Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year

In a surprising move, Apple has announced today that it will adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard. The feature will launch via a software update “later next year” and bring a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users.

Apple’s decision comes amid pressure from regulators and competitors like Google and Samsung. It also comes as RCS has continued to develop and become a more mature platform than it once was.

gianni,

Let me know when you can use RCS on an Android phone without Google Play Services outside of Google Messages

advanderar,

I think this is because the carriers were slow / refused to host RCS on their servers so most carriers make you use Google servers.

toastal,

Around 2010 Google, Facebook, MySpace, even OkCupid were all running on the XMPP standard protocol. The corpos were generally bad stewards not following protocol updates, implimenting features in incompatible ways, & eventually realized there was more to gain be defederating forcing folks to use their platforms & let those corporations siphon the (meta)data of messaging.

What gets me is why they saw the need to invent yet another similar protocol with XMPP still being feature rich, battle tested—as well as Matrix to a lesser extent—unless they already have their plans on how to circumvent the system & repeat this same cycle.

smileyhead,

Ugh, yet another chat network to use…

I guess now we wait for Android to add support too.

Glimpythegoblin,

It already has support on Android. I send rcs messages to other friends with Android. Read receipts. No longer mms and sms. It’s great.

smileyhead, (edited )

Google Messages is a proprietary chat app that connects to proprietary Google Jire servers on phone carrier’s site. It does not use barebone RCS protocol, this is why only Google is now able to make such app even if the app does not use any permission that other apps don’t have.

Native support for Android was planned for Android 11, soon we’ll get Android 14 and still no support in sight.

blindsight,

RCS falls back to SMS/MMS, so it’s not another app, it’s a replacement for texting (and iMessage).

iMessage is, basically, just a proprietary way of doing what RCS is designed to do, so Apple can use peer pressure to get teens (and adults) to exclusivity buy iPhones so their messages are the “right” colour.

smileyhead,

Some time ago Signal was falling back to SMS too.

How is this propietary aspect of iMessage non existing on Android with RCS? Years goes by and still the only Android app that can support this protocol seems to be Google Messages.

Third-party RCS clients like Beeper use Android virtual machine with Google Messages running… Seriously, even Facebook Messenger seems to be less locked down.

ky56,

Doesn’t this mean all text message traffic will flow through the control of Google servers?

I don’t know anything about how RCS works aside from a couple of comments talking about the Google servers problem.

psivchaz,

There can be other servers and apps, for example Samsung has their own app. It’s hard for me to track down details about how they interoperate but it appears that the various services need to agree to work with one another, so I don’t think just anyone can create an RCS app and infrastructure and have it work with Google’s and Samsung’s. However, I imagine Apple is fully capable of it and would be surprised if iPhone RCS wasn’t going through Apples network.

ForgotAboutDre,

Samsung’s app is just rebranded Google app.

sparky,
@sparky@lemmy.federate.cc avatar

In theory anyone can host an RCS endpoint but in practice that means carriers (historically) or OS vendors (in modernity). So in effect yes all RCS messages will pass through Google servers, but mostly because Apple to Apple texts will remain on iMessage. But any texts starting or ending on Android will go through Google. Note that this doesn’t really change much as Google’s privacy policy for Android users already discloses the bulk ingestion, scanning and processing of communications, including text messages.

jormaig,

I thought that it was the carriers the ones hosting the RCS server. Is this not true?

zwekihoyy,

some carriers do but Google runs their own as well because carriers were slow to adopt.

ForgotAboutDre,

Many carries use Google Jibe service for their RCS implementation.

sparky,
@sparky@lemmy.federate.cc avatar

Some do, but what Google rolled out in Android Messages is their own implementation unrelated to the carriers. Ostensibly so it works regardless of carrier, but what they rolled out is a semi-proprietary implementation that only works on their app. Ergo if you use a third party texting app, no RCS. So it’s a sort of “Android iMsssage” thing anyway. Apple plans to implement Google’s version, again sidestepping the carriers.

rish,
@rish@lemmy.ml avatar

Next year sounds like it’ll be a feature for iPhone 16 pro Max.

jerrythejared,

It’s going to be a software update, so not tied to a new phone release model.

MarioBarisa,
@MarioBarisa@lemmy.ml avatar

Love to see Apple being forced into making good decisions against their will.

Ghostalmedia,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

I’m hoping that they also force Google to do the same. Pushing for a universal RCS E2E encryption standard is great. I’m sick of Google saying RCS is the open alternative to iMessage, when key things like their E2EE implementation are not open at all.

tcely,
@tcely@fosstodon.org avatar

What kind of openness are you hoping for? Google has built their solution with a bunch of already open pieces.

RCS + Signal protocol + MLS

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-messages-mls-3346918/

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/20/23801536/google-messages-app-mls-support-announce

@Ghostalmedia

skullgiver, (edited )
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    tcely,
    @tcely@fosstodon.org avatar

    Accessing the keys from the server isn't really a mystery or hidden. It's technically possible for Apple to write software to query servers run by Google as well as any servers they created for themselves.

