3 ms·

A stopped clock is right twice a day, as they say. RCS isn't a replacement for Signal or iMessage, not really, but it's a hell of a lot better than the current

A stopped clock is right twice a day, as they say. RCS isn't a replacement for Signal or iMessage, not really, but it's a hell of a lot better than the current least-common-denominator, cross-platform approach of SMS/MMS. Apple, with its desire for vendor lock-in, has every incentive to keep the "least-common-denominator" messaging standard as crappy as possible, to make iMessage's own experience between Apple users more compelling. They have no incentive to improve this and of course will drag their feet as long as possible. Whatever you think of Google, and whatever you think of Apple, I hope you can agree that the carriers dragging their feet on RCS does nobody any good. There's no reason that RCS cannot co-exist with iMessage on IOS, except that Apple wants you in its walled garden.

blunte 5y ago
I'm not a messaging historian, but according to Wikipedia RCS group was formed in 2007. Apple's iMessage was launched in 2011, which means it had been in development for some time. Especially being Apple, they would not pick an external pre-standard and run with it when they built their success on in-house design and control. It would also be a huge gamble to build around someone else's young standard. Do you remember phones in 2011? The Android-based phones were wildly different from each other (often flawed in unique ways). There were still popular Nokia based phones. Apple almost certainly did not target "lock in" as their priority when building their phone software. They targeted "stuff we can control which won't blow up in ways we cannot understand or prevent". (I do admit their focus shifted after Steve Jobs died, but that was later.) But also realize the carriers were in heavy competition for decades. I've worked with/for telecom companies off and on for a very long time, and the only coordination really happens when one big company buys another and has to try to integrate things.
- nytesky 5y ago
  Well Apple did kind of bet the farm by only including USB in the candy colored iMacs. It was a relatively new standard that no one was using, they shipped with only USB Ports and were ridiculed for it.

blunte 5y ago

I'm not a messaging historian, but according to Wikipedia RCS group was formed in 2007. Apple's iMessage was launched in 2011, which means it had been in development for some time. Especially being Apple, they would not pick an external pre-standard and run with it when they built their success on in-house design and control. It would also be a huge gamble to build around someone else's young standard. Do you remember phones in 2011? The Android-based phones were wildly different from each other (often flawed in unique ways). There were still popular Nokia based phones. Apple almost certainly did not target "lock in" as their priority when building their phone software. They targeted "stuff we can control which won't blow up in ways we cannot understand or prevent". (I do admit their focus shifted after Steve Jobs died, but that was later.) But also realize the carriers were in heavy competition for decades. I've worked with/for telecom companies off and on for a very long time, and the only coordination really happens when one big company buys another and has to try to integrate things.

nytesky 5y ago
Well Apple did kind of bet the farm by only including USB in the candy colored iMacs. It was a relatively new standard that no one was using, they shipped with only USB Ports and were ridiculed for it.