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RCS supported carriers
- Thread starter TimFL1
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I have to say that I’m not really impressed with RCS so far. All the audio messages my friend send me through RCS was showed correctly at first but now, all those audio files are going back to a regular file just like SMS was prior to iOS 18 and the read receipt doesn’t work for audio messages as well. Very disappointing. I’ll probably have to stick with Messenger for all my non apple contacts.
So they prevent SMS from being sent into a RCS group or you mean you haven‘t had any moments where RCS wasn‘t available yet when chatting in a RCS group?
If they are changing it isn’t RCS. The format sent is the format received. If you are now receiving different formats it is the sender or iOS. Sounds like you are not getting RCS - this likely means the issue is on the iOS end.
I can confirm that there is something fishy with voice messages going on. They send fine but sometimes they show up as files and if you have more than one device, they usually sync as files to my e.g. iPad.
I reported it during B3 but there is no progress on the feedback ID so far.
Exactly this. But often, the audio messages came correctly on my main device and its clearly RCS, but later on, those same messages were converted back to regular files. Its just pretty bad for future reference if I need to listen an old message and find the correct one.
And they will continue to use it with no one taking RCS seriously. Providers don‘t bother submitting a simple "Enable RCS" toggle in their profiles, Apple makes it incredibly uneasy to use RCS:
- RCS on iOS is very picky about when it wants to work (connection blip? Hello SMS for 1 minute… wrong wifi network? Hello SMS)
- Apple does ******** to streamline RCS so it works like iMessage, they want to downgrade you to SMS at the slightest inconvenience, including in RCS groups which is a big nono according to the UP spec (iOS allows you to send SMS into a RCS group, which splits the group on the Android side)
- Apple did the bare minimum in providing RCS UP 2.4 instead of 2.6 or 2.7
These points alone make sure RCS is dead on arrival here and flagged as an accidental money sink due to accidentally sending SMS/MMS.
Until providers take it serious and provide proper support + Apple gets with the times and streamlines / updates their implementation, RCS wont be any alternative.
100% agree, its a shame as it RCS is a good improvement over the SMS standard, but both parties have made it a cluster*******
Unfortunately it's not a simple "Enable RCS" toggle. The provider has to implement an RCS server, or use someone else's service and pay for it. Therefore someone at the provider has to see a need for it and come up with a budget. Which is harder than you might thing.
Source: I work for a provider.
iOS seems to have a well-known / generic default Jibe endpoint that profiles use without a specified endpoint. Technically nothing stops Apple from enabling that for every single provider out there, mimicking the default fallback in Google Messages.
People going through carrier profiles found a lot of providers that don‘t specify any endpoint and let iOS use the generic one (they just provide a flag that enables RCS without specifying an endpoint), which is not tied to a single cellular provider. I think Telekom.de is one of them, using the generic RCS EU sandbox jibe endpoint.
Unsure whether these providers have agreements with Google or whether that is an essentially free way of unlocking RCS, since I doubt Google vets any connections / sign ups that way (people used a similar method years ago to sign up for Jibe RCS on their phones, hacking in a generic sandbox endpoint, before Google Messages added the default fallback).
Even if Google provides a generic endpoint that can be used by providers (with or without agreement): it has privacy implications that must be checked by the legal department. It creates all kinds of costs. You need to set up a project and involve several departments. You can't just add a DNS entry and call it a day. A lot of "cover my ass" going on and that's extremely complex even for something apparently so easy...
Time will tell how this unfolds. In case you‘re interested in the technical side, there was an insanely detailed discussion on reddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/UniversalProfile/s/Rq4hvIPJdL
I certainly hope Apple eventually enables RCS globally via their default / fallback profiles so everyone just signs up with Jibe. That‘s also what the tech cracks in that reddit thread suggest as the most likely outcome in the future.
Thank you! And I sure hope the same. It's the only way to get this going.
For me, RCS works as it should in Canada with Rogers. Never been downgraded to SMS so far. Sometimes it shows SMS at the bottom, but as soon as I send a message it shows as a RCS message and RCS is now displayed at the bottom again.
My only issue so far is for audio messages that convert back to regular files after a day.
My only issue so far is for audio messages that convert back to regular files after a day.
It’s an especially hard sell when users already don't use SMS. It’s a solved problem already and RCS doesn’t add any value.
I think this is the thing that colors me a bit confused.
I use Mint Mobile - they are on the TMobile network and already support RCS - I have it on my Android.
Why can’t they just use the same setup for iOS as they already have the infrastructure in place?
I use Mint Mobile - they are on the TMobile network and already support RCS - I have it on my Android.
Why can’t they just use the same setup for iOS as they already have the infrastructure in place?
From what I understand, this is the CEO of Mint:
Do they though? The reason Google stepped up and did their own thing is because none of the carriers were adding the infrastructure and they wanted it to "just work." It works on your Android phone, but that isn't because of anything Mint did.