Is RCS an open standard?

GregorTacTac@lemm.ee to Android@lemdro.id – 78 points –

Is RCS an open standard? I've seen some people say it is and others it isn't and now I'm very confused. Can you please give me a definitive answer?

36

You are viewing a single comment
View all comments

Yes it is, it's been developed by the GSM Association, but Google does have de facto monopoly in the market right now by their Jio Jibe virtual carrier. RCS can be freely implemented by carriers and device manufacturers independently of that, but so far only Samsung, T-Mobile USA and Verizon did so — everyone else uses Google's Messages. Importantly, different RCS implementations can talk to each other, just like email servers, or Lemmy instances.

Apple has been encouraged to enable RCS compatibility in iMessage in a loud campaign by Google, but they are obviously not very eager to do that, as their own research shows the closedness of Apple ecosystem and messaging system is a main driving factor of sales. This has been revealed in the Apple vs Epic Games case hearings

What's that about Jio? I use Jio and Airtel and both support RCS so... I'm confused...

wait you're right I messed up, let me edit that part out. I swear it used to say that Jio runs RCS infrastructure for Google.

edit: It was JIBE

They said Google has a monopoly using their own Jio virtual carrier. They never said Jio doesn't support RCS.

I might need to read up on what a virtual carrier means...

Any suggestions?

I really wouldn't know. In this context I assume it means it is not deployed like traditional mobile networks are. The missing components being the hardware side like putting up towers etc.

I meant Jibe and yes I never said Jio or Jibe don't support RCS. Quite the contrary