption. RCS adds a new layer that is more like Signal in that it supports encryption and emojis and a few other things but it is controlled by Google and there are no open source alternatives currently.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago

    Does MMS support all that? From my brief research it basically just sends an SMS with a link to the media to be downloaded by your WAP browser, so while a client could implement group chats etc I'm not aware that it's actually built in. Not that I can check, my network doesn't even seem to support MMS anymore!

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  • [–] 4 points 4 weeks ago (12 children)

    Sounds like you haven't met anyone. Or more likely, it's everyone not-you who is weird.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago (8 children)

    Genuinely nobody I know has sent an SMS message for at least a decade, who are you still sending SMS to in this day and age when internet-based messengers exist?

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  • [–] 1 point 4 weeks ago* (7 children)

    Ever heard of older people or just less techy ones? Guess not. I always find it weird when people get on some high horse about sms or any other tech topic. By the way you talk, one would think you literally think hundreds of millions or more people don't use a texting capability built-in to their phone. But you clearly don't think that. You apparently just have a need to "other" people who do use it.

    Ps. You live in a world where people still use fax machines, checks, floppy disks, and AOL over dialup. People use old tech. It's not that crazy and much of it has to do with older people not liking change.

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  • [–] -1 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

    Look, I'm not trying to be a smartarse here, I'm genuinely interested in different ways people use technology. I am telling you that every person I know, regardless of age, defaults to using WhatsApp for communications; even my elderly relatives.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

    Ok, perhaps I misjudged you. For me, even younger people typically don't use other messengers besides sms. I've only ever successfully gotten like 5 people to install signal. The other most popular messengers in the us, Facebook messenger and Whatsapp, are probably much worse for privacy than sms, due to meta ownership.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

    Yeah I've got about half of my friends and family using Signal, but when even a single one refuses then the whole group chat ends up staying in WhatsApp. WhatsApp does at least seem better than Facebook messenger though, as it allegedly implements the Signal protocol so should still be E2E encrypted. "Allegedly", because it's closed source and run by the trustworthy philanthropists as Facebook who I'm sure are data mining as much as they can from it, but I think people would have found out if it was a total lie. Still better than SMS though which may as well be public.

    Where in the world are you? I speak for the UK when I talk about WhatsApp being the de-facto messenger. How do people do group chats or send files if they're still using SMS?

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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

    Well, yeah, Whatsapp is e2e encrypted but also I'm pretty sure it's known that the app can/does use chat data on the client side. If they aren't doing that, they could always start someday because for the conversations to be readable they are decrypted on the device end for each user. And I would put nothing past Meta.

    I'm in the US. Group chats infamously have this "green/blue bubble" issue where many iPhone users would have a group chat (automatically using iMessage) and then if an android user gets added, the chat gets downgraded to MMS I think and the android user shows as a green bubble. It's a weird cultural thing where the iPhone users (as designed by apple) think the android user has a crappy phone because they designed their ecosystem like that. I am sure overall many people use non-sms apps but it's pretty rare for someone to assume I use Whatsapp, they typically ask first. And people using signal is also rare ime. But I'm sure all this would be much different for younger people than me. I know Snapchat is still pretty popular and I've barely used it (hated it).

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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

    Wow, I've heard about "green bubbles" but I assumed that was something teenagers grew out of. Hearing that Snapchat is still around is crazy, I used it back when smartphones were still a cool toy and haven't thought about it since!

    In the UK we've all got unlimited calls and texts (i.e. SMS) but MMS never became free. Or maybe it did (though I've not seen an operator mention it for over a decade) but by then everyone was already using internet-based IMs. WhatsApp had already become the main one before Facebook bought it, and you already know how resistant people are to change.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 child)

    I assumed that was something teenagers grew out of.

    You'd think and hope so lol. But just a couple years ago my partner was in a work related group chat where that happened. Full grown adults chastising others for defiling their blue bubbles or whatever. Super silly but afaik still a thing.

    That's super interesting concerning MMS messages still costing extra in the uk. My understanding of that tech is that it was just a wrapper around email. Each phone number would have an email address like phonenumber@mms.carrier.com and all the carrier is doing there is translating phone numbers to email addresses and vice versa and kinda hiding that it's doing it. I haven't really known if MMS affects my plan for a long time, I think those usually were included with unlimited texts for the most part. Anyhow yeah for some reason in my experience Americans usually only use Whatsapp due to having international friends or for large group chats that might have international folks in them. And signal is used frequently by more tech savvy people, but most "normies" I know would likely have never tried it. My parents probably haven't even heard of Whatsapp. It's largely a cultural thing.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 weeks ago

    Hmm, according to Wikipedia it seems like the sender uploads their picture (or whatever the MMS is) to a server, then the receiver gets a SMS with a link to the URL which is opened to download the content in their WAP browser. Seems you can also send an email to that secret email address but that's a separate path.

    I did a quick check and my network doesn't even seem to support MMS anymore!

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  • [–] 0 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

    I am suprised that it took this long to find someone that mentions how RCS will need to fight the network effect of pre existing IM apps thanks to no one using SMS in 2026 (for good reason, it is genuinely garbage and unsafe)

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