Re: Carriers are only slowly adapting to iOS 18 beta RCS integration

Andy Burns wrote on Fri, 28 Jun 2024 20:22:11 +0100 :

While I'm on record for not caring about RCS with Android...

 
It's not the be all, end all for me either.

That's good to know since RCS is clearly not the nirvana we'd hope to have
where Android and iPhone users could just communicate perfectly together.

When Apple emails were deposed in the Epic case, Apple was forced to admit
in court that the last thing they want is to work seamlessly with Android,

That's really the underlying reason why cross-platform compatibility sucks.

Luckily, Android users have everything that messages brings to iPhone users
if they use PulseSMS as their default messaging app, although I agree that
this requires Android users to create an account on PulseSMS servers (much
like Apple users already create an account on Apple messaging servers).

Yes, I know all about PulseSMS open-source code being bought by Maple
Media, so I use the last known good version (which is still open source).
 Pulse SMS 5.4.6.2816 by Luke & Jake Klinker

And yes, I'm aware the Maple Media PulseSMS has advertisements (again, I
don't have them because I use the last known good version of PulseSMS).
 <https://home.pulsesms.app/overview/>

My point is simply that EVERYTHING that the iPhone user love about
messaging is only possible because they're logging into an Internet server
for most of what they love about messaging - which is 110% reproduceable on
Android (meaning Android is even better) if we log into similar servers.

When I say "even better", you can send and receive text from your iPad,
your iPhone, your Android, your mac, your Windows PC and your Linux desktop
(which you can't do with the Apple messaging, even with logging into Apple
servers being taken into account - simply because Apple has never cared
about cross-platform compatibility - which everyone else already enjoys).

As an aside, here are some screenshots of PulseSMS in use, but all you need
to know is PulseSMS does everything iMessages does and quite a lot more;
but you have to log into a server (just like Apple users do every day).
 <https://i.postimg.cc/Qd21dwVw/pulsesms01.jpg> PulseSMS beats iMessages
 <https://i.postimg.cc/3RdsFtgX/pulsesms02.jpg> FOSS sold to MapleMedia
 <https://i.postimg.cc/1tjcm7KJ/pulsesms03.jpg> 5.4.6.2816 lastknowngoodv
 <https://i.postimg.cc/nL8052Vj/pulsesms04.jpg> Very nice MMS settings
 <https://i.postimg.cc/ZR4jYqdJ/pulsesms05.jpg> Lastknowngoodv works fine
 <https://i.postimg.cc/bvWQHZLx/pulsesms06.jpg> Stores MMS in sdcard0
 <https://i.postimg.cc/rpQ1dhRP/pulsesms07.jpg> Stores data in /data
 <https://i.postimg.cc/QtDM3sML/pulsesms08.jpg> Data is protected (nonroot)
 

RCS should help in platform compatibility and RCS should help four ways:
1. Those who pay for MMS will get to use RCS for free, instead.
2. Large video/audio will be platform compatible
3. Group chats won't be mangled on iPhones
4. RCS adds something about read receipts I'm not familiar with

 
depending on settings, you can tell if a message is delivered and/or
read, also there's a setting so you can see if the other person is
currently typing.

Oh. Thank you for showing me that. I've seen it on other media, for
example, that it shows if someone is typing and whether they've read the
message. Much appreciated you explained that for me. Thank you.

Note: It's not an important feature for me, but I can see how kids would
like it as they message fast and furiously - much more so than I would.

I'm not sure about encryption though, Andy.
What's the situation with RCS encryption currently between iOS & Android?

 
It's end-to-end for android-to-android is all I know, from the sounds of
it android-to-iphone encryption isn't very likely.

Thank you for confirming what I had thought, which Alan Browne also alluded
to, which is that the encryption of RCS hasn't been agreed upon between, it
seems, the two major parties: Google & Apple.

It seems that Google has an implementation but Apple won't agree to it,
where Alan Browne believes that's because Apple wants it to be a
non-Google-based standard but I suspect that it's just a ruse by Apple
since I'm well aware that Apple clearly said in the deposed internal emails
that the last thing they'd ever want to do is be cross-platform compatible
with Android (as Messaging is their secret sauce).

Note; Messaging is only their secret sauce because the Apple user is too
ignorant to realize they can get EVERYTHING they get with iMessages (and
more) simply by logging into any Internet server - which is where all the
secret handshakes are happening.

They could do that with PulseSMS as well as they could do it with Messages.
  <https://home.pulsesms.app/overview/>

For example, iOS only recently got "scheduled messages", which has been in
Android for as long as I can remember - so that's how far behind iOS is.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/v86wXwtJ/scheduledmessage.jpg> scheduled messages

The "secret sauce" is logging into an Internet server, which is why I have
appropriately termed the iPhone a "dumb terminal" in that almost nothing in
the walled garden works the instant they log out of that Internet server.

None of my iphone contacts will be running developer firmware, so
conversations with them they haven't "lit up" as RCS chats yet.

Thanks for explaining that none of your iPhone contacts are using the beta;
I'm in the same boat as half my family is on the iPhone, and in particular,
I have a brand new great grandchild whose entire immediate family is an
Apple family.

Hence, only recently I felt, firsthand, the debilitating inability of those
iPhone users to send me clear videos of the grandchild to the point that I
had to ask them to make a family WhatsApp group chat for that purpose.

Since Messaging failed them, they were forced to use a DIFFERENT Internet
server, which is my point that the Apple Internet server only makes things
easy for Apple users - even as it could make it work for everyone.

But the last thing Apple wants is compatibility with Android users. Sigh.

In summary, thanks for explaining that RCS has read-receipts/typing
indicators, and that the encryption probably won't work for a while.

Again, I'm not a fan of RCS (mostly because not a lot of messaging apps
support it yet that are outside the realm of Google's control), but I'm
slowly understanding that a lot of other people need some of RCS' features.

Thanks!