RCS. How is it working for you?

[AltTabbins]

Anyone here use RCS? How is it working? I know it’s kind of a new tech that hasn’t had a lot of usage yet but I’d love to ditch my iPhone and iMessage permanently, and RCS will let that happen if it’s as good as it sounds.

 

[CHANG3D]

Since Apple doesn't support RCS yet and RCS Android/Carrier support is a mess (at least in the US), just go use WhatsApp or Signal (if you could convince your friends to join).

 

[T4rd]

It's hard for me to follow what phones on what carriers and what messaging apps support RCS. I think that Sprint fully supports it depending on the phone/app you use and T-Mobile and Verizon do in some limited capacity as well. Occasionally I will send a test MMS pic to my wife's Note 9 from my Pixel 2 XL to see how it looks and the recent one I did wasn't too low quality, but it was definitely still a compressed image and not the same file size.

Most of my friends and fam are on Hangouts still and I'll keep them on there until RCS is completely rolled out, which I don't see happening for a few years still at this point.

 

[AltTabbins]

I think the only full providers are Sprint, Google Fi, and Verizon. I think you have to use the Android Messenger app for it to work correctly though. Last I heard was Tmobile has it but it only works between other phones in their own network (wtf Tmobile..). There are a few prepaid providers who have it too. None of it works on Iphone at all. Iphone just uses imessage and sms/mms to fall back on. It will be interesting to see what happens when carriers completely drop support for sms/mms. I wonder if that will finally be the day they release imessage for android. At that point it wont be nearly as valuable as it is now and I would expect a lot of long time iphone users to start looking at Android since iPhones killer app will play second fiddle to RCS.

 

[T4rd]

I think the only full providers are Sprint, Google Fi, and Verizon. I think you have to use the Android Messenger app for it to work correctly though. Last I heard was Tmobile has it but it only works between other phones in their own network (wtf Tmobile..). There are a few prepaid providers who have it too. None of it works on Iphone at all. Iphone just uses imessage and sms/mms to fall back on. It will be interesting to see what happens when carriers completely drop support for sms/mms. I wonder if that will finally be the day they release imessage for android. At that point it wont be nearly as valuable as it is now and I would expect a lot of long time iphone users to start looking at Android since iPhones killer app will play second fiddle to RCS.

Yeah, forgot to say that I'm on T-Mobile with my 2 XL and my wife's Note 9 and both using stock messaging app. RCS didn't seem to be enabled between our phones at least; no full-res pics and no responding indicators like I read that RCS is supposed to support.

I wouldn't think that Apple would lose many users to Android if they ported iMessage to it and even if they did, all they would have to do is charge a subscription fee for the service and I bet it would completely offset the loss of potential sales and then some. Even as arrogant as Apple is, they have to know that they'll never have anywhere near 100% of the hardware market, so it just makes sense to me that they would want to have their services available on any platform possible as long as they can leverage that as another source of revenue. But at this point, I feel that the vast majority of smart phone users have pretty much solidified what platforms they're going to stay on as long as they aren't completely alienated by some major software design change/flaw to drive them to the competing platform, so I don't see Apple losing much on iPhone sales if they did support an Android iMessage client. Of course the tech nerds like us would probably switch just to try it out or something, but a lot of us also switch sides just for the sake of variety sometimes or for other minor reasons.

 

[AltTabbins]

Yeah, forgot to say that I'm on T-Mobile with my 2 XL and my wife's Note 9 and both using stock messaging app. RCS didn't seem to be enabled between our phones at least; no full-res pics and no responding indicators like I read that RCS is supposed to support.

I wouldn't think that Apple would lose many users to Android if they ported iMessage to it and even if they did, all they would have to do is charge a subscription fee for the service and I bet it would completely offset the loss of potential sales and then some. Even as arrogant as Apple is, they have to know that they'll never have anywhere near 100% of the hardware market, so it just makes sense to me that they would want to have their services available on any platform possible as long as they can leverage that as another source of revenue. But at this point, I feel that the vast majority of smart phone users have pretty much solidified what platforms they're going to stay on as long as they aren't completely alienated by some major software design change/flaw to drive them to the competing platform, so I don't see Apple losing much on iPhone sales if they did support an Android iMessage client. Of course the tech nerds like us would probably switch just to try it out or something, but a lot of us also switch sides just for the sake of variety sometimes or for other minor reasons.

