Tag: rich communication services

Apple Finally Agrees to Bring RCS Support to iPhone Next Year

Apple is reportedly working towards improving the texting experience between iPhone and Android devices by adopting the RCS (Rich Communication Services) protocol in 2024. The new RCS standard will work alongside iMessage and bring several messaging features including read receipts, typing indicators, the ability to share high-quality images and videos, and more. RCS can work over mobile data or Wi-Fi. Currently, Android phones and carriers support the RCS messaging standard. The feature is said to reach iPhone models through a software update next year.

As per a report by 9to5Mac, an Apple spokesperson said in a statement that the iPhone will be gaining RCS (Rich Communication Services) support starting next year. The report quotes the statement — “Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users”. We’ve reached out to Apple for a comment. 

The RCS feature will launch on iPhone models via a software update next year and add a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users including read receipts, and typing indicators. Also, users will be able to share and receive high-resolution photos and videos between iPhone and Android handsets with the new protocol. The adoption of RCS on iPhone models will also let people share their location in text threads and operate group chats quickly. Unlike regular SMS, RCS can work over cellular and Wi-Fi as well. RCS messages could be shown in green, like SMS messages.

Apple had pushed back the RCS standard backed by the GSM Association for more than a year, despite repeated requests from Google and Samsung. The messaging standard has already been adopted by Android phones and carriers nationwide. The implementation of RCS on iPhone will pave the way for a balanced communication experience between Android and iPhone models. However, iMessage will remain exclusive to Apple devices.

In response to Apple’s new announcement, Google’s Senior Vice President of Platforms and Ecosystems Hiroshi Lockheimer posted on X (formerly Twitter)— “Everybody should have secure and modern messaging without worrying what kind of phone they’re texting to. So glad to see Apple joining our ongoing work with the GSMA on RCS to make texting better for all!”.

The announcement also comes just days after Carl Pei-led Nothing announced that its Android phones would support iMessage via a new feature.

Apple unveiled its first mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, at its annual developer conference, along with new Mac models and upcoming software updates. We discuss all the most important announcements made by the company at WWDC 2023 on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Google Launches Campaign to Pressure Apple to ‘Fix Texting’, Adopt RCS Messaging

Google has launched an online campaign asking Apple to “fix texting” by adopting the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol for messaging. Currently, Apple uses the outdated SMS and MMS technology for communication with users outside the company’s ecosystem. According to Google, this has led to users sharing low resolution videos. Google, the firm that develops the Android operating system, also highlighted that the outdated SMS and MMS technology has also led to broken group chats and missing read receipts. Without RCS, Apple users cannot send messages to Android phones over mobile data or Wi-Fi.

The US tech giant, Google, has launched an online campaign via the Android website, asking Apple to forego the outdated SMS and MMS technology and adopt the RCS technology instead, for messaging. Google claims that this wouldn’t hamper the experience for users communicating within the Apple ecosystem, but will improve messaging between Android phones and iPhone models.

Google said that the current technology used by Apple doesn’t allow users to communicate with Wi-Fi. This can cause issues when a user doesn’t have good cell reception, according to Google. Apple also doesn’t show if the person you are texting with is typing, doesn’t display read receipts, displays broken group chats when texting with Android users, the company adds. Currently, the messages are also not encrypted, and the images and videos shared via messages are also highly compressed. It is to be noted that these issues pertain to cross-platform communication, not Apple’s iMessage, where all the above-mentioned features are available.

In the meanwhile, Google has highlighted third-party instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Signal. These messaging platforms work on both Android and iOS, allowing iPhone and Android smartphone owners to text each other without using SMS. Google has also shared some screenshots of users who are complaining about Apple’s lack of initiative to adopt RCS. Texting is still widely used in countries like the US, where users on Android can have a degraded experience when texting iPhone owners, who have access to iMessage.

Google has also discussed the colour of message bubbles on Apple’s Messages app. Google claims that iPhone models make reading texts with Android smartphones difficult as Apple uses white text on a bright green background. Apple is yet to respond to Google’s online campaign asking it to adopt RCS, or revealed any plans to integrate the RCS protocol into its Messages app iOS and iPadOS.

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Google Pauses RCS Ads Coming on Messages App in India to Address User Complaints

Google has paused the feature offered to businesses using Rich Communication Services (RCS) to deliver ads in India through its Messages app — as a result of an uproar among users for getting spam. Although RCS is meant as an upgrade over the existing short messaging service (SMS) by offering rich media and interactivity, a list of businesses in the country were found to be abusing the new messaging experience by starting to give a large number of ads to users.

In a statement to Gadgets 360, a Google spokesperson said that the company decided to disable the feature allowing businesses to show ads through RCS on Google Messages as a result of violating its policies.

“We are aware that some businesses are abusing our anti-spam policies to send promotional messages to users in India,” the spokesperson said, adding, “We are disabling this feature in India while we work with the industry to improve the experience for users.”

Google has stopped ads from being circulated through RCS messaging since the past week as a result of the update. However, there is no clarity on how long the ongoing restriction will be in place for businesses as it seems to be a temporary measure responding to user complaints and to make systems more robust to limit instances of ad abuses in the future.

The issue with growing ads on Google Messages in India came into limelight earlier this month.

Affected users had taken to Twitter and other social media platforms to report issues with the increasing number of ads on Google Messages over the past few months. As brought into notice by Ishan Agarwal, the promotional content was annoying users especially due to the fact that it was coming on the app that comes pre-installed and is default on most Android phones nowadays.

Some users even completely disabled the RCS experience on Google Messages to get rid of pesky ads.

A large part of the promotional content included personal loan ads that were pushed by banks and financial institutions including Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finserv. Some of the ads were, however, shown by small loan apps.

The ads appearing on the Google Messages app were coming from ‘Verified Business’ accounts. The content could, therefore, be considered as a regular communication by some users.

It is important to note that while businesses are no longer able to show ads on Google Messages, business customers can still use RCS to communicate with their customers on the app.



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