Xenofastiq

DangDave said:

Here is a link that has some history on RCS, but doesn’t tell the whole story:

https://www.magicbell.com/blog/what-is-rcs-messaging

Unfortunately, even though the three major carriers in the US have adopted it for Android phones, they are still trying to monetize it and RCS still only works within each carrier. It appears that each carrier has to partner with Google and I doubt that it is free. This is what I found on AT&T:

• How much does Advanced Messaging cost?

  Standard MMS and SMS rates apply based on your current AT&T rate plan. If you are on a plan that includes an unlimited number of texts, you will not incur any additional charges when you use Advanced Messaging.

  For capped Messaging plans or Pay-Per-Use customers, you will also be billed at your current messaging rates. But please note, if you send a message with multiple attachments with Advanced Messaging, each file you attach as well as your text will be counted and billed as individual messages.

  For example, if you type a text message and attach 2 photos, those would count as 3 separate messages (1 SMS and 2 MMS) for billing purposes. Files can be photos, videos, contacts, calendar items, or anything else you attach to your text message.

davidw said:

gatorguy said:

lewk said:

What's pretty screwy about this is that they evidently haven't bothered to talk to their security people.  A lot of government agencies in the US and I suspect in Europe as well, use iMessage because it is encrypted end to end, and considerably more secure than SMS.  I know that I read that the US Armed Forces were using iPhones and iPads as well as Macs more and more due to the better security.

I suspect that Apple would lose some sales if they simply said they wouldn't support this and stopped selling iPhones in the EU, but I bet people would find still find a way to buy them there - black market, mail order, or having a friend pick one up while on vacation in the USA.

If you've read about what is coming out in Great Britain about the use of WhatsApp by government officials it is quite an eye-opener.  I'd be amazed if the same sort of thing wasn't happening in the EU.  (They literally laughed at you)

Research iMessage and the Ghost Proposal.  

Of course it's more secure than SMS, but that raises the point of why Apple won't swap over to RCS which can be secured in the same manner as iMessage when that service is unavailable but insists on maintaining the insecure SMS which does Apple users no favor when communicating outside of Apple services. The reason they have not done so benefits only Apple's revenues, and works against improved inter-device security for Apple users.  

When Apple's hand is forced, which I believe will happen, I posit it will be RCS and not SMS that is used for the interoperability, which will allow for secure E2EE messaging between Android/Apple/other users. That's the smart play. 

There's already a very popular messaging service the will allow for secure messaging between Android/Apple/other users and it's WhatsApps. It's been around for awhile now and by far the most popular messaging app Worldwide (But only about maybe 25% in the US). So there is no need to force the RCS protocol on everyone or anyone.

Here's the thing, in order to get E2EE with RCS (for now), both the sender and receiver must be using Google Messages as their RCS client. Google Messages is not available on iOS. (But that can change). Google Messages is Google attempt of iMessage for Android. E2EE is not a standard feature of RCS. Every carrier must use their own encryption and it's only E2EE when messaging to someone using the same carrier. But E2EE is available if using Google version of RCS with Google Messages, so long as the messages goes through Google servers.

The reason why iMessage defaults to SMS is because an SMS client is installed on every cell phone by the carriers. (Even iPhones use iMessage as an SMS client.) There is no need for the user to install any special app in order to receive SMS. RCS is not being used by every mobile carrier. It's more common in Europe. And because texting is no longer a big money maker for carriers, they are reluctant to invest in it. 

So Google comes along and offer to host their RCS messages on Google servers, at no cost to the carrier, if the carrier uses Google Messages as their default SMS client. Which Verizon, ATT and T-Mobile have agreed to do. But AFAIK, none of them are going to remove their SMS client and use only RCS for messaging. Not so long as many businesses (including spam) still uses SMS as SMS is all they need. So there's now E2EE between users of Verizon, ATT, T-Mobile and other carriers that chooses to use Google Messages as their RCS client. But not every carrier is using Google Messages as their RCS client or using RCS at all.

And there's no way to have E2EE from iMessage to RCS. 

https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/20/22584443/verizon-android-messages-rcs