It's that time of year again, folks. As the tech world has sights set on the latest Apple event that is producing the new iPhone 16 as we speak, we all know we'll be seeing slightly improved phones, some impressive specs, and a few 'innovative" or "magic" new features from Apple. For me, however, the...
Seriously? Matrix and signal already exists… So you can use them today instead of RCS to your heart’s desire.
I think they mean it more as it’s not only gonna be Google but Apple who are going to be shoving RCS down their throats of people wether they want it or not by shipping it as default.
On the other hand, the era when corporations cared even the tiniest bit for open standards in instant messaging was gone long ago. Now all instant messaging is a complete mess, we users have to deal with a myriad of apps and protocols that in the end are doing the same thing for the sake of “privacy”, and RCS will not fix that. Nor Signal, truth be told.
I yearn the glory days of multi-protocol IM apps like Pidgin and Trident on Android (though +IM seems to still be a thing) - when you could use whatever you wanted without “missing features” or risking to be banned.
“Shoving RCS down their throats” is like saying they’re “shoving phone calls down their throats” or “shoving SMS down their throats”.
As for the mess of chat apps, we’ve had apps like Pidgin before and with Beeper Mini we will have them again. Beeper Mini started out as a way to get iMessage on Android, but their plan has always been to mirror Beeper in that they want to collect different chat protocols in one single app.
Barring that, the EU’s DMA is forcing the most important chat apps to interoperate at the very least, though full support (including calling and such) isn’t mandatory until somewhere in 2027.
Yeah, no. Pretty bad argument.
When you buy a phone you know it will have calls and SMS - it’s what you bought the phone in the first place. You bought them because of that. RCS is still just a fancy alternative.
And you’re missing the point again - a company doing a multi IM service app, like Beeper Mini, is not the same that a group of volunteers doing a multi service IM app, like Pidgin. They’re still going to be closed source and they will not guarantee to give support for platforms people need. Beeper mini on desktop? Beeper mini on Linux/BSD? Forget it.
You know it’ll call and SMS because those are telecom standard. The same is true for RCS. RCS is made by the same people who made SMS and basic voice calling.
The 4G spec people made RCS services optional for carriers. The Chinese government made it mandatory. Even Chinese dumbphones are going to support RCS once they start putting 5G in them for better coverage.
Beeper Mini is mostly closed (there’s a source dump out there but that’s not maintained) but it has bridges for all the major chat services, all completely open source, based on Matrix bridging. You’re free to take that code and make an app yourself if you want to rip out the Matrix dependency.
Personally, I’m waiting for MLS and MIMI to be taken up, but that’s still a work in progress.
The blindingly obvious thing that you’re missing is that others aren’t using it…
If Apple and Google suddenly adopted it, it would instantly become a new standard in communication.