this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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Googles implementation of RCS, the one they are pushing as standard, is indeed proprietary
Eh? GSMA created RCS and Google simply setup their own servers to run it. So I guess you could argue that Google's RCS network is proprietary, but RCS itself is most definitely not. There's technical documentation freely available for implementing your own RCS client/server, if you care to do so.
Well didn't they initially want carriers implementing RCS with interoperability between each other to sunset sms? But that didn't quite pan out. IIRC there was a time when Verizon had a limited number of devices that supported RCS but only on their network, similar story with Bell in Canada. Hell at one point even Samsung had RCS but only with other Samsung phones. Fragmentation was rampant so Google took matters into their own hands. Not saying I'm happy Googles at the helm but they didn't start out with that intention.
Yeah it’s unfortunate we weren’t able to get RCS everywhere, as an improvement over sms. I imagine the encryption to be a sticking point preventing ubiquity
You got a source for that?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Communication_Services
So any RCS w/ Encryption that you see is referring to Google’s implementation that only runs on Google servers.
So their implementation is RCS standards with an added encryption layer. What's the issue?
I have no dog in this race.
That being said, I guess it’s that it belongs to Google, is therefore propriety, and they have a less than stellar record with honoring privacy and/or keeping projects going.
Add on that telecoms didn’t want RCS to have encryption, which is why the default standard doesn’t have it, and you have a clusterfuck of privacy concerns, longevity concerns, and licensing concerns.
Then there’s the abuse factor: https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/1/23150243/google-rcs-ads-india-spam-verified-business
So, then the argument here is to just use standard RCS without encryption?