Are there any (preferably FOSS) RCS/SMS/MMS apps as an alternative to Google Messages? I can’t convince anyone to switch to signal and would like to at least use an app that I trust. Eventually I’ll be moving to a privacy-respecting mobile OS so I’ll need an SMS app to run without Google Play Services, but I don’t want to totally miss out on RCS. Are there any alternatives? Is this even possible?
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No, there is nothing. Google has no API into RCS so it’s a closed system, same as iMessage unfortunately
Well that fucking sucks. We need a standard, especially since iOS and Android can’t use any nifty features when talking to each other. Idk why people are so resistant to downloading telegram or signal when they gladly gobbled zuck’s balls to get Facebook Messenger, which is like the 3rd worst app ever invented.
The rest of the world has adopted other cross-platform standards, like WhatsApp in Europe. It’s only US users that are stubbornly married to SMS texting, so this is a uniquely American problem.
Yes, but also WhatsApp has its own set of privacy issues.
Sure, but my point is that there are plenty of “standards” that already exist. We don’t need a new one, we just need to use them.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. For my threat model, I’d rather use SMS than WhatsApp
That’s an interesting threat model. What about apps like signal though? Surely they are preferable to SMS?
Absolutely, Signal is preferred to SMS. I don’t trust Facebook/Meta with running code on my device or keeping my data secure.
WhatsApp is also owned by the Zuck. I’ll never install a Meta owned app unless I’m forced to.
My point wasn’t to say WhatsApp is good, my point is that there are a hundred alternatives that are better than SMS.
It is not uniquely American, it just isn’t a European issue. The U.S.is not the only place that defaults to sms.
Europe has historically been charged by the text message, the US not so much. So SMS became dominant in the US primarily because of that, but also because it’s the lowest common denominator and everyone supports it, no matter what phone you have.
Didnt google preach at their yearly summit about making RCS a global standard? Google should be releasing fully open source APIs for Kotlin, Swift and Dart.
Nevertheless, I am skeptical on how the encryption works especially if your buddy is using Google messanger and if you were using a 3rd party RCS app.
Yeah they really could be doing a lot more on that front
Bruh really? People were making it sound like iOS not having RCS support was entirely on Apple not wanting to adopt an open “better SMS” standard. (To be fair, they probably wouldn’t adopt it even if it was open either)
Not sure if this is better or worse lol. But if this is the case I don’t get the appeal of RCS at all.
It is an Apple problem.
Don’t confuse a client API with a cross platform protocol. They are different beasts and Apple refuses to send or receive RCS messages. That’s different than a client trying to send or receive an RCS message.
Apple is vetted as an authorized entity whereas a random client is not.
Google Messages (and I think Samsung Messages) is the only app that supports RCS.
Outside of Google, the RCS APIs are currently only available for pre installed System apps.
I’m interested in knowing too!
Google messages also has some annoying moments where the RCS will just quit working for no reason at all, first falling back from e2ee to standard RCS which is very annoying, and in some cases it will drop even further back to SMS if you haven’t prevented it from doing so in the settings.
The messages app feels great to use, but it’s privacy attempts aside from the e2ee are just not there IMO
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Google Messages RCS constantly fucks up and doesn’t send or receive shit anyway. I also want something else because ever since they introduced that shit, I get texts late if I get them at all, and nobody else seems to get mine.
I don’t give a fuck about anything other than having the main purpose of the app do what it’s fucking supposed to do.
RCS is better than SMS, though. Like I said, I can’t convince anyone to switch platforms. RCS is the best I can get.
