In a surprising move, Apple has announced today that it will adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard. The feature will launch via a software update “later next year” and bring a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users.

Apple’s decision comes amid pressure from regulators and competitors like Google and Samsung. It also comes as RCS has continued to develop and become a more mature platform than it once was.

  • phillaholic
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    301 year ago

    The RCS standard, not Google’s implementation. There are still going to be iMessage features that won’t work.

    • PHLAK
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      281 year ago

      I’d rather they use the open standard. Google should, too. If there are shortcomings with the standard then let’s improve the standard, not create a custom implementation of it.

      • phillaholic
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        01 year ago

        Well the standard is to laser than iMessage and kinda bad fundamentally, so I wouldn’t count on much else.

    • 𝕽𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘𝖙
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      1 year ago

      No matter how poorly Apple’s implementation works with Google’s, this will be a net positive for consumers.

      Apple finally giving in allows RCS to become a true standard that works across any mobile devices. That will motivate developers and the industry as a whole to continue to improve upon it.

      The initial release may be underwhelming but in the long run this week be good for everyone.

      If Google’s implementation remained the defacto “RCS” that everyone used there would be no motivation to add things like encryption to the standard as everyone is using Google’s anyway