After years of reluctance, company announces iPhones will support RCS messaging standard

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › After years of reluctance, company announces iPhones will support RCS messaging standard

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#3162177 21-Nov-2023 18:17

mudguard:

SaltyNZ:

or use SMS, which is guaranteed to work, always. Even if you or the other person are out of data!

Do need to have that person's phone number though!

Sure, but on my Apple devices the SMS's show up on all of them via Apples Messages.

iWatch, iPhone, iPad, Mac Laptop, Mac Desktop, and I can send replies via them all too.

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alasta

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#3162228 21-Nov-2023 19:00

sir1963:

Sure, but on my Apple devices the SMS's show up on all of them via Apples Messages.

iWatch, iPhone, iPad, Mac Laptop, Mac Desktop, and I can send replies via them all too.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that your iPhone needs to be alive and kicking for any SMS to make their way to your Mac, iPad, etc. Whereas an iMessage will still get through to you even if you dropped your iPhone down the toilet.

Maybe someone can clarify the situation with RCS.

sir1963

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#3162229 21-Nov-2023 19:04

alasta:

sir1963:

Sure, but on my Apple devices the SMS's show up on all of them via Apples Messages.

iWatch, iPhone, iPad, Mac Laptop, Mac Desktop, and I can send replies via them all too.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that your iPhone needs to be alive and kicking for any SMS to make their way to your Mac, iPad, etc. Whereas an iMessage will still get through to you even if you dropped your iPhone down the toilet.

Maybe someone can clarify the situation with RCS.

Correct, but I have left my phone at home and still functioned without it.

I also regularly answer phone calls on my laptop rather than reach for my phone.

SaltyNZ

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#3162258 21-Nov-2023 21:21

sir1963:

Correct, but I have left my phone at home and still functioned without it.

I also regularly answer phone calls on my laptop rather than reach for my phone.

Not really prime demographic for Google's RCS on Android though, are you? :-)

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mudguard

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#3162281 21-Nov-2023 22:30

sir1963:

mudguard:

Do need to have that person's phone number though!

Sure, but on my Apple devices the SMS's show up on all of them via Apples Messages.

iWatch, iPhone, iPad, Mac Laptop, Mac Desktop, and I can send replies via them all too.

How does that work if you don't have their phone number?

richms

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#3162374 22-Nov-2023 11:49

alasta:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that your iPhone needs to be alive and kicking for any SMS to make their way to your Mac, iPad, etc. Whereas an iMessage will still get through to you even if you dropped your iPhone down the toilet.

Maybe someone can clarify the situation with RCS.

It does need to be on and also have data to push the message back out to the icloud to the other devices.

Richard rich.ms

sir1963

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#3162393 22-Nov-2023 13:24

richms:

alasta:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that your iPhone needs to be alive and kicking for any SMS to make their way to your Mac, iPad, etc. Whereas an iMessage will still get through to you even if you dropped your iPhone down the toilet.

Maybe someone can clarify the situation with RCS.

It does need to be on and also have data to push the message back out to the icloud to the other devices.

But that is true for SMS too, my advantage with Apple Messages is that to relieve and answer I do not need to have the device near me, as I say, I have left it at home and been able to function.

SaltyNZ

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#3162397 22-Nov-2023 13:35

sir1963:

But that is true for SMS too,

maybe with your puny sms but I am working on an update to the standard which can be delivered to your phone even when it's turned off

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

richms

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#3162402 22-Nov-2023 13:59

sir1963:

But that is true for SMS too, my advantage with Apple Messages is that to relieve and answer I do not need to have the device near me, as I say, I have left it at home and been able to function.

Yet all other messaging platforms work without going thru a phone as an inbetween device to connect the legacy phone network to the cloud. imessage doing that is a bandaid solution for people that wont let go of SMS as a service.

Richard rich.ms

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#3162492 22-Nov-2023 17:19

Apologies in advance if this has been already addressed but where does Spark, 2 Degrees and One NZ sit in regards to RCS - I've got a Nothing Phone that uses Google Messages along with Google's RCS implementation but do the three major carriers support RCS directly or indirectly (aka outsourcing it to Google)? The reason why I ask is because it would be a bonus if I am able to text family members who have iPhones and they're able to receive my RCS texts.

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sir1963

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#3162550 22-Nov-2023 18:00

matisyahu:

Apologies in advance if this has been already addressed but where does Spark, 2 Degrees and One NZ sit in regards to RCS - I've got a Nothing Phone that uses Google Messages along with Google's RCS implementation but do the three major carriers support RCS directly or indirectly (aka outsourcing it to Google)? The reason why I ask is because it would be a bonus if I am able to text family members who have iPhones and they're able to receive my RCS texts.

My understanding is that Apple is supporting RCS, but not the google extensions to it.
I believe they will be working with the standards group to implement E2EE etc.

This will probably give you some insight why they don't want Google encumbrances

https://killedbygoogle.com

SaltyNZ

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#3162616 23-Nov-2023 04:32

matisyahu:

Apologies in advance if this has been already addressed but where does Spark, 2 Degrees and One NZ sit in regards to RCS -

None of us have an RCS service at present. I can't speak directly for Spark or One but I imagine reasons will be much the same as 2degrees: Apple didn't support it, and it will be challenging to get customers to pay for it, so we would be spending on the order of $3M for no payback. That might change now that Apple intend to release support, but there's still the cost problem.

Probably won't see any official info from any carrier at least till after there are more details on the Apple release.

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

sir1963

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#3162645 23-Nov-2023 07:45

SaltyNZ:

sir1963:

But that is true for SMS too,

maybe with your puny sms but I am working on an update to the standard which can be delivered to your phone even when it's turned off

So a store and forward system, that would also be nice as I am sometimes working in dead spots and sometimes forget to leave my phone outside.

alasta

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#3162664 23-Nov-2023 08:49

I am struggling to understand why RCS requires carrier support. I would have thought it would be hosted on the Internet like iMessage. If it requires telco based infrastructure then it's not much of an improvement on SMS.

Behodar

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#3162668 23-Nov-2023 09:04

Same reason VoLTE, HD Voice, Wi-Fi Calling etc. do. They're network features.

Edit: Someone needs to provide the infrastructure/servers. In the case of iMessage you've paid Apple to host it. For RCS, no single company owns it, and therefore there's no "RCS Ltd." to provide the infrastructure.

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