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Ironically there was already an interoperable over the top messaging protocol – and Google pretty much killed it when the broke compatibility and abandoned it.

admax88q 5y ago
Then then spent the next decade trying to create a viable chat platform before handing the task over to the telecoms of all people. Just. Brutal.
- leucineleprec0n 5y ago
  It's not ideal and pisses me off it took this long, but the technical implementation and UX is not at all bad now that we're here. The big 3 American carriers are in on this standard now, and Ma Bell's RCS-capable messaging app that is preinstalled on Android phones is basically indistinguishable from Google Messages even down to the logo. What I mean is that the UX isn't that "carrier-y" and more dumb-utility esque. Lastly, Google may not install their APK version as default on OEM phones- but the binary is readily available on the Play Store and Android has a myriad default app settings, including for messaging. Look, Google fucked up for years and it's actually my biggest gripe with them (ceding messaging to the loonies in Cupertino in the US) but at least we're now at the point where all American Android users will have an interoperable standard, and since iMessage is a cancer in America particularly, well, it's okay if RCS takes longer to reach critical mass elsewhere.
  - pabs3 5y ago
    IIRC the carriers abandoned the idea of being involved in RCS and left it entirely to Google.
    - leucineleprec0n 5y ago
      Ah that's kinda what I meant but incidentally elided that they had convened on Google's implementation in particular.
- nwallin 5y ago
  It doesn't make any sense to me. There are parts of making a chat platform that are hard. Want to support end to end encryption? Very hard. But google doesn't give a shit. They're going to warehouse all messages in plaintext in a forever database that they'll use to train NLP models anyway. Interop between a dozen different providers is hard. But google isn't doing interop with a dozen different providers. They're doing interop with themselves. They can say "oops this API sucks" every four months and that's fine. How Google can make Docs a thing and make it work well but can't figure out chat is bananas. Or gmail. What is chat but email with message size limits and the explicit removal of interop as a feature?
deadmutex 5y ago
"What no other major player did, and what Google is now abandoning, is XMPP server-to-server federation. The Google representative said "XMPP was designed over a decade ago to provide a way for chat networks to interoperate, known as federation. Google Talk was the only major network to support federation, and after seven years, it’s evident that the rest of the industry is not moving to embrace this open system. If, at some point in the future, the industry shows interest, then we would then be open to discussions about developing an interface that's designed for modern needs."" https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-moves-away-from-the-xmpp-open-messaging-standard/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-moves-away-from-the-xmp...

admax88q 5y ago

Then then spent the next decade trying to create a viable chat platform before handing the task over to the telecoms of all people. Just. Brutal.

leucineleprec0n 5y ago
It's not ideal and pisses me off it took this long, but the technical implementation and UX is not at all bad now that we're here. The big 3 American carriers are in on this standard now, and Ma Bell's RCS-capable messaging app that is preinstalled on Android phones is basically indistinguishable from Google Messages even down to the logo. What I mean is that the UX isn't that "carrier-y" and more dumb-utility esque. Lastly, Google may not install their APK version as default on OEM phones- but the binary is readily available on the Play Store and Android has a myriad default app settings, including for messaging. Look, Google fucked up for years and it's actually my biggest gripe with them (ceding messaging to the loonies in Cupertino in the US) but at least we're now at the point where all American Android users will have an interoperable standard, and since iMessage is a cancer in America particularly, well, it's okay if RCS takes longer to reach critical mass elsewhere.
- pabs3 5y ago
  IIRC the carriers abandoned the idea of being involved in RCS and left it entirely to Google.
  - leucineleprec0n 5y ago
    Ah that's kinda what I meant but incidentally elided that they had convened on Google's implementation in particular.
nwallin 5y ago
It doesn't make any sense to me. There are parts of making a chat platform that are hard. Want to support end to end encryption? Very hard. But google doesn't give a shit. They're going to warehouse all messages in plaintext in a forever database that they'll use to train NLP models anyway. Interop between a dozen different providers is hard. But google isn't doing interop with a dozen different providers. They're doing interop with themselves. They can say "oops this API sucks" every four months and that's fine. How Google can make Docs a thing and make it work well but can't figure out chat is bananas. Or gmail. What is chat but email with message size limits and the explicit removal of interop as a feature?

deadmutex 5y ago

"What no other major player did, and what Google is now abandoning, is XMPP server-to-server federation. The Google representative said "XMPP was designed over a decade ago to provide a way for chat networks to interoperate, known as federation. Google Talk was the only major network to support federation, and after seven years, it’s evident that the rest of the industry is not moving to embrace this open system. If, at some point in the future, the industry shows interest, then we would then be open to discussions about developing an interface that's designed for modern needs."" https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-moves-away-from-the-xmpp-open-messaging-standard/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-moves-away-from-the-xmp...