Google says that Apple RCS support will come in the fall

While Apple has publicly only said that it will add RCS messaging support to iOS later in 2024, a Google announcement appears to pin it down further.

Apple's November 2023 announcement that it would add RCS messaging support to the iPhone, committed to it being done "later next year." The addition, possibly forced on the company by China, is presumably taking months because Apple is ignoring Google's RCS in favor of working on a new version with a standards body.

Google has launched a new page about RCS messaging, and at least at first included this extra detail about a launch in the fall.

"Apple has announced it will be adopting RCS in the fall of 2024," said Google's page. "Once that happens, it will mean a better messaging experience for everyone."

Strictly speaking, Fall 2024 starts on September 22, which is likely to be after the launch of the iPhone 16 Pro, and therefore also the public launch of iOS 18. It's not clear if it will be in the early betas of iOS 18 expected at WWDC 2024.

Note, too, that Google's page is a series of short segments that pop out to optionally offer more detail. It's sufficiently busy and with so many such elements, that this quote can't be found with a search on the page.

It can be found on an external Google search, so Googling a term like "fall of 2024 site:https://www.android.com/google-messages/" will turn it up.

Consequently, it's possible that the announcement is simply buried somewhere on the page. Or it could be that the announcement has since been removed, and Google's search is showing up only cached earlier versions.

Google's new page does quite clearly include an explanation that "RCS stands for 'Rich Communication Services' and is the modern messaging technology standard." Oddly, it doesn't mention RCS's problems, or how Google has previously failed to entirely adopt this itself.

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21 Comments

lam92103 145 comments · 4 Years

About 7 months ago

And why should I care? No one uses RCS.

jfreedle2 5 comments · 1 Year

Just more proof that Google does spy on everyone and cannot be trusted.

gatorguy 24608 comments · 13 Years

jfreedle2 said:

Just more proof that Google does spy on everyone and cannot be trusted.

In case you're interested in facts more than FUD...
Google cannot see the contents of any RCS Google Messages. They are encrypted end-to-end, from your device which encrypts them, to the receiver's phone, where they are decrypted. It is equally as secure and private as iMessage, and at least in one way even more so than Apple's Messaging. At the very worst they might be able to log metadata, same as Apple can, which is hardly the same as seeing the contents of a message.

If you are comfortable with others potentially being able to read your RCS messages sent from your iPhone, just as they can read SMS messages now, then it won't matter if the GSMA ever makes encryption part of the standard. They might not, and I don't think Apple will care. The GSMA has had years to do so and have ignored it despite Google's pushing them to add it. Encryption is not in the interests of the carriers, and they have been the ones leading the RCS standards body.

So until there's movement on that front, while iPhone owners cannot be assured of RCS privacy and security, Google Messages users will be. That is unless an iPhone user enters that conversation and breaks the security with Apple's RCS. There's been no mention of Google requiring those unencrypted iPhone messages to display a different bubble color in Google Messages but IMO, they will likely have green bubbles as default, the same as the insecure fallback SMS now has, while blue is reserved for Google's encrypted and secure communications.

Of course an Android owner can choose to change the colors from the defaults, even to specific contacts in a conversation.

danox 3393 comments · 11 Years

gatorguy said:

jfreedle2 said:

Just more proof that Google does spy on everyone and cannot be trusted.

In case you're interested in facts more than FUD...
Google cannot see the contents of any RCS Google Messages. They are encrypted end-to-end, from your device which encrypts them, to the receiver's phone, where they are decrypted. It is equally as secure and private as iMessage, in one way even more so. A the very worst they might be able to log metadata, same as Apple can, hardly the same as seeing the contents of a message

If you are comfortable with others potentially being able to read your RCS messages sent from your iPhone, just as they can read SMS messages now, then it won't matter if the GSMA ever makes encryption part of the standard, and they might not. They've had years to do so and have ignored it despite Google's pushing them to add it. It's not in the interests of the carriers to do so, and they are the ones heading up the RCS standard.

Hoovering is Google and Meta middle name.......

danox said:

gatorguy said:

jfreedle2 said:

Just more proof that Google does spy on everyone and cannot be trusted.

In case you're interested in facts more than FUD...
Google cannot see the contents of any RCS Google Messages. They are encrypted end-to-end, from your device which encrypts them, to the receiver's phone, where they are decrypted. It is equally as secure and private as iMessage, in one way even more so. A the very worst they might be able to log metadata, same as Apple can, hardly the same as seeing the contents of a message

If you are comfortable with others potentially being able to read your RCS messages sent from your iPhone, just as they can read SMS messages now, then it won't matter if the GSMA ever makes encryption part of the standard, and they might not. They've had years to do so and have ignored it despite Google's pushing them to add it. It's not in the interests of the carriers to do so, and they are the ones heading up the RCS standard.

Hoovering is Google and Meta middle name.......

Isn't it interesting that this time, Apple is leaving the shed door hung open and the handle broken for easier entry by unwanted visitors, while Google is the one with the automatic door locks on the reinforced garden gate?