With RCS, are you overly dependent on paying your cell phone bill? This view exists and is plausible. Accordingly, Google has once again backed the wrong horse for messaging. RCS is the multimedia successor to SMS and was originally initiated by the mobile communications industry. The project failed with a bang – WhatsApp and Co. were actually already certain as winners.
Nobody wanted to use the apps offered by the providers, and the cost structure seemed unclear to the customers. RCS is set to be revived a few years later. Now Google is trying. They want to enable RCS like SMS on Android smartphones ex works. RCS should also be just as easy to use as SMS.
RCS is a terrible messaging standard because it is dependent on a carrier phone bill. It’s anti-internet and should not be promoted or advocated for. My Verizon bill is not my identity.
Apple lock-in is bad, and the solution is carrier lock-in? Nah.
— Ron Amadeo (@RonAmadeo) January 10, 2022
RCS is now in Google Messages as a “chat function”, but so far it should have had limited success. Apple is said to be to blame for this, as they have been fighting RCS support for years and prefer the closed iMessage for iOS. But RCS is not necessarily popular in other areas either and is not seen as the ultimate solution. The much appreciated Ron Amadeo sees RCS in a different light and justifies his point of view.
RCS is tied to providers because it turns a phone number into your identity, which in turn is tied to a bill
Despite Google’s advances, RCS is too dependent on mobile phone providers. This is not a personal opinion, but a fact. If you don’t pay your mobile phone bill, you may no longer be able to use RCS. This is different from standards such as e-mail. It is independent of your mobile phone or a single device and does not require a link to a mobile phone provider. You can access your e-mails almost anywhere in the world at any time without having to own a device.
There’s no reason to tie a cellular provider’s billing into your identity
I find it exciting what my colleague is talking about. Because he positions himself clearly against the dependence on one provider or on forced billing. Interesting right? Because WhatsApp is probably the most popular messenger and also depends on the phone number and a single device for you. However, Facebook recognized this very early on, which is why the group is in a much better position than Google. As an alternative to WhatsApp, there is Messenger, which is much more independent and can therefore be used in a similar way to e-mail.