I read an interesting article the other day about the future of Apple in the mobile device market. I think they are smart enough to realize that with RCS just on the horizon, theres already writing on the wall for iMessage and Apple using it as the killer app. The article explained that they should be looking at Blackberry who's killer app was their messaging system. They relied so much on it and in the end it didn't do enough to keep the brand afloat. The article mentions that moves like making Apple Music available on Android is the first part of Apple branching out and selling services instead of relying completely on hardware. I could see a premium "icloud" account that gives you access to Apple Music, iMessage, Find my Friends, and all of the mobile productivity software across platforms. They are actually pretty successful with Apple Music on Android. Either way as soon as RCS becomes standard across all platforms and SMS/MMS stops being supported, Apple has to do something. I know that I feel somewhat "locked" into the platform due to my wife and I sending pictures/videos to each other daily, along with every one else in our family having an iPhone.

 

[T4rd]

I read an interesting article the other day about the future of Apple in the mobile device market. I think they are smart enough to realize that with RCS just on the horizon, theres already writing on the wall for iMessage and Apple using it as the killer app. The article explained that they should be looking at Blackberry who's killer app was their messaging system. They relied so much on it and in the end it didn't do enough to keep the brand afloat. The article mentions that moves like making Apple Music available on Android is the first part of Apple branching out and selling services instead of relying completely on hardware. I could see a premium "icloud" account that gives you access to Apple Music, iMessage, Find my Friends, and all of the mobile productivity software across platforms. They are actually pretty successful with Apple Music on Android. Either way as soon as RCS becomes standard across all platforms and SMS/MMS stops being supported, Apple has to do something. I know that I feel somewhat "locked" into the platform due to my wife and I sending pictures/videos to each other daily, along with every one else in our family having an iPhone.

Have you used Google Photos? That's what my family (our kid's grandparents included) and I use to share pics and videos amongst ourselves. We just create or use existing shared albums depending on the event, setting, or person(s) and add media to the album, at which point everyone it's shared to gets notified to view it, comment on it, and share it (either via link or directly through another app) from there. The pics and vids on it are practically lossless, at least I can't tell a difference at all between the original or "high quality" compressed JPEG Photos converts it to if you if you're not using a Pixel phone or your limited (Google) Drive space to keep the original.

I'm sure your family probably won't want to convert over to another Picture platform (assuming they're already using their iCloud for media too), but overall from what I've seen, Photos beats it pretty handily in terms of ease of use and overall features. So figured I'd ask or mention it.

 

[AltTabbins]

Have you used Google Photos? That's what my family (our kid's grandparents included) and I use to share pics and videos amongst ourselves. We just create or use existing shared albums depending on the event, setting, or person(s) and add media to the album, at which point everyone it's shared to gets notified to view it, comment on it, and share it (either via link or directly through another app) from there. The pics and vids on it are practically lossless, at least I can't tell a difference at all between the original or "high quality" compressed JPEG Photos converts it to if you if you're not using a Pixel phone or your limited (Google) Drive space to keep the original.

I'm sure your family probably won't want to convert over to another Picture platform (assuming they're already using their iCloud for media too), but overall from what I've seen, Photos beats it pretty handily in terms of ease of use and overall features. So figured I'd ask or mention it.

We actually love Google Photos. Me and my wife use them all the time. I actually like it better than the IOS photos app, especially all the neat things it does automatically like stitching together streams of pictures. We just really like being able to text pictures and videos to each other instead of sharing them so RSC/iMessage is big for us.

 

[Canon]

I gave my mother my Pixel 2 XL when I got my Pixel 3 XL. We are on the same carrier (Rogers), RCS works seamlessly and I have not had any issues. Faster than SMS, images look better, typing notifications, read/received status etc.

No one else that sends me messages has RCS, LOL.

I do hope that Apple and other Android OEMs and carriers pull their head out of the arse and get some universal support happening soon. There was literally no reason that iMessage even needed to exist if something like this could have been put in place to get rid of the antiquated SMS MMS garbage...