News Ask Jerry: Why does iMessage need to support RCS?

[AC News]

Have a question about the tech in your life? If so, maybe we can get them answered!

Ask Jerry: Why does iMessage need to support RCS? : Read more

 

[CajunMoses]

WhatsApp offers everything RCS does, and as long as you have a data connection, it's free.

I seldom ever use WhatsApp. But, when I need to, I use my browser to connect to https://web.whatsapp.com/ over Wi-Fi. Most people use the term, "data connection," to refer to Internet & messaging service for phones only. So the sentence suggests that you possibly can't use WhatsApp for free over Wi-Fi. And it also suggests that there is a paid WhatsApp service that doesn't require either Wi-Fi or a phone data connection service. I would have simply said, "it's free," and omitted the part about, "as long as ...."

 

[Village_Idiot]

I'm not sure what the author meant by "as long as you have a data connection, it's free." It seems he is conflating the cost of data and Whatsapp usage. Whatsapp is free regardless of the type of connection. It doesn't matter if you are using WiFi, 5G, or LTE, Whatsapp is free. The data usage may or may not be free. But that is the same with RCS and iMessage. Both are free services, it is the data connection that may or may not be free.

 

[kiniku]

Makes complete sense...."Apple doesn't want to be the only reason why chats and messages are unencrypted in a place like France or Indonesia."

 

[Village_Idiot]

Makes complete sense...."Apple doesn't want to be the only reason why chats and messages are unencrypted in a place like France or Indonesia."

Yeah. He seemed to be all over the place. I guess he was afraid to say, "in a place like Iran or China."

 

[SnowyRVulpix]

Yeah. He seemed to be all over the place. I guess he was afraid to say, "in a place like Iran or China."

Wasn't there a story recently about Apple getting into trouble in one of those types of countries for encrypting messages during some kind of civil crisis?

 

[eng3]

How about Google "get the message" and add RCS support to Google voice or merge it into messages.

I signed up for GV years ago when txt were still 15cents a msg. Now I'm vested into that phone number but don't want to throw away my original number

 

[SyCoREAPER]

How about Google "get the message" and add RCS support to Google voice or merge it into messages.

I signed up for GV years ago when txt were still 15cents a msg. Now I'm vested into that phone number but don't want to throw away my original number

Irrelevant comment and port your number out if it's that's important. Google Voice isn't a priority for Google and likely won't be. With their struggle to catch up on AI that will be their first and foremost attention slot followed by Android, Chrome and Chrome OS respectively.

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As for the author, I'm not going to bother clicking that link and hope that is rhetorical. If not, we'll, there are other areas in tech to cover.

 

[Village_Idiot]

How about Google "get the message" and add RCS support to Google voice or merge it into messages.

I signed up for GV years ago when txt were still 15cents a msg. Now I'm vested into that phone number but don't want to throw away my original number

I get what you're saying. I'm not sure I would like merging GV and GM though. I like the fact that I have a separate GV number that I can give out to acquaintances that I'm not comfortable with giving my phone# to. It also comes in handy if I am travelling outside the US or using it for online shopping. If I start getting sketchy stuff coming on that line, I can just get a new number without having to get a new Google account.

It would be nice for Google to add end-to-end encryption to GV though.

 

[eng3]

Irrelevant comment and port your number out if it's that's important. Google Voice isn't a priority for Google and likely won't be. With their struggle to catch up on AI that will be their first and foremost attention slot followed by Android, Chrome and Chrome OS respectively.

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As for the author, I'm not going to bother clicking that link and hope that is rhetorical. If not, we'll, there are other areas in tech to cover.

How is it an irrelevant comment? Just irrelevant to you. If you read my message and understood Google voice, you'd know that porting isn't a solution unless I buy a second line. And I'm not going to throw away my number.
Obviously Google voice isn't a priority for Google, just as RCS isn't a priority for Apple.
Google shouldn't be complaining about others not supporting RCS when it's not even supported fully on their own products.

I get what you're saying. I'm not sure I would like merging GV and GM though. I like the fact that I have a separate GV number that I can give out to acquaintances that I'm not comfortable with giving my phone# to. It also comes in handy if I am travelling outside the US or using it for online shopping. If I start getting sketchy stuff coming on that line, I can just get a new number without having to get a new Google account.

It would be nice for Google to add end-to-end encryption to GV though.

When I say merge, I didn't mean merge numbers. I mean merge app functions. Like if you had dual sim and made GV look like another SIM. I thought there was a web interface for Google messages too. I also like being able to use GV overseas. Merging apps can simplify maintenance and support but it's not like they are really maintaining Google voice.

 

[Village_Idiot]

When I say merge, I didn't mean merge numbers. I mean merge app functions. Like if you had dual sim and made GV look like another SIM. I thought there was a web interface for Google messages too. I also like being able to use GV overseas. Merging apps can simplify maintenance and support but it's not like they are really maintaining Google voice.

I know what you meant by merging functions. I don't foresee Google merging them any time soon. It would take a lot of back-end work to get Google Messages to support RCS for both VOIP and non-VOIP numbers. Furthermore, according to Google, Google Voice is encrypted:

How Google Voice protects your privacy & keeps you in control - Google Voice Help

Keeping you safe online means protecting your information and respecting your privacy. That’s why, in every product we make, we focus on keeping your information secure, treating it responsibly, and k

support.google.com

Your content is stored securely​

When you send and receive text messages and attachments on Google Voice, they’re stored securely in our world-class data centers. Data is encrypted in transit from a Google Voice client to Google, and when stored at rest.

When you record a voicemail greeting on Google Voice, or when you leave a voicemail for others, your audio data is stored.

Texts, calls, and voicemails are synced across your devices. You can delete text messages, calls, or voicemails.

Your Google Account comes with built-in security designed to detect and block threats like spam, phishing and malware. Your activity is stored using strong industry standards and practices.

They are maintaining Google Voice (at least I think they are). I don't think they are doing it through Play Store though. Every once in a while, I get a notification on my phone and tablet saying, Google Voice is being updated.

Although I allow would like for Google to merge the apps, I'm also not a fan of the "one app does everything" concept. But that is a whole different discussion.

As far as web interface, yes there is one: https://messages.google.com.