    You don't need implementation source code when you have open standards already.

    WhatsApp actually used Signal's development team to rollout the Signal protocol for them, but that app is still untrustworthy.

    @skullgiver

    skullgiver, (edited )
    @skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    tcely,
    @tcely@fosstodon.org avatar

    Here are the links to the documentation for these standards:

    MLS - https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/mls/documents/

    Signal Protocol - https://www.signal.org/docs/

    RCS - https://www.gsma.com/futurenetworks/rcs/universal-profile/ & https://www.gsma.com/futurenetworks/resources/rcs-up-2-4-uni/

    @skullgiver

    nixcamic,

    AFAIK Apple has said they are only going to use official RCS spec with no extensions and will work on adding encryption to the spec. Google has announced that they will work with Apple and the GSMA to implement official RCS encryption.

    Ghostalmedia,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah, all in all, this is a good news all around m. Apple is coming into the fold, and E2EE should become more accessible for more RCS clients.

    pingveno,

    Holy crap. Now my uncle can stop complaining about degraded quality when Android users are in message rooms. When it comes to tech, he really doesn’t care about the culprit. He just complains that people aren’t playing in Apple’s walled garden.

    ChewTiger,

    I don’t message anyone with an iPhone. Other than the different colored bubbles what does it do? How is the quality degraded?

    It just seems like Apple kept it separate so their obsessed fans would have something to feel superior about.

    pingveno,

    The biggest issue I’ve heard of is that message size is very constrained, so photos and videos are reduced to postage stamps.

    sparky,
    @sparky@lemmy.federate.cc avatar

    iMessage is a rich communication layer backed by HTTPS and web sockets so think something like WhatsApp or Telegram; you can send 2 gig files, embed maps and other rich content, etc etc. SMS is well… SMS. So the blue versus green bubble is a dumb reductionist view but the practical impact is visible in say video messaging, where an iMessage can attach a 50mb 4K H.265 clip same as a real messaging app, whereas an MMS will be a 256k 3gpp potato.

    Rootiest,
    @Rootiest@lemmy.world avatar

    The biggest thing is attachments like photos/videos.

    While MMS pretty universally sucks, Apple is very aggressive with the compression they apply to attachments over MMS so the resulting user experience is garbage akin to what we used to have when MMS was new.

    Modern phones from other manufacturers will make use of the full MMS attachment size available, typically 100MB or more (depending on your carrier) iPhones will compress that video down to a couple MB regardless of the higher capacity available.

    echodot,

    iPhones don’t support multimedia messaging over anything other than SMS. On Android when you send an image to someone you’re sending the actual file (the original file with all its bytes intact). If you try to send it to someone over SMS it’ll just goes “nope, you shouldn’t do that you should send the actual file”, and seamlessly intervenes and just does it.

    But since IOS can’t receive files, instead preferring to use their proprietary AirDrop system which they don’t feel like making available to other developers, Android phones are forced to send it as an SMS. Problem with that is there is a max file size and the image has to be heavily compressed in order to fit.

    So then iPhone users (who typically know less about technology than my grandmother) start to complain about the terrible quality of Android photos, even though it’s actually an issue with transferring the file, and it’s not Androids fault. So what’s going to happen is that next year the quality of Android photos is massively going to jump really weirdly 🤔.

    onlinepersona,

    The elephant in the room is impending legislation in the European Union that could’ve ultimately required Malus to open up iMessage.

    Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to The Brussels Effect!

    Apple is being Brusseled 🙂

    MiikCheque,

    hopefully this was the huge hurdle needed clear that’ll eventually allow 3rd party developers access to rcs

    moitoi,

    Regulations strike again!

    extant,

    I just want to point out that this announcement comes after Nothing phone company announced they partnered with a company that will bridge the two protocols so apple was about to lose their ability to force android images and videos to look like a potato so iPhone users wouldn’t want to leave the apple ecosystem.

    This just exactly like when apple decided they were going to be champions of privacy by improving the security on their phones, which coincidentally happened right after a company called cellebrite started selling a product that would allow police to bypass passcodes and fingerprints to access a users data which previously could only be unlocked by the police department paying a fee for each time to unlock a phone.

    They will always default to being shitty like any other company treating their users like the enemy until they can’t and then they spin it in their favor.

    Ghostalmedia,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    There are several of these solutions in the wild now. Basically, the phone tunnels into MacOS VM that sends the message through actual iMessage.

    Kind of janky, but it works.

    macgyver,
    @macgyver@federation.red avatar

    Beeper is sick! Would highly recommend. Or if you’re feeling frisky, self hosting the bridge in a docker container is possible. The container is a kvm osx vm.

    araozu,

    Does beeper have a docker? I tried to install it last week, only saw an ansible notebook or something like that, broke my nginx and didn’t even work

    I want to reverse proxy to it, not have it take total control of my vps or dedicate a vps to it

    macgyver,
    @macgyver@federation.red avatar

    If you have a matrix server, then yes the mautrix-imessage bridge has a docker container. Beeper itself you can’t really self host as it’s their matrix server you live on (I haven’t checked out the beeper-selfhosted git yet).

