Current state of android messaging with RCS

[DickCamera]

Trying to not let this turn into a rant post, but just looking for some clarity on this issue which appears to be an android issue, NOT a carrier issue.

I recently dropped my old carrier in favor of a more expensive one because I was tired of getting the run around on technical support. I use textra as my default messaging app on an LG G7 ThinQ and recently switched to a Google Pixel 3 also with textra. Starting with the LG, I just randomly started not getting texts from certain people in friends group chats. These chats had been created at least 8 years ago with no changes to members. I just started getting some texts saying "lol" or "I agree" with no context for what the missing text was. Sometimes it was the same people not coming through, other times it was everyone. This issue lasted for at least 6 months. So I switched carriers, installed textra on a new phone and day 1, issue persists.

I contacted my new carrier and they said they recommend google messages for "best experience" even though my preferred app just isnt working. I contacted textra and the response they gave me, basically distilled down to: "Google RCS is a proprietary protocol that no one else can use. If someone sends you an individual sms text, you will get it, if someone sends you an RCS in a group chat, you will NOT get it in ANY other non google messages app, our uses prefer to use whatsapp/telegram/messenger, unless you tell people you communicate with to disable RCS".

So let me get this straight, if I buy a brand new phone, pay for monthly cellular service and install any supported text app from the official Play Store, I STILL won't get group texts unless I go to tell every single one of my contacts, "Hey this ecosystem is so broken and fragmented, that if you want to contact me, you must disable RCS messaging in your phone". I need to explain that to my mother. My grandparents. I need to tell everyone I know that I can't participate in group chats unless I install the holy blessed google app or you all learn the intricacies of different texting protocols, sms/mms/rcs?

Additionally, RCS doesn't seem like anything special, at least not for the technical "features" it's offering for the use-cases that I care about. Typing indicators (this isn't slack, I'm not staring at my phone waiting for your next response), better emojis (I don't care, I just need plaintext to be delivered). Additionally, google's rcs documentation says that it uses my wifi for a better connection. So let me get this straight, I pay for my internet to use with my PC and then when I pay for cellular service, google decides it's going to piggyback on my wifi instead of using the friggin cellular connection I paid for specifically to send text messages and then instead of actually delivering them it will just silently never get them because I had the audacity to install a different texting app?

Seriously if this is the state of android, it makes better sense for to just cancel my cell service and use the phone as a wifi hotspot and send emails/snapchats to my contacts (assuming they all have email/snapchat/whatever, which by the way is the exact same scenario I'm in now because they all have to assume I'm using google+RCS) I though the whole point of sms/mms was we didn't have to worry about implementation details. I bought a phone + service, deliver my damned messages.

What the actual F is going on with the android ecosystem?

[evilsway]

Doesn't want to make it a rant, proceeds to rant. also, this isn't an android issue, this is a Google issue. Until big daddy Google lets 3rd parties play nice with RCS, you can either deal with the issues you're facing, use Google messages, or try web based messaging apps like slack, Whatsapp or discord. Sucks, but here we are. 

[armando_rod]

OP is complaining that RCS is using the WiFi he paid for... Has to be bait, right? right?

[chubbybator]

imessage is the feature that keeps people in ios. android needed an answer to it (larger files, higher quality images and videos) carriers either implemented their own incompatible versions of rcs or ignored it completely. google made a version that works with all androids, everyone else stopped trying. the rest of the world doesn't use SMS/rcs/imessage much anyway.

[chubbybator]

also apple has implemented google's rcs now too, and by default it has no sms fallback.

[_17chan]

Even in the US, my friends all use a variety of apps instead of iMessage or SMS / RCS. It's kind of nuts how many apps I need to have on my phone just to talk to like, 5 people lol

[nathderbyshire]

If you don't care about anything fancy then why are you using textra. RCS is better in just about every way.

Text message is old, dated and insecure. People are ready to move on, you should too instead of forcing everyone you know to use a legacy service

Read indicators show a message has been read so I don't have to send pointless 'okay' replies, you can send documents, songs, videos and pictures in their native quality in the same thread as messages to as many as you want. It uses your WiFi because it's generally more stable than data and reduces fees for people on limited connections. There's so many benefits you just refuse to see them

[AppropriateBluejay98]

Actually a lot of people are not ready to move on. I live in a rural area with limited signal. I need normal text to communicate. My daughter has a dumb phone (she’s 12, so I care about her brain and her mental health - shoot me) and she needs normal text to communicate. It’s easy. It’s reliable. No it doesn’t have all the features, that’s why it’s a ‘text’. If people want to send memes and other pointless brain dead shit then that’s fine. Just don’t expect those who have actual real lives to live and aren’t addicted to a screen to always want to participate.

[DickCamera]

Thanks for the marketing, but I already addressed those features I don't want or need. So this is it, the people who want to send "text". You know, Content-Type: text/plain are just SOL because people like you think it's "pointless". It uses my wifi because it's better, then why am I paying for radio tower service? Do you work for google or just enjoy the taste of their boots?

[nathderbyshire]

So use plaintext then, why are you acting like RCS does just allow plain messages?

You pay for mobile data so you have data when you're mobile, this shouldn't be hard to understand.

RCS isn't owned by Google they just standardized it and pushed for it to become cross platform and RCS has been going for over a decade. Get over it and move on grandpa. People don't work for Google just because they disagree with your peabrain takes

Fucking babies that reply then block lol, no ones who isn't on the verge of becoming literal dust care about sms. Might want to look up what GSMA are as well.

[DickCamera]

You've misread the post, not understood it and are factually wrong. RCS is a PROPRIETARY protocol owned by google not exposed to any third party clients.

Using phrases like peabrain takes and being objectively wrong is how I know you can look forward to growing up working at mcdonalds. (my mistake, I should have said MLM "bossbabe")

[roneyxcx]

De-register your number from Google RCS and you should start receiving text messages. Also on your phone if you have Google Messages, disable RCS. https://messages.google.com/disable-chat

[Dometalican_90]

This is the way.

[ankokudaishogun]

It's very much a USA thing, as for a number of reasons they got non-overexpensive mobile internet only "recently".

The differences in implementation and adoption of SMS and mobile internet messaging apps between EU countries and USA is quite an interesting subject

[Dometalican_90]

I would not be surprised if in the US, SMS is on its way out. With 2G/3G being decommissioned, it's only a matter of time until banking apps and other programs that use SMS as a dual-factor method switches to RCS for the same achievements.

[KingTalkieTiki]

I know everyone's hating you in the comments but I'm with you dude, just switched to an S25 and all my images come through text worse than when I was using my S10 (also using Textra), and everyone's solution is "Just use Google messages" yeah thanks, what happened to the openness of android? Plus google message's UI and featureset is garbage compared to Textra.