    I’m pretty sure the playbook is just docker under the hood on a service user instead of your normal user. There’s a way to run the playbook with docker as well (memory is fuzzy on that).

    Rootiest,
    @Rootiest@lemmy.world avatar

    Matrix and the bridges can all be run in docker, yes.

    interdimensionalmeme,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    thrawn,

    Seems more likely to be Apple getting ahead of incoming legislation than a small phone company’s announcement. Companies like Apple don’t make huge changes within a couple days of nearly unknown (to the general market) companies doing something that might slightly affect them.

    Regulations work, and in this case, it doesn’t look like competition played any role. Apple only makes changes like this when forced to by regulators or, in the case of privacy, when it’s marketable. Capitalistic self regulating is almost a myth with them— they wouldn’t even stop selling those butterfly keyboards until their self imposed refresh timeline allowed for it.

    extant,

    I’ve no doubt it’s more than one thing that is driving this, but my point was they are only now agreeing because they have to and not because they want to. This company has literally taken away their customers ability to receive quality media from their friends with the sole intent to pressure people into getting their product so they belong. I know it’s hyperbolic to say, but it’s basically using teens to bully each other into buying something. Someone had to pitch this idea to a room full of people and all those people thought wow this is a great idea, think about how fucked up that is.

    sparky,
    @sparky@lemmy.federate.cc avatar

    Nothing doesn’t have anything real - it’s a Mac in the cloud with some janky scripting puppeting Messages.app. They haven’t figured out how to plug in at a protocol level or anything.

    habanhero,

    Nothing is literally nothing, Apple could care less about them.

    Nothing’s solution is basically getting you to send your messages to them, and they’ll send it through a Mac logged into your Apple ID hence achieving the “blue bubble” lol. Hugely insecure, hacky solution and hardly groundbreaking.

    oxjox,

    Apple could care less about them.

    www.reddit.com/r/ask/comments/17wx1tq/…/k9jzi63/

    Mr_Blott,

    It will never be right, I couldn’t care less what a bunch of Redditors think

    habanhero,

    Could of, should of, would of. I’m not gonna loose sleep on it and I hope your not gonna

    Mr_Blott,

    So Apple could care less? On a scale of one to ten, how much less?

    habanhero,

    You’re opinion? Maybe 3.5 or fewer more

    Rootiest,
    @Rootiest@lemmy.world avatar

    Beeper, and the open-source Matrix bridges it uses have been around for a while now, including the iMessage bridge.

    Definitely a better choice than Nothing’s “we don’t believe in open source” sketchware

    Coach,

    So great to see Apple finally invent RCS! /s

    bigkahuna1986,

    A messaging system that breaks away from SMS and MMS? Apple is so brave.

    Coach,

    …and don’t forget “innovative.” Now, where is my wallet?

    onlinepersona,

    Off to pay them for the pleasure of being their product, I assume?

    (Apple is becoming an ad-company)

    Chozo,

    Apple was kind enough to beta test it on Android for years, too!

    MartinXYZ,

    When will I be able to use RCS in other messaging apps than Google Messages on Android?

    Ghostalmedia,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    It looks like Apple is addressing one of the biggest gripes with RCS - Google’s proprietary crap that isn’t opened up to small 3rd parties. Apple wants things like E2EE to be a universal standard that anyone can use, not something Google only dishes out to big phone manufacturers.

    MartinXYZ,

    Wait, so Apple is doing something good for 3rd party apps? I did not expect that to happen in my lifetime

    Ghostalmedia,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    Apple, Google, and Microsoft all magically become really into open alternatives when one of their competitors starts to dominate or control a significant portion of the marketplace with proprietary tech.

    Apple specifically had LOTS of examples of this back when they were a smaller player. OS X and Safari really leaned into open standards when MS was the 900lb gorilla.

    andruid,

    Meta too. Their work in the Opencompute space is really cool, but it definitely feels like a jab at all their major tech competition going into the cloud space.

    araozu,

    I’m sure they just don’t want all data to go through google servers, and thus give google more control over the protocol

    I will never trust big tech companies. My successors will never trust big tech companies.

    pingveno,

    I’m not sure that’s quite the case. It sounds like it’s just a big undertaking where Google and Samsung are the only ones that have done it. There was never anything stopping Apple.

    Ghostalmedia,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    It’s totally the case with the encryption element. Pretty widely known.

    pingveno,

    Gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up.

    smileyhead,

    It’s really bad that we sill would live in a ancient model when in order to use the protocol app need some specialized system API to the baseband modem. I thought it was all fixed with just the IP (Internet)?

    TheHobbyist,

    I don’t want to be cynical, but is this part required for Apple to implement RCS?

    “and bring a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users.”

    I can totally imagine it being limited to the encryption and the bare minimum, as imessages features don’t perfectly overlap with the RCS features (e.g. emojis).

    mojo,

    They aren’t doing this by choice lol

    Appoxo,
    @Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Still better than nothing lol